Tag: Michael Williams

Chaminade-Madonna defensive back Johnathan Aiken

Height: 5’11”
Weight: 185 lbs.
Class: 2011
Position: Safety/cornerback
School: Chaminade-Madonna High School in Hollywood, FL
40 Yard Dash: 4.49 (reported)
Vertical: 34″

Notes: Holds offers from Florida International, Marshall, Michigan, and South Florida . . . Brother, Kamar Aiken, plays wide receiver for Central Florida [Edit: Kamar is no relation to Johnathan]. . . Plays running back on offense . . . Wears jersey #21

Strengths: Great acceleration . . . Good mirroring instincts . . . High energy player . . . Seems to be one of team’s emotional leaders . . . Solid tackler despite small stature . . . Squares up and wraps up ballcarrier . . . Great special teams player . . . Fearless in kick coverage . . . Has knack for blocking kicks and punts . . . Good running skills once ball is in his hands . . . Ability to change directions quickly . . . Excellent blitzer off the edge

Weaknesses: Does not run legs on contact . . . Leaves feet too often when making contact . . . Can be too aggressive at times without breaking down to tackle, leaving him open to missing tackles . . . Lacks ideal height . . . Good but not great speed, despite superb acceleration . . . Average ball skills when ball is in the air

Projection: Aiken has starter-level potential as a strong safety for a BCS contender

Reminds me of: current Michigan safety Michael Williams

News this past week has percolated from insiders to Michigan fans that safety Mike Williams will be changing positions from “safety” (he played both strong and free safety last year) to “spur.” This has caused some confusion for Michigan fans, some of whom are concerned that Michigan will employ the 3-3-5 stack look that Rich Rodriguez utilized in his time at West Virginia.

Let me assure you that this will not be the case, at least not in my opinion. I expect Michigan’s base defensive package in 2010 to be a 4-2-5 defense, and hopefully the remainder of my post will explain what personnel we should see this coming season and why.

DEFENSIVE LINE

First of all, the defensive line will likely be Michigan’s strength once again in 2010. Michigan’s best player (Brandon Graham) departs, but there are capable components remaining. I expect Ryan Van Bergen to slide over to the strongside defensive end from his old defensive tackle position. Mike Martin should become the 3-tech defensive tackle, who lines up on the guard’s outside shoulder; this will give him a chance to penetrate against slower guards and avoid the double-teams he faced at nose tackle. Either sophomore William Campbell or senior Renaldo Sagesse will play nose tackle, and sophomore Craig Roh will play weakside defensive end.

LINEBACKERS
With only two “capable” (and I use that term loosely) linebackers returning, it would behoove Michigan to employ as few linebackers as possible. Jonas Mouton and Obi Ezeh are both fifth-year seniors, and while they both underperformed last season, their backups (Kevin Leach and J.B. Fitzgerald) weren’t much better, if at all. Last year’s starting SAM Steve Brown has moved on, and his replacements were to be one of two second-year players (Brandin Hawthorne, Mike Jones) or incoming freshman Josh Furman, who won’t arrive on campus until June. That’s a lot of youth and inexperience. Further evidence that last year’s SAM position will disappear lies in the fact that Mike Jones will be competing at the weakside linebacker position in the spring. I sincerely doubt the coaches would stock such an important position as the SAM with only Hawthorne and Furman.

CORNERBACK
Recent reports indicate that Troy Woolfolk, who played deep safety last year, will start spring ball at the cornerback position. While I don’t think that Woolfolk will remain at corner through the season, this makes sense for spring ball. Why? Michigan’s only returning scholarship cornerbacks are Justin Turner and J.T. Floyd, and Floyd would likely be a safety if the depth weren’t so shallow. Reinforcements arrive in the summer in the forms of freshmen Cullen Christian, Demar Dorsey, Courtney Avery, and Terrence Talbott. Unfortunately, no cornerbacks (or defensive players, period) enrolled in January.

SAFETY
I’m going to break this down into three components, since terminology and positioning will likely change for this season. If you remember, last year’s “free safety” was an in-the-box player, like Jordan Kovacs. The “strong safety” was the deep safety, which was manned by Troy Woolfolk before he moved to cornerback halfway through the season.

Spur
Spur is the name used to define a traditional strong safety-type player, someone who can play the role of a run-stopping outside linebacker but with better cover skills. However, the spur plays on the weak side of the defensive formation. Therefore, this year’s spur will be much like 2009’s free safety. As mentioned above, Mike Williams will play spur in the spring, and he could very well be our starter to begin the season. Other players who will likely play spur are redshirt freshmen Thomas Gordon and Brandin Hawthorne. He would usually have outside contain against the run. Both the spur and the boundary safety (see below) could have a deep zone against the pass, depending on the coverage called. In man coverage, he would have the #2 receiver (the second receiver from the sideline).

Deep safety
I hesitate to call this “free safety,” but that’s basically what it is. This is the safety who has the deep middle in a Cover 3, a deep half in Cover 2, etc. This spot will most likely be filled by Vladimir Emilien in the spring, but it’s also where I expect to see Troy Woolfolk in September. I also think Cameron Gordon will get a tryout at deep safety, although eventually he’ll likely play closer to the line. This is the safety who has the deep middle in a Cover 3, a deep half in Cover 2, etc. In straight-up man coverage, he could have the #3 receiver (the third receiver from the sideline) against a trips formation, but defensive coordinator Greg Robinson likely won’t put him in that kind of call.

Boundary safety
I hesitate to call this “strong safety,” but that’s basically what it is. Jordan Kovacs, Teric Jones, and others will get a shot at the strong safety position. This player will likely have outside contain against the run and the strongside flat in zone coverage. In man coverage, he would have the #2 receiver (the second receiver from the sideline), whether it’s a slot receiver or a tight end.

What does it all mean?
Well, what it all means is that the coaches are trying to get the best players on the field. They think that the team would be better off with someone like redshirt junior Mike Williams on the field than youngsters like Brandin Hawthorne and Josh Furman. And they also realize that there’s no point in removing a player from the most talented and experienced unit (the defensive line) to put in an extra defensive back, which they would have to do in a 3-3-5.

If you’re looking for further resources on the 4-2-5 defense, check out The Football-Defense Report, which is where I got the diagram above.

Wide receiver Cameron Gordon has switched to safety

AnnArbor.com published an article yesterday about wide receiver Cameron Gordon making the switch to safety. A former 4-star wide receiver, he came to Michigan in part because the coaches told him he could compete at wideout. He spent his freshman season redshirting. Reports from practice indicated that he had good hands and, at 6’2″ and 210 lbs., was willing to go over the middle. Unfortunately for him, Rodriguez’s offense at Michigan hasn’t shown a propensity for using wide receivers in the middle of the field. That would be practically the equivalent of having a rifle-armed defensive tackle. The offense predicates itself on getting athletes in space, and Gordon doesn’t have the speed or quickness to shake free from cornerbacks.

The article doesn’t identify which safety position Gordon will play, but one can assume that he’ll play the weak safety position, where he’ll likely compete with freshmen Marvin Robinson and Carvin Johnson, redshirt sophomore Jordan Kovacs, and redshirt junior Mike Williams. This position requires less speed and a more physically imposing presence than the strong safety position. As the article illustrates, Gordon displayed some good hitting ability during special teams practice, so much so that the defensive coaches hinted constantly that he should move to defense.

This switch is far from surprising. In last season’s preview profile of Gordon, I suggested that he would be better off on defense. I still think he’s best suited for linebacker, particularly the weak inside linebacker position held tenuously by Jonas Mouton. Perhaps this is the next step in a slow transition to WILL, because I don’t foresee Gordon having the speed to play weak safety, either. There are times in this defense where the strong safety has to roll over to play man coverage on the strong side, meaning the weak safety has to back up to play the deep middle or a deep half. In my opinion, this would expose Gordon, as it did Jordan Kovacs at times last year.

Dear Michael Williams,

First of all, let me thank you for how hard you work and how hard you play for the Michigan Wolverines. You came back from a tough knee injury as a true freshman, but you run hard and you work hard. And you hit hard, too. It’s disappointing that the internet is crawling with so many know-it-all Michigan fans who think you’re washed up, that you’re just a bad football player, end of story.

When you came out of high school in 2007, I thought you were going to be a good player. You reminded me of Brandon Harrison – short and fast but a hitter. It turned out that the Michigan staff thought the same thing. You were to be groomed as the heir to Harrison, a slot cornerback. You would learn to blitz off the edge, cover slot receivers, force sweeps back to the inside, stuff like that. You were perfect for that position. Then the knee injury happened and you redshirted as a freshman. There’s no shame in that.

Then at the end of 2007, Lloyd Carr retired. Rich Rodriguez came in to be the head coach, and he hired a guy named Scott Shafer, a young guy who had success at lower-tier programs. Shafer had plans on using you a little bit differently for the 2008 season. He still used you like Harrison, but by then, Harrison had been switched to strong safety. You had 18 tackles and a sack as a backup strong safety. That’s a pretty good year for a backup safety.

But the whole Shafer thing didn’t work out. He was fired after an abysmal year, and Rich Rodriguez hired Greg Robinson for 2009. Now here’s a coach with a track record. He coached the Denver Broncos defense to a couple Super Bowls, coordinated for the Kansas City Chiefs. This guy clearly knows what he’s doing. He worked with you a little bit and figured you’d be perfect for free safety. In his defense, the free safety plays almost like a weakside outside linebacker. This was perfect for you, too – you would be free to make plays in the running game without having to take on too many lead blockers. But then you got dinged up against Notre Dame and Jordan Kovacs took your job for a little bit.

Then came the Iowa game on October 10, 2009. Your buddy Boubacar Cissoko got suspended for the game, which meant the coaches would have to switch the starting strong safety, Troy Woolfolk, to cornerback. But you were a trooper when the coaches said you would have to take Woolfolk’s spot as the deep safety. (It was either you or Kovacs, and let’s be honest, Kovacs is about as fast as Johnny Thompson.) Of course, Iowa has some pretty good coaches, and they noticed that you were a newbie back there at safety. I mean, when was the last time you played a deep third? In high school when you played free safety? Anyway, the Hawkeyes took advantage of you for one big play, in particular. And then the fan base jumped all over you.

In the Illinois game, you were back to playing close to the line of scrimmage. And I have to admit, you didn’t play well. You might have made 17 tackles, but Juice Williams had his way with you. You didn’t keep outside contain on the QB, and that gave the Illini some big chunks of yardage. But you know that, right? I mean, I’m sure the coaches didn’t have to tell you that you screwed up for you to realize it.

Since the Iowa game, fans have been all over you. You’ve been yo-yoing back and forth between FS and SS, and the coaches have been trying to figure out which position suits you best. The truth is, you’re probably not ready to play. At a lot of schools, you’d probably be sprinting down the field on special teams and standing on the sideline when the defense is on the field.

But these fans, they want perfection. See, when they were 18 and got a job at McDonald’s running the cash register, they messed up an order one time. So they immediately got fired and put on the fryer. But on their second day with the fryer, they left the fries in for too long and got moved to sweeping the floors. And they did just fine with that. And that’s how they learned that the only way to improve isn’t by repetition – it’s by being fired from job after job until they find one that they’re actually smart enough to do.

I hope you caught on to my sarcasm, because I realize that it must be tough for you. You’ve played four different positions for three different defensive coordinators and two different position coaches in three years. I want you to perform well, and I get frustrated when you don’t. But most of the people who attack you and say you’re washed up, they don’t understand. They figure that if Greg Robinson plugged you in at middle linebacker or punter, you could be good at those positions within a week. But the smart ones know better. Listen to the smart ones.

Sincerely,

Thunder

Carlos Brown taken down on first contact? Inconceivable!
Nope…wait a minute…yeah, that’s conceivable.

This was a day that will go down in history as . . . a loss to Illinois.

What I learned from Saturday was that Rich Rodriguez is not the savior of the Michigan program. He is not a genius who can make lemonade out of . . . I don’t know . . . used bicycle tires. He is a football coach who has huge flaws, especially when his team has huge flaws itself.

Illinois was a 1-win football team before Saturday, and that win didn’t even come against an FBS school. They beat the winningest program in college football history, and it wasn’t even close. Michigan’s inexperienced and untalented defense gave up 500 yards total, 377 of which came on the ground. Illinois had not one 100-yard rusher, but two (running backs Micheal Leshoure and Jason Ford) . . . and that’s not counting the 97 yards rushing from their nearly-benched starting quarterback, Juice Williams.

In last week’s game against Penn State, the offense seemed to blame. They consistently failed to give Michigan’s defense a chance. This week both sides of the ball seem to have regressed from earlier in the year. Michigan continues to turn the ball over on offense (3 fumbles) while failing to get turnovers on defense (uhhh . . . 0 fumbles, 0 interceptions). Prior to Saturday’s game, Michigan was 105th in the country. I’m assuming they’re even lower now, although I refuse to look up the stats.

I have to admit that I turned off the game with a few minutes left in the third quarter. I’m usually very calm when watching games on TV, but when free safety Mike Williams lost contain on Juice Williams for about the tenth time on the zone read option, I screamed “Stop doing that!” at the TV. I figured that meant I had had enough, so I shut it off. Mike Williams goes full speed all the time. Unfortunately, he’s often aimed in the wrong direction, despite racking up 16 tackles. Other leading tacklers this year include walk-on safety Jordan Kovacs and walk-on linebacker Kevin Leach, so when safeties and/or slow, undersized quasi-linebackers are notching the majority of your takedowns, something is wrong.

Speaking of something horribly wrong . . . 38-13. Against a one-win team. A one-win team that led by a score of only 14-13 at halftime.

Offensive game ball goes to…Roy Roundtree? Sure. I guess. I don’t know. The offense only mustered one touchdown and two field goals against a bad defense. Choices are slim.

Defensive game ball goes to…Brandon Graham. Seven tackles, one sack, one blocked punt.

Let’s see less of this guy on offense…Carlos Brown. I can’t believe Rich Rodriguez left Brown in on the goal line. That was the most ridiculous coaching decision from yesterday. Brown is fast, but he hasn’t broken a tackle since that one time in his freshman year when he was playing Madden and hit the truck stick. If Minor is healthy enough to come in on fourth down, he’s healthy enough to come in on first down. And if he’s not? Put Moundros in at fullback and Kevin Grady at tailback. Hell, put John McColgan in at fullback with Grady at tailback. Put Vincent Smith or Michael Shaw at tailback. Brown pussy-footed his way into the hole on 3rd down (maybe 2nd down) and I let out a loud sigh. That whole set of downs was asinine.

Let’s see less of this guy on defense…Michael Williams. I’m sorry for predicting that he would/should start at safety prior to the season. I thought he was better than this. He’s not. He was single-handedly responsible for Juice Williams’s rushing TD and about 50 more of Juice’s yards. My high schoolers can defend the zone read option better than he did. Put Troy Woolfolk back at strong safety, move Kovacs to free safety, and plug J.T. Floyd back in at cornerback. I’d rather have a bad cornerback than a bad safety.