The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/279958
MICHIGAN FOOTBALL guy out there. Two weeks from now? We'll see. "Physically, Shane is as good as there is. Mechanically, is he as good as he should be? Probably not. There are things in drops and ball exchange and things like that we need to pay a little more attention to." POSITION COACHES HAVE NEW RESPONSIBILITIES Head coach Brady Hoke changed offensive coordinators in the offsea- son, welcoming Doug Nussmeier after releasing Al Borges, but on the surface it appeared he was ready to let the defense stand pat. However, that did not prove true; Hoke announced significant changes, with Mark Smith moving from line- backers to defensive line, Greg Mat- tison taking over linebackers after previously coaching defensive ends, while splitting the secondary be- tween Curt Mallory (safeties, previ- ously the entire defensive backfield) and Roy Manning (cornerbacks, pre- viously outside linebackers). "It really is something I thought about for a year, probably," Hoke said. "Mark Smith has 15 years expe- rience coaching defensive line. En- abling Greg to work from the middle of the defense — his presence there makes it a little easier for him to co- ordinate from there. "I'm still going to do some work with the defensive line with Mark, and with the offenses you face to- day, I think the ability to have two guys in the back end is important. Roy coached O-Line for a year when he was here as a graduate assistant and did a great job. He coached run- ning backs at Cincinnati. He played linebacker. Those defensive instincts are very similar, and breaking up the secondary is really good for us." Mattison coached the Baltimore Ravens linebackers in 2008 before taking over as the defensive coor- dinator there. According to his offi- cial bio on MGoBlue.com he has not coached linebackers at the collegiate level. Smith worked with U-M's line- backers from 2011-13 but coached the defensive line at Indiana State from 1988-2002. Mallory was responsible for the entire secondary in his first three seasons with the Maize and Blue and then at Ball State in 2000, Central Michigan in 2001 and Illinois from 2002-09. Manning has never coached defen- sive backs before, previously work- ing with U-M's linebackers (2013) and offensive linemen (2011), and Cincinnati's running backs in 2012. He was a defensive assistant with the Bearcats in 2010. "If a guy is a football coach and has a passion like Roy does, is intelligent like he is, coaching is coaching," Mat- tison said. "We wouldn't have made that move if we didn't have the ut- most confidence that was what we needed to do." KEITH HEITZMAN MOVES TO TIGHT END When Michigan announced that sophomore Jake Butt had suffered