The Michigan defense is coming off of a huge game against Colorado State where it sacked quarterback Clay Millen seven times and it also recorded 11 tackles-for-loss.
The Wolverines not only have a new defensive coordinator (Jesse Minter) but they hired Mike Elston to be the defensive line coach. Elston previously coached at Notre Dame where he achieved plenty of success.
On Wednesday, Elston talked to the media about losing both Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo from the 2021 team. While he didn’t coach them last year, he knows the type of production they brought to Michigan. The coach says there are guys that can fill the role, but it’s going to look different. It’s more of a committee approach rather than two individuals.
“The great thing is that there are guys here that can fill into those roles,” said Elston. “They’re going to look different, they’re going to be different, there’s going to become different opportunities for guys to get the production in a different way, let’s say. Like you saw on Saturday, we’re doing some different things up front to create some disruption and pressure, and hopefully, that continues to carry on, and we’ll continue to grow those things.”
“But yeah, it’s a huge challenge to replace the No. 2 overall draft pick and another first-rounder or, you know, early second-rounder,” said Elston. “But the challenge is there. And I think that as a staff, we’ve handled it really well. And I think as a group, the guys understand the expectations, and they’ve handled it well. And I think it’s only going to get better as we move forward.”
Elston said he was pleased in Week 1. He said that his unit played hard and physical. The defensive line coach commented about rotating players in and out. Elson said that he loves to do that to keep guys fresh. He believes that production will go up when Michigan is able to rotate.
“In game one, what we felt like we did well was played hard, ran to the football and played very physical up front, did a really good job of block destruction across the board,” Elston said. “Our substitutions, we rotate a lot of guys in and when you do that, sometimes on game one, you can have some mistakes and 10 guys on the field, 12 guys on the field. Our guys handled that really, really well. We had some drives that extended a little bit and we’re able to rally four new guys in, five new guys in, and I love doing that. I think that keeps guys fresh. I think production goes up for guys that are able to go out there and know they’re gonna play four or five plays, and then when the drive extends, we can get them out.”
What is scary, is that Elson believes his unit can take an even big stride in Week 2 against Hawaii. He wants to see them running to the football with a better effort and more of consistent block destruction off the ball. If the Wolverines can keep taking strides forward, then this line will be very scary when it has to play Ohio State.
“Things that we would like to see as improvements in Week 2 for the front would be an even better effort running to the football, we can improve there,” said Elston. “Even though we did a great job in game one, we can make a huge stride in game two. More consistent block destruction and in what we’re doing. Better get-offs — I feel like as the game went on, we were more concerned about trying to see what they’re doing and reading blocks, instead of just coming off the football and knocking guys back. So would love to see an improvement in that area, across the front.”
Elston said that he learned there are plenty of guys that can play winning football. He said his goal now in Week 2 is to build guys up to playing championship-level football. He reiterated that he loves rotating players and seeing what his unit can do, but at the end of the day, his goal is to make Michigan have a championship-styled defensive line.
“What we learned about the front, we got a lot of guys who can play winning football,” stated Elston. “We rotate a lot of guys in, and I think the next step as we get into game two, Week 2 is we’re trying to build guys that can play championship-level football. And when you go on the football field, you’re gonna be expected to do that. Early on it’s you’re seeing what guys can do and they’re out there and a lot of guys played very, very well. But you know, our goal is to be playing championship-level football as we get into the rest of the season.”
Michigan will host Hawaii this Saturday on Big Ten Network at 8 p.m. EDT.
[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbzardvge799bm2 player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=https://wolverineswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]
[listicle id=62456]