ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan football fans have become long accustomed to having the best defense in the country, and while it still may elite, it’s difficult to tell given that the Wolverines are breaking in a lot of new players, a new defensive coaching staff, and have played some of the most high-powered offenses early in the season as they’ve worked to get acclimated.
And it won’t get much easier on Saturday when the maize and blue have a national championship game rematch with a Washington team that’s in a similar position to them.
On Wednesday, Michigan football linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary broke down some of what he’s seen from the Huskies and who stands out as challenges that the defense must handle.
“They have some really dynamic pieces,” Jean-Mary said. “Obviously, Coach Fisch and their offensive staff, we have a lot of respect for them in this building. He did a lot of really good things when he was here.
“Obviously, the quarterback is who stands out. The experience, got a chance to watch him in the other league. He’s very accurate, like a coach on the field, Will Rogers is. We’re going to have to do a great job in slowing him down. Then, obviously, their skill talent. I think the Coleman kid is one of the better running backs in the league that we’ve seen so far. Obviously, they’re explosive at wide out with (Denzel) Boston. Obviously, Giles Jackson, who was here also. It’s going to be a challenge, but we’re going to be up to it.”
One of the things that Michigan has troubled with has been against teams who want to attack the defense horizontally.
The Wolverines have gotten much better at defending screen and outside passes in recent weeks, but Texas gashed them in Week 2, so Michigan has to constantly be on high alert.
Jean-Mary notes that the Huskies have multiple weapons who can hurt you if they get into space, and that Jedd Fisch will work to try to do exactly that.
“Yeah, they do it at a high level, too,” Jean-Mary said. “They throw screens. They have some dynamic guys in space. Like I said, I talked about Giles Jackson. I talked about, obviously, Coleman, the running back. They try to get the ball in their hands in space.
“Screens are two-fold. Because of the pressure we can get on defense, whether it’s a four-man rush or a blitz that gets the ball out of the quarterback’s hands, and then it gets the ball, in their minds, in the athletic skill guy’s hands to see what he can do with it. And then two-fold. That’s why I said I thought our coverage was good at times where we were taking away some of the deeper throws, and good offense is going to counter that by getting the ball to their skill guys in space with shorter throws that are easy for the quarterback. Now all we have to do is be able to rally back and go tackle them. I thought we didn’t do that at times or were out of position at times where we could have got the ball on the ground before it was an explosive play.”
Michigan and Washington kick off at 4:30 p.m. PDT at Husky Stadium on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on NBC.