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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Every year now, though Michigan football’s defense has been no worse than No. 11 nationally since Jim Harbaugh took over in 2015, the criticism of the Wolverines on that side of the ball under defensive coordinator Don Brown has been the same: the defense plays stellar against bad-to-mediocre offenses and breaks down against high-powered units.
Of course, that tends to be true of any defense against an elite offense, but certainly when Michigan has lined up against some explosive groups, it’s had momentary lapses, where it doesn’t look the same from one week to the next.
The Wolverines have had a lot of attrition on that side of the ball from 2019 to 2020, including standouts such as Josh Uche, Josh Metellus, Mike Danna, Lavert Hill, Khaleke Hudson and Jordan Glasgow — who all departed with the NFL in mind — while Ambry Thomas opted out for his senior year, and will not be returning, he confirmed with WolverinesWire.
Naturally, Brown is looking to improve Michigan’s defensive performance with the new group so that when it lines up against a team with elite speed and a top-flight quarterback, so that it won’t fall apart as it has in year’s previous.
“Well, we’re working at it, I can tell you that,” Brown said. “We’ve done a good job I think of evaluating our strengths and implementing them, but also tweaking our coverage base, what we’re doing there. But really tweaking our pressures, our non-pressures, where people are coming from. Obviously, that’s a big deal. And that’s what you’ve gotta do on a year-to-year basis. It’s not like – for example, 2016, we’re No. 1 in the country on defense; it’s not like in 2017 we didn’t make changes. But obviously going from ’19 to ’20, our strengths in our defense are in a little bit of different places. So you gotta play to your strengths. So I think we’re doing that and I think that’s what’s most important is: play to your own players’ strengths and the guys that you think can make plays for you. And obviously don’t be afraid to compete against anybody in the country.”
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Of course, there’s one team that’s particularly exploited Michigan’s defense the past two years: Ohio State.
This offseason, OSU head coach Ryan Day told his team that he hopes a season does take place so that the Buckeyes could hang 100 on the Wolverines, reportedly due to a spat on a conference call with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Beyond that, the school in Ohio has Brown’s full attention now, after the Wolverines gave up 62 points in 2018 and 56 in 2019.
While the ‘do more, say less’ crowd doesn’t want to hear Michigan say anything about Ohio State nowadays, though others argue that it should be a louder, vocal point of emphasis, Brown is somewhat acquiescing to both groups, noting that the maize and blue are preparing for the scarlet and grey — even now, months before they face off on Dec. 12 — while declining to say much more.
“We get ready to play against them every day,” Brown said. “We’re running plays, we’re seeing concepts and we’ve got a lot of work to do. So I just keep my mouth shut and go to work every day, that’s what I do. And that’s what I’m gonna do.”
Before Michigan gets to that final game of the regular season, however, it has to get to the season opener, which will take place Oct. 24 at Minnesota.
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