Don Brown and Jim Harbaugh (image via Detroit Free Press)
DEFENSIVE LINE: A
Maybe I’m grading harshly here, but despite being one of the best defensive lines in the country, it hasn’t been as outstanding of a season as it could have been so far. Players have battled injuries (Taco Charlton, Bryan Mone) and the backups performed admirably. Charlton has only played in four games and averages 1 sack per game, but I think Michigan still lacks that one dominant edge rusher. They make up for it with an array of talent and blitzes, but quarterback scrambles hurt them in the first few games of the year. Defensive linemen have combined for 30.5 tackles for loss and 15 sacks, but the lack of one truly dominant player prevents me from giving them a perfect grade.
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LINEBACKER: A-
The players who play have performed superbly. Middle linebacker Ben Gedeon (47), strongside linebacker Jabrill Peppers (39), and weakside linebacker Mike McCray II (31) are the top three tacklers on the team. Peppers (10.0), Gedeon (7.5), and McCray (4.0) are #1, #2, and #4, respectively, on the team in the category of tackles for loss. McCray has been caught out of position more often than the others in pass defense, and Gedeon has also been susceptible at times, but all three have done better than Michigan linebackers have performed in years. The big question for Michigan is whether they have developed or can develop backups to those players, since any injury could bring a significant drop-off, and both Gedeon and Peppers will probably be gone after this season. Of course, the 2017 season shouldn’t impact the grade for the current linebackers through six games in 2016, but I’m dinging the group for a failure to show more depth than what we have seen so far.
CORNERBACK: A
This grade includes the play of fifth year senior Jeremy Clark, who unfortunately tore his ACL in the fourth game of the season and will miss the rest of the year. He got hurt just as Jourdan Lewis returned from injury, but the combination of those two players and Channing Stribling has been stellar for the most part. Lewis is a shutdown corner and made perhaps the interception of the year for college football when he made a one-handed pick against Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Stribling leads the team with 3 interceptions and returned one for a touchdown against Hawaii. Lewis and Clark both excel(led) in run support, so this has been an excellent position group. Backups like Brandon Watson, David Long, and Lavert Hill have earned playing time and have not been victimized a great deal, though the Clark injury puts the Wolverines on thin ice.
SAFETY: B
Safety has been Michigan’s weakest position group on defense, though they have not been challenged much in the passing game recently. Central Florida took advantage of a poor angle by Dymonte Thomas for an 87-yard touchdown, Delano Hill got outflanked on a jet sweep against Wisconsin, and Colorado exposed both guys in coverage. Otherwise, the safeties have played fairly well and stayed out of the spotlight, which is a good thing. Sophomore Tyree Kinnel has also come in to spell players in the secondary and done a solid job. I think safety play has taken a step backward since last season, when I would have given the group an A or A-. No team other than Colorado has consistently hurt Michigan’s secondary, but Michigan State and Ohio State will present bigger hurdles in the second half of the year.
OVERALL: A
The Wolverines have not faced good offenses so far this season, so it’s tough to judge them when they’re beating up on a redshirt freshman QB at Wisconsin, a host of backup quarterbacks, and poor ol’ Rutgers. They struggled against the Colorado Buffaloes, especially before starting quarterback Sefo Liufau injured his ankle. There have been holes (safety, defensive end depth, linebacker depth), but those issues have not been exposed weekly. Either defensive coordinator Don Brown fixed those problems from week to week, or other teams have been unable to exploit those weaknesses. Michigan might have the best defensive unit in the country, but they could be even better.
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I’ll take an A at the midterm.
Gedeon has been remarkable as far as I’m concerned, having progressed from being pretty much just a guy out there, to studly. If I’m the NFL, he’s probably my third pick off of this class of Seniors behind Wormley, maybe even tied with Taco, just ahead of Glasgow and then Lewis. Big assed run stuffers that can run and cover are way valuable in a man’s league.
With Stribling, I think we get 6 drafted off of this defense this year, and I’m not talking late rounds. Maybe could have been 7. Somebody with a clue is gonna bring Thomas in the day after. Real fast Safeties with some size for the position ….. same as big assed Linebackers.
Remember when everybody was all exercised because we had guys getting run over?
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I think some of this is system. Brown’s system is making every LB look like a stud. Gedeon always played despite a veteran group of LB. They looked like just-a-guys and so did he. Hell Jake Ryan sort of looked like just-a-guy too when he got moved inside.
From what we heard in the offseason Brown’s system places tremendous pressure on the secondary and lets the LB’s attack – which is a far easier job than other systems focused on reading and reacting.
The other ingredient is the DL. When 3 of 4 DL are double-team worthy that equals a whole lot of clean LBs.
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So let’s play hypothetical here …
Hypothetical #1 — if you could name *one* guy on the current defense and magically have a duplicate of him available to play at the same time, what one guy would you clone?
Hypothetical #2 — if you could select *one* guy from any previous Michigan defense and magically have him available to play right now at his college prime, who would that one person be?
For me …
#1 … I’m looking at who we could clone to help at safety. I’m thinking a clone of Peppers dedicated to the role of safety (with the other Peppers playing space LB) would provide maximum benefit. I wondered about a second Lewis, but then the differential over Stribbling may be not enough to warrant it.
#2 … I’m thinking the obvious choice is Charles Woodson, but again … does that help our safety situation?
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1. I have to go with Peppers. If one is dedicated to playing SAM, then the other could be dedicated to playing safety or corner. He might not be great at either of those positions, but maybe he would be better if he were able to fully dedicate himself to either of those other spots.
2. I’m tempted to say Brandon Graham, because he was awesome in his final season and we don’t have that kind of edge rusher right now. But if I’m trying to build a team, I already have a deep defensive line and not much depth at either corner or safety. I would take Woodson and let Hill/Thomas battle it out for the one safety spot. Stribling would stay at corner because I don’t know if he can tackle well enough to be a safety. Woodson can do it all, whether you roll him back deep or play him in the slot.
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Agree with Thunder. Lewis is a candidate, but Peppers versatility would be awesome. The nice thing is that Hill is basically a slightly-inferior version of Peppers so we kind of already have that.
As for Michigan player of years past there are a lot of good candidates.
Frank Clark’s probably the best edge rusher we’ve ever had (though his supporting cast was fairly meh so he didn’t actually show it). He’s already a better player than Graham at the NFL level. We don’t need him, but he’d be an impact pass rusher.
At LB I’d go with David Harris beside Ben Gedeon. McCray’s been fine but Harris would be far better.
My real answer is probably Charles Woodson. I’d let him play safety and move Hill up to LB. All nickel all the time and Watson never sees the field.
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I don’t agree that Clark is already better than Graham. Clark has yet to start a game and has had 3 sacks in each of his first two seasons so far. Graham had 6.5 sacks last season while starting 10 games. So far this year he has 3 sacks and has started all five games. As a starter, he’s probably getting more sacks, but that means he’s also playing against the run and when teams are fresh. Neither one has really lit it on fire. I would also take LaMarr Woodley over Frank Clark if we’re talking about defensive ends.
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OKay Thunder – didn’t mean to insult your boy. Graham’s in his 7th year and didn’t become a regular starter until his 6th season. So we’re comparing apples to oranges.
I’m probably putting too much weight on Clark getting off 3 sacks in 4 games start this year but obviously if that was to continue he’d be an all-pro.
You’re probably right about Woodley being better than both. Clark seems a little more explosive to me as a pass rusher but I doubt he’s going to have the overall level of success that Woodley had.
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Are Don and Jim using mind power to levitate that football?
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Yes! And they demonstrate their superior power because *neither* is looking directly at the ball. Harbaugh in particular is looking off in the distance, probably thinking about something other than the ball … yet he can levitate the ball simply with the echo of some previous thought! 🙂
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That’s good stuff.
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Nice post. Grading seems a bit harsh to me.
If your grades are for performance then I don’t think you can count injuries against them. That the DL has dominated without Charlton and Mone is impressive and ditto at CB as Clark or Lewis has missed (almost?) every game. It’s like acing a test with a cold – impressive.
Also think you’re being harsh on the safeties. Their ability in coverage has been instrumental in keeping Brandon Watson (perhaps the only weak link in this defense) off the field as often as he would be otherwise. Counting Peppers in this group since he ends up playing a safety role pretty often (per PFF).
The versatility of Peppers, Hill, and Thomas has made our offseason debate about the value of the 3rd corner moot. Watson does get some PT, but isn’t a critical player. That wouldn’t be the case if the 3 guys mentioned above weren’t so good.
If this group (that I would guess has 2 experienced NFL-bound seniors in it, plus help from Peppers) is a B then I can’t imagine an A+ is even possible.
My grades:
DL: A+ (I mean, they’re 8 deep with NFL guys probably and dominate everyone they see.)
LB: A- (I think they’ve had some busts but overall play-making offsets it).
CB: A (No plus just because of a handful of times they’ve been beat or come close – even Lewis.)
S: A- (Sure tackling, extreme versatility, infrequently exploited. Brown asks a ton of them and they have delivered)
Overall: A+
It doesn’t get much better than this. The brief struggles against Colorado and UCF are offset by the stomp-on-throat dominance they have shown in conference play.
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