The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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On the overall defense: "The thing they did well was they kept their safeties really deep and their corners were really physical at the line of scrimmage, and when you do both of those things it forces you to focus on a lot of shorter, underneath routes and you have to chip away to score. We're a home-run team, but we had a hard time going deep on them. We had success with our running game, but even then it's not the 20-yarders that change field position quickly. "The thing with their defense, though, was they didn't take a lot of chances, which is good and bad. You never really had to worry about throwing a pick because their defensive backs didn't really gamble and move on the ball. And they weren't real good at stripping it either. They really ran sort of like a version of a prevent defense all game long, and they let you make the mistakes that eventually ended your drive. It was effective enough." On redshirt junior linebacker Jake Ryan: "Versatile. We were watching film and our coach stopped it and said, 'Where's he at?' And it took you a second to realize he was lined up at defensive end. Then he hits the play button, and it's like the guy gets shot out of a cannon. He has speed, and he just has this ability to know where the football is and he attacks it. "On one play I was staying in to be an extra blocker and our quarterback told me, 'Whatever you do, make sure you find him before the snap because he's the guy that will be coming for me.' We had a combo block and so we took him out of the play initially, but we ended up scrambling and who comes from across the field to make the play — [Ryan]. He's their best defensive player." On the linebacker corps: "No one really stood out [other than Ryan]. That's not a knock on them, it's just when you think about the best linebacker units in the Big Ten, you think Michigan State, Penn State … Michigan just isn't there yet, or wasn't last year. They were solid, but nothing spectacular." On defensive end Frank Clark: "We saw some film of him from early in the season and then some stuff from the last few games, and he was a different player. When we saw him, he was motivated. He played pissed off, and he was really a force. "We blocked him one-on-one and that was a mistake, and then we began putting our tight end on that side, One anonymous Big Ten sometimes our fullback, but like I said, he played pissed opponent noted that junior off in our game and it was like, 'I'm gonna get your quar- defensive end Frank Clark terback and there is nothing you can do about it.' He could be primed for a big might have been the best defensive end in the confer- season if he can match ence that we played, but it didn't seem like he did that the intensity he played every week. Some guys it takes time to get that consis- with at the end of the tency. If he can play 12 games like he did against us, he'll 2012 campaign. photo by lon horwedel get 20 sacks."