Coach's Corner: Ten things about the Defense
1) There is no quick fix here. It took Michigan ten years to get into this mess it will take more than one or two years to fix it.
2) Michigan has played good defense only one year in the last ten in my honest opinion, 2006. Expecting Coach Robinson to fix this simply with X's and O's is twilight zone stuff. Every play and scheme works on the chalkboard. It takes players to execute and coaches to hold those who do not accountable.
3) I have always liked Gerald Robinson’s defense film as well as his offense. I also like Hopkin’s linebacker film; the kid is quick and aggressive and shows a defensive mentality. But moving kids who want to at least try offense to defense, without giving them a chance, is risky. So tread very lightly here.
4) The number one thing in my honest is to get a defensive coordinator who is in this for the long haul. Hopefully Michigan has the guy, because this will never get fixed if UM is continually switching defensive coordinators and schemes.
5) I am hearing whispers that opponents are already negative recruiting Coach Robinson. That they are already talking about him wanting to be a head coach or go to the NFL again. In my opinion this needs to be settled and soon. Do not let it become truth by perception.
6) There is only one way out of this, RECRUIT, RECRUIT, RECRUIT. Good players make good plays, great players make great plays, and the difference makers make everyone better. Michigan, at this time, does not have enough of the dynamic superior athletes needed on defense. The explosive fast-twitch guys who can play with/against today's high-powered offense.
7) Michigan's defense needs some of what Tony Dungy calls "RATS", nasty, edgy, I will tear your "frickin" arm off and beat you to death with it players. The type of player, who when Cousins vacated the pocket, would come up and rearrange his brain cells. This will make teams hesitant to let the quarterback take off. On the last series, Forcier was so beat up he was playing on pure guts. If quarterbacks leave the pocket, make the "SOB's" pay for those yards. We are still just too nice.
8) Numbers/the roster is offense heavy, this needs to change and I am sure it will, or at least Coach Rod and staff are working on it. You cannot develop a defense with insufficient roster numbers. The depth has to improve. Depth means competition, which makes everyone better.
9) Stars/difference makers, whatever you want to call them. Michigan has done a good job of recruiting offense talent, top-level talent, Gardner, two or three offensive linemen, etc., on offense. Yes Turner and Roh are very good on defense, but once again not the same amount of talent is on the defense as the offense at this time.
10) Continue to stress fundamentals; the staff has done a great job in my opinion of improving players. Yes they team was not good yesterday, but compared to past years the improvement has been much better this year. But again, this is a long-term project. It took ten years to get into this mess and will take more than one year under Coach Robinson to fix.
Note: I have the same concerns with this recruiting class to date. I am hoping that the last scholarships bring further defensive help. If Michigan does not add further defense, I will be disappointed.
Side Note: The offense is for another article on another day.
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Written by CoachBt
4 comments:
Solid points, but I can't believe anyone thinks Greg Robinson would be offered a HC job in football after Syracuse and this year's Defense. I'm not blaming him, but for a DC to leave to become a HC, the Defense that he coaches at least needs to be really good/ great, especially if the DC were a failed HC.
jblaze:
Well if you want to look at somebody look at Ron English. He went from a decent defense in 2006 (mainly because we did not play anybody until the last two games) to being fired at Michigan when Coach Rod came in.
He went to Louisville for a year and did not really improve the defense there, but was offered the head coaching job at Eastern Michigan after only one year.
I think coach is not saying that he could be offered or will be offered, but teams are using that to negative recruit defensive players against Michigan.
Also the three DC's in three years does not help either.
Also the coaches have to do a better job of finding defensive recruits as well and keep on them.
Well from what I seen saturday this defense is better than where it was. Also the fact that they only gave up 14 points in 60 minutes (6 points is at the feet of the offense for 1 turnover in the red zone and the other of the fake punt) ... we was lucky to even be in the game and frankly MSU could have easily been up by a lot more points if the Michigan defense did not hold.
They were the ones that kept giving the offense a chance.
ErocWolverine,
I agree with you completely. I really like coach Robinson as our DC and I pray that he stays for the long haul. Michigan needs the stability so it can continue to grow. The offense can pretty much feel it will be solid because the coach is an offensive person, however, the defense needs to KNOW ...that they can depend on a leader that will be there to build them up.
I would like to think that Coach RR talked to GR about the need to commit long term as the DC. For Coach GR to leave after a year or two could be more harmful in the long run because they'd have to learn yet another new system and coaching style. My concern is also that Michigan should be financially competitive to keep GR.
He is probably well compensated but you know how that works.
I would hope that GR would publically declare his desire and plans to stay at Michigan for years to come.
Contrary to what many people strongly believe, the 'soft' approach by coach Carr was responsible for much of this. Evidently, he was so concerned with injury, he did not push the players to their maximum potential.
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