Last year, after 15 games, Michigan football had the top-rated defense in all of college football. After 14 games in 2022, it was ranked No. 6. After 14 games in 2021, it was ranked No. 20.
Through six games thus far in 2024, it’s ranked No. 48.
There’s one element of the Wolverine defense that’s stellar — stopping the run. Michigan is actually fifth nationally in run defense, but the pass defense is nearly its opposite. Despite having Will Johnson in the defensive backfield, Michigan is near the bottom of all of college football, at No. 115 in pass defense out of 134 teams. Yes, the offenses that the Wolverines have faced have been a bit more high-flying, but considering that this team is faring nine yards per game worse than the 2020 pass defense, that tells you much of the story.
On Monday’s ‘Inside Michigan Football’ radio show, head coach Sherrone Moore gave credit where it was due on his defense, but also shared his concern for the pass defense.
“I think they’ve done a good job of initially stopping the run on teams,” Moore said. “People have to do different things to get the ball moving on us, but the pass game, pass defense has to improve. And that’s a collective group thing. That’s not just Will, that’s not just the DBs, but it’s the pass rush. It’s all the things tied together to make sure that we’re aligned in the pass game. So we definitely have to improve there.”
Moore attempted to keep some continuity with the scheme, hiring Wink Martindale — whose system Michigan implemented via two of his proteges — to run the system. While Moore says it’s important to be critical of his assistant coaches, he doesn’t necessarily feel like Martindale is blitzing too much through six games.
“You look back at the stats, and I go through last year, and I go through this year, and looked at the comparisons of games, and the blitz percentages, quote-unquote, are about the same,” Moore said. “They’re not far off, so I think that it’s a misnomer, because people are coming off the edge or blitzing, but really, sometimes it looks like a blitz, and it’s four guys rushing, and for us, I think it’s just, we have to have a balance of what we’re gonna do, and use it as a weapon, but not as the foundation.”
That said, he is still evaluating the jobs his assistants have done and plans to adjust what they’re doing accordingly now that it’s the bye week.
“I think you just have to be real on what’s good and what’s not, and you can’t sugarcoat it because it’s not about feelings or emotions,” Moore said. “It’s about our team getting better, and that’s the No. 1 thing you have to do. And had some great conversations with some of my mentors and people, and got a chance to talk to Coach Harbaugh the other day just about these situations and what you can do. And the only thing you can do is get better. He always said, ‘Never get bitter, get better. And make sure that the coaches are coaching their players like they wanna be coached,’ and that’s what we’re gonna go do this week.”
Michigan is on bye this week but takes on Illinois in Week 8 in Champaign.