While Michigan football fans are eager to find out more about a Sherrone Moore-led team with Kirk Campbell as the offensive coordinator and Wink Martindale as the defensive coordinator, those are only two aspects of the game. The third has proven to be equally important — special teams.
Games can be won and lost on special teams, and the Wolverines have seen many games swing their way due to big plays in the third unit. Even in the Rose Bowl, when Jake Thaw made what could have been a catastrophic mistake on special teams, his recovery saved the game for the maize and blue, and Michigan held on to beat Alabama and advance to the national championship game.
The man now leading the charge on special teams, with Jay Harbaugh having left for the Seattle Seahawks, is J.B. Brown, who was elevated from analyst. He spoke with Jon Jansen on the ‘In the Trenches’ podcast on Wednesday and shared that fans shouldn’t expect wholesale changes, but he will certainly put his spin on things.
“There will be probably a little bit of tweaks and a little bit of different techniques may be taught,” Brown said. “But other than that, the main core of it will still stay the same. We’ve been explosive the last three years that I’ve been here and we kind of built the whole scheme together in the backroom, basically, in the fishbowl. But now I think with me taking over it’s gonna be pretty similar — but there’ll be a little bit of tweaks and adjustments.”
The good news for the Wolverines, elevating someone who had been in the room the past three years, is that while there may be subtle changes — and certainly personnel changes — there will be enough similarities that will allow the players to continue to play fast.
Brown is excited to also see what the younger players can do, but knows he’ll have a lot of veterans to lean on, as well.
“Terminology is really going to stay the same for us. So that’s the biggest thing,” Brown said. “And, when that stays the same and stays consistent like you just said, and then we just continue to build off of that.
“And then with the new guys coming into play, really excited about all those guys. They got length, they got speed, they have a lot of athletic traits. But they’re really smart, and good kids, too.”
Michigan has been in a unique position compared to some other teams in that it prioritizes special teams.
Established, star players often still find themselves on the field in the third unit, and have even noted over the years that they asked to play special teams, despite their starring roles on offense or defense.
But for younger, less established players, it’s also a place where they can earn their spot in the other two units, Brown says. There are transferrable skills and if you want to find yourself playing in front of the biggest crowd to watch a football game anywhere in America that Saturday, special teams is a way you can break into the rotation.
“The biggest thing we try to sell is the development piece, right? Because at the end of the day, everything we do, special teams-wise, is a transferable skill,” Brown said. “So whether you’re an offensive lineman, you’re still learning protection, right? There’s a lot of same similar techniques that we use in special teams that produce to every skill set in football. So for us, we try to sell transferable skills and the better you get at special teams, the better you get at your position naturally.”