The Wolverine

December 2011

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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not going to fix some of the problems we have on defense." In his defense, he wasn't alone in his thinking. ESPN analyst and former Ohio State linebacker Chris Spielman was so confident the Wol- verines wouldn't put up a fight in Columbus last year he went all in with the bulletin board material in the days leading up to the game. "I don't think they recruited the talent, because look at the upper- classmen that they have," he said. "They're all great kids … they prac- tice hard, they play hard, and they're tough. But it comes down to one thing when you're talking about playing at a high level like Michigan is used to playing at, and that's tal- ent. And they have zero on defense. One kid, the [Mike] Martin kid." Kovacs, meanwhile, notched a sack and two tackles for loss in finishing with four stops against the Buckeyes. If Lombardi had been alive to see it, he might have given Kovacs, head coach Brady Hoke and his staff a lit- tle nod of appreciation. MAKE THE DIFFERENCE COACHING HELPED The improvement might have been stunning to perhaps everyone but Hoke and his assistants. Michigan's first-year head coach didn't have numbers in mind when he listed goals for his inaugural team — he just wanted his kids to win. He was no doubt aware it would take an up- grade on the defensive side of the ball to win any games, let alone 10. Hoke made pulling good friend Senior defensive tackle Mike Martin "It's fun to be able to see where we've gone from the begin- ning of the season to now. It's just a constant reminder of the improvement we've made every day." Then he added the insult that would still ring loudly in Ann Arbor a year later. "Other than that, a lot of guys would be nice little subs at Indiana." Spielman later took an apparent The gaudy numbers serve as a re- minder of just how far the Michigan defense had fallen. The Wolverines were a spot better than Duke and two better than Wake Forest in scor- ing defense — great if you're talking basketball, but not if the subject is football. It had gotten so bad last year, in fact, that Rodriguez, exasperated af- ter fielding a number of questions about his defense at one press con- ference, pulled out one of the most memorable (and now infamous) quotes of his tenure: "Vince Lombardi could come, too," he said of the former Green Bay Packers legendary coach, "and it's shot at starting strong safety Jordan Kovacs when he added Michigan's future philosophy would include, "Are we going to have walk-ons from outside of Toledo be our start- ing safety or are we going to get kids who can play? "Everybody is saying, 'They're all young; they're all coming back,'" he added. "Well, yeah, they're all com- ing back. It's the worst defense in the NCAA that they're all coming back to. Is that so exciting for you?" A year later, many of the same kids were on the field securing a 40-34 victory over Spielman's Buck- eyes, one that capped a 10-2 season. Though they didn't play their best game of the year, they made the big plays at opportune times, including a game-clinching, fourth-and-six in- terception by sophomore defensive back Courtney Avery that started the celebration. They stood ninth nation- ally in scoring defense (17.17 points given up per game) even after OSU's offensive outburst, and 16th in total defense (317.58 yards allowed per outing) after 12 games. and colleague Greg Mattison away from the Baltimore Ravens his first priority, a coordinator hire some would say was one of his most im- portant. The entire defensive staff, though — from linebackers coach Mark Smith, secondary coach Curt Mallory and defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery down to the sup- port staff — jelled remarkably well, sharing a common goal under Mat- tison and Hoke's leadership. Chemistry among the defensive staff was lacking in Rodriguez's three years on the job in which he went through two coordinators. There was simply no cohesion, one of Rodri- guez's biggest failures in his three years. That wouldn't be the case with the next regime. "Obviously, Greg's very impor- tant," Hoke noted. "But that whole staff, that side of the ball, the way those kids were hungry to learn the technique and the fundamentals, how those guys on that side of the ball did a great job learning that defense … they all did a nice job of playing defense and learning and building together." The trust between the coaches and the players "is everything," said for- mer Michigan linebacker Ron Simp- kins, who has dissected every game DECEMBER 2011 THE WOLVERINE 25

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