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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — In his first full media availability of 2020, Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown spent nearly an hour answering questions from the local media.
He covered much of the state of the defense given the abnormal circumstances where the Wolverines didn’t have spring practice due to the shelter-in-place orders resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. That includes some of the true freshmen and how they’re acclimating, the interior defensive line, the linebackers, who will step up at VIPER, the cornerbacks and safeties, how the two new position coaches have been working out and what it’s like to recruit virtually.
WolverinesWire partook in the media availability and we’ve transcribed the entirety of Brown’s 50-plus minute press conference from Thursday morning.
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Don Brown’s May 21 media availability
What he’s been doing during quarantine
“Kind of a new way to go about your business, but obviously watching a lot of tape of our upcoming opponents. Also watching our own players, games from last year and I’ve become a Zoom magician, where I had no abiity. I’ve been able to (see) my way through. Our defensive staff meets (via Zoom often). We also meet with the players, which is awesome because that’s our connection with them. Even though, when you look at the silver lining, I feel like the younger guys have a chance to at least gone through every single install that we have scheduled for the spring. So that when they see it again in the fall, I think with the upperclassmen involved and so forth, being able to interact with them in and out of the meetings, I think that’s been helpful.
“I also think this will be our fifth year in the defense, so if there’s one year where continuity really helps, I think it’s this year. Because our guys have a good handle on what we’re doing in our concepts. Not that we don’t change on a year-to-year basis. But I think the continuity will pay dividends especially early in the year.”
On the defensive interior front, particularly Donovan Jeter and Chris Hinton
“When they look back on it, they ended up having to play at the end of the year due to injuries at tackle and at nose. That’s only gonna end up paying dividends for them moving forward. It would have been nice if we could have had the ability to work in spring practice, but everybody was in that same scenario, so that’s just part of it. But we now have a chance, those guys played in two big games. Obviously, being able to play in a big game is an important piece, now we just need them to take it on an elite level in a big game.
“Christopher Hinton – I’m really excited about his potential. You mentioned Donovan Jeter. Mazi Smith is another guy as well. We think all of those guys, in evaluating and watching them in some of the winter workouts in the conditioning phases, I really feel like they’ve taken their game to the next level in terms of their physical ability, their ability to run and that’s –
“Sometimes things get said and the reality is they’re really out of context. For example: when you have four down linemen, you want each one of those four guys to have the ability to run and hit people. Now obviously, there’s a degree of size in the tackle and the nose scenario. And we have that size. Jeter’s a 300-pounder. Mazi Smith is a 300-pounder. Chris Hinton is a 300-pounder. And all three of those guys are very athletic. We’re excited about them, and obviously we’re very excited to have Carlo Kemp come back because not only will he provide experience, he’ll provide that essence of leadership that we desperately need there.
“But I’m very confident in the guys we have inside. Now, last year, we had another set of circumstances. Well, you’ve gotta play Josh Uche. And in that respect, we needed to play in some of our three-down, 3-3 stack-type structure to get that guy on the field especially on second and third down. And in some of our four down structures, we wanted him in some of the four down guys. I still think our defensive end scenario is really blessed, because we have Aidan, we have Kwity Paye. I’m very anxious to see how Ojabo does. Upshaw – Luiji Vilain in limited reps. I go back and watch Luiji play last year at times, and obviously he was hurt because Mike Danna was there. But, the bottom line is it’s his time now and he’ll have an opportunity to prove what he can do and I think we’re gonna get productive, solid play out of him as well.”
On the linebacker situation and the depth there
“I think having Cam McGrone and Josh Ross to start with is an excellent place to start. I’ll bet there are many inside linebacker coaches in the country that want to trade places with me. Those two guys I think can play anywhere in America, I really do. They can play for any system. Ross is not only a physical guy, he’s an athletic guy. But he is one bright guy. McGrone, very similar, except he runs a 4.4. You don’t get many of those guys now.
“So I kinda feel like it’s 2016 revisited where Ben Gedeon hadn’t played much so we moved him to the MIKE. Mike McCray played zero and I put him at the WILL position. We talked Peppers into being the VIPER. ‘Hey, you’re gonna do this! You’re gonna blitz! You’re gonna play the edge! You’re gonna cut! You’re gonna do all these things!’ And we kinda tricked him into the VIPER. There we go, there’s our three positions to start with. Then we had Devin Bush, and we had to bring Devin along and utilize him along with Mike Wroblewski and some of those guys.
“I’m very excited to work with this Kalel Mullings, Cornell Wheeler, Nikhai Hill-Green – those guys are gonna give us – they have tremendous skill. Obviously, when you can benefit from these kinds of meetings, the Zoom meetings we’ve had, so I feel really good about it. Obviously two tremendous leaders at the forefront. And the talent is there, so we just have to get them up to speed and ready to go. Athletically, again, I feel very strongly about that position.”
What about the starting VIPER?
“I’ve seen enough out of Michael Barrett to be excited. Runs 4.51 – that’s fast! At 220-pounds. So that’s a good place to start. He’s had a tremendous role model in Khaleke Hudson that showed him the way. He’s worked extremely hard and has a very close relationship with Cam McGrone in particular and Josh Ross. That chemistry, that camaraderie that you search for that allows some groups to be exceptional I think is there. So that’s the place we’ll start.
“I don’t want to put undue pressure on William Mohan. I think he’ll be a very good player. We call him ‘Apache.’ But he’s a true freshman, has that type of ability. Obviously, we have a number of guys at the safety position that it would be smooth as silk to drop them into the VIPER position with one of those guys as need me. I think the VIPER may be, even though there’s a lot of jobs there, I think that might be a little bit easier for guys to grasp than the rover/free safety position that we utilize on the back end.”