The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/299859
"I can remember teams at Canisius, where all of a sudden we had a transfer, or you have five seniors and now who's on the team? Who is coming back, and how do we build this thing? "It's a different model, but the same versatility you have to have as a staff. All right, where are our holes? How do we plug them? And I'm so glad we have the guys re- turning that we have." Around this time last year, Michi- gan haters were rubbing their hands in glee over the departures of Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr., essentially saying the Wolverines' rise was over. Eleven months later (even with the injury-forced loss of McGary), Michigan won the Big Ten by three games and stood a bounce of the ball away from a second straight Final Four. So while a little patience might be in order while Beilein bakes a new on-court cake, tears are a waste. He's got the recipe, and potential ingredients are witnessing the out- come. *** Michigan's offense under new coordinator Doug Nussmeier will remain a work in progress, right through fall camp and into the 2014 season. A defense that figures to up the ante on aggressiveness could buy it the time it needs for a leap forward. U-M head coach Brady Hoke ac- knowledged in a roundtable with reporters April 18 that the Wolver- ines couldn't pull off last fall what he envisions as the Michigan de- fense. "I don't think there's any doubt that we were more conservative than we would love to be," Hoke said. "Part of that is, if you're going to play man coverages, if you're go- ing to bring five, if you're going to do some of those things and play that way, you need to be pretty tech- nically sound when you're looking at playing man coverage. "We were a zone team. In 2011, I think we were much more aggres- sive in some of the things we did." The development of veteran cor- nerbacks in redshirt junior Blake Countess and senior Raymon Tay- lor should allow the Wolverines to feature a look closer to what they all want, Hoke insisted. That's good news that could filter all the way through the defense and potentially help the developing offense as well. *** Kurt Golder has built an abso- lute monster in men's gymnastics at Michigan, his crew becoming the first U-M program in 44 years to capture back-to-back national championships. His star senior, Sam Mikulak, earned all-around national champion honors for the second straight year. It's what every Michigan program seeks — to be the best. Golder and Mikulak, right now, represent the gold standard in maize and blue. ❑ Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @JB _ Wolverine.