Mailbag question: Wolverine Wrap?

Mailbag question: Wolverine Wrap?

GBMW,

Hi there, and thanks for taking my question.

Before the season started, you said that Coach Robinson was teaching a tackling technique that he called the "Wolverine Wrap." I must say that I was deeply skeptical of this. I tend to think that the best ways of executing such a fundamental skill are already well known. Any good tackling technique taught to the Michigan players is probably in use by many other teams.

Among the Michigan games I've seen, tackling doesn't seem to be markedly better than it was a year ago. It's hard to measure exactly, as missed tackles are not a formally kept stat, but if the Wolverine Wrap was supposed to be a defensive revelation, I am not seeing it.

Was there anything truly innovative about the Wolverine Wrap, and if so, have the Wolverines actually been doing it? Or was the Wolverine Wrap just coach-speak for "playing good sound defensive football," which, as we know, Michigan has not been doing?

Best regards,
Marc S. From New York, NY

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Thanks for the question.

The system is actually called the shimmy tackling system. A high school coach named Bill Williamson designed it. It is an entire system of tracking the football and tackling. The moment of truth, as Coach Robinson referred to it, was called the Wolverine Wrap.

No tackling system can make up for a lack of athletic ability and overall talent in which we have been preaching about since we seen Coach Rod's first defensive practice in the spring, especially when we saw the second group and the lack of talent and quality of bodies on that side of the ball.

The only way to get better on defense is to recruit better players. People can talk about getting quicker, faster players, but you also need talented players that are elite athletes on defense to be able to play in space and play man to man in coverage and also be able to make that hit, and tackle when needed.

Thanks for stopping by Go Blue Michigan Wolverine
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Written by GBMW -- CoachBt and ErocWolverine