The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/382426
There were still plenty of question marks as to what U-M actually had in the secondary, and a formidable opponent in Utah coming to the Big House, but the approach wasn't ex- pected to change. The healthy de- fensive backfield — one that was out there for only 30 minutes against Appalachian State, but shined none- theless in holding the Mountaineers scoreless in the first half and to 127 passing yards — has lofty goals and potential. "That's part of our aggressive at- titude we talked about," defensive coordinator Greg Mattison said after the Appalachian State win. "We took a real long, hard look at the second- ary a year ago — there were a lot of reasons for it, but we felt we played a little too far off and needed to chal- lenge more. "The thing we need to remember is with that, it's a little tougher out there and more challenging against a real skilled receiver. Things can hap- pen possibly with that, but I believe that's the way we want to do it, and we did play more aggressive." The Wolverines showed a bit more zone against the Irish when they lost Taylor, and the test was, indeed, much larger. The secondary didn't completely stray from its strategy, but it hurt them at times, especially on third down. The Irish were 7-of-15 on conversions and scored twice on third-down touchdown passes. The second came with only 34 seconds remaining in the first half, from 24 yards out against tight man cover- age.