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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan’s defense doesn’t just have a new look, it has a new attitude. And it starts at the very top.
While former defensive coordinator Don Brown was very successful leading the charge in his first several years in Ann Arbor, though he was willing to adjust his scheme, sometimes it was too little, too late. That was beyond evident in 2020 when the defense went from being rated 11th in the country to 84th nationally. There was a certain stodginess to Brown, which is fine when it’s working, but when it’s not, it certainly draws the ire of the fan base and media punditry, alike.
Macdonald has come in like a breath of fresh air, encouraging his defense to play fast and technically sound, but reminding them simultaneously that football is supposed to be a fun game.
“One thing we preach is it’s not easy to go out there and make plays,” Macdonald said. “When you make plays, go celebrate with your teammates, go get a picture on the sideline. Have fun man! We work too hard at this to go out there and make a play and just be all bummed out about it. Have some fun!”
But, like we said, the whole attitude change starts at the top. And that means the man at the top is the most accountable.
Macdonald now has two games under his belt, and when it comes to play-calling, he intends on constantly looking for ways to get better. Even if he’s had two good games, he refuses to rest on his laurels, knowing that what he’s done isn’t perfect.
So far, so good, but that doesn’t mean the future can’t be better.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Macdonald said. “There’s calls where you go back and say, ‘Ah, I should have done this,’ or, ‘I should have done that,’ or, ‘We could have prepped this better,’ or, ‘We could have gone over this situation better with the guys.’ That’s always a work in progress. It was that way in Baltimore, it was that way in Georgia. That’s my philosophy is just — you’ve gotta look at yourself, too, to make sure you keep putting the guys in the best situation possible.
“But, it feels like practice. You go out there and identify the situation and for the most part, we’ve talked about the situations that arise. Really just stick to the plan. It helps when you communicate to the guys what you’re gonna call in certain situations because then they’re anticipating you calling that. So now, it’s like if you don’t call that, then you’re doing them a disservice. It’s nice to have figured it out before the situation actually comes up.”
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The big thing for Macdonald is continually self-scouting to make sure that any tendencies he’s showing as a play-caller aren’t showing up on tape.
We’ve said quite frequently on the Locked On Wolverines Podcast that Brown’s defense had gotten somewhat figured out from a tendency and predictability perspective. The Wolverines’ defense needed a change if for no other reason than opposing offenses knew how to exploit Brown’s tendencies after a few years of him being in the Big Ten. With Macdonald coming from the NFL, he’s that much more aware that opposing teams will be poring over the tape, looking to find even the smallest advantage.
So it’s become that much more crucial that he knows what he does with regularity and what he doesn’t, to keep offense off-balance.
“Absolutely. It’s this way at every level, but they’re playing what they’ve seen on tape,” Macdonald said. “So you have to understand how we’ve been playing and the things that they’re seeing and the mistakes that we’ve made to try to really have a great grasp of how they’re gonna attack you. Two games is not a great sample size — same thing with Northern Illinois. They’re operating differently on a game-to-game basis than they did last year or the year before that. A lot of it’s gonna be identifying how a team’s going to be playing it during the game. I think we have enough in our toolbag, so to speak, that we can adjust on the fly. But we definitely need to be aware of that.”
Michigan kicks off against NIU on Saturday at noon EDT at The Big House.
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