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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When it comes to the Michigan football defense, the secondary has been the unit that’s drawn the most ire from critics in both the fan base as well as the media. And those struggles have centered most on the cornerback play.
Gone are the starting tandem of LaVert Hill and Ambry Thomas, and while new starters Vincent Gray and Gemon Green have had moments when they’ve made plays, they’ve had an equal amount of struggles as well.
Green received a stellar coverage grade in Big Ten Week 1 according to PFF, but it’s been up-and-down — mostly down — since, whereas Gray struggled early, but has increased his grade over the course of the season. As far as Green is concerned, he says that he’s not getting into a rhythm early enough, and that’s disrupted the defense’s ability to get out to a fast start.
“From my point of view, I kind of start — from me looking in, I kinda start my games slow,” Green said. “I start off slow and get my groove into the end of the game, stuff like that. I do have a lot of stuff to work on. I do have a lot of stuff to work on and I feel like I could be the best player I can be in the future.”
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One of the issues that’s plagued Green early on is penalties — defensive holding and pass interference. We’ve heard from coaches since the start of the season that the players aren’t relying enough on their technique and fundamentals, and Green concurs when it comes to his personal performance thus far.
“Really not focusing on my technique, for real,” Green said. “Going down on the fade ball, I got out of control most of the time. I was kinda out of control trying to connect. I just gotta stay calm and turn around and look for the ball, really.”
Green really hammers home the need for execution, noting that when the players do what the coaches ask, then things go well. He adds that if they do that and things still don’t go well, there could be bigger problems afoot.
But, the way he sees it currently, it’s on the players, not the coaches, as the defense continues to make mistake after mistake. The only way to right the ship is to execute as called upon — something that always seems to be amiss in the past few games.
“Just watching film, just watching cut-ups, when you actually see the cut-up, there’s always a player not doing their assignment right within the defense,” Green said. “This is just looking at the defense, I don’t know about the offense, but this is what I’m seeing from the defense. But there’s always one person not doing their job and they mess up the whole. You have to execute, like I said — you always have to execute. Maybe you did one play — like that one play against Wisconsin, I had to come across the field. I feel like I need to make that play. You have to just execute.”