The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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game plan for, but that's the way it went. He drew double teams and was very productive when he was healthy. I am interested to see how he comes back next year. Ray: The biggest success story defen- sively has to be the three straight shut- outs. Any time you can have multiple shutouts in a season is remarkable, but the Michigan defense did it three times in a row. The defense came up huge in close games to preserve the win for Michi- gan, in particular the Minnesota and Indiana games. Michigan really buck- led down in the red zone and goal line, holding offenses to field goals instead of touchdowns. The Wolverine: What was the biggest disappointment on defense? Simpkins: The lack of effective line- backer play. That really hurt us at times in relationship to stopping the run against teams like Minnesota, Indiana and even Ohio State that we didn't think would be able to run the ball that well against us. It goes back to talent level and play- ing with the guys you have as opposed to guys you want. Not saying our tal- ent was bad, but they were the best Michigan had and they played to a level that allowed us to be a very good, but maybe not elite. Copenhaver: Unfortunately, as a for- mer linebacker, I have to admit it was linebackers. They're great kids and smart players — they have some in- tangible qualities that enabled them to be formidable linebackers — but over- all the linebacker play didn't progress the way it needed to, and that reared its ugly head when we played some read-option teams. To stop a read-option team, you have to have extremely athletic line- backers that can get off blocks, and it just seemed with our linebackers they did not get better like all the other posi- tion groups did defensively. Van Bergen: Giving up big runs to Indiana and Ohio State. In any game, at any point, the Michigan defense has to be able to stop the run. I don't care who we play or where, but we weren't able to get that done, and that led to a game we lost to Ohio State and a game where we almost lost to Indiana. Being able to stop the run regardless of personnel, late in the year, that's what a defense hangs its hat on so giv- ing up the big runs was disappointing because we had such a stout run de- fense up until that point. The Wolverine: Who was your team MVP? Skene: Jake Rudock. Rudock stepped into the program and led the team be- yond my expectations. He did a great job. Simpkins: Rudock. He was the dif- ference-maker between that team be- ing successful or not being successful. Having so much pressure being a one- year guy — the moment he came here, he was being asked to be the starter and was being asked to know this of- fense inside and out, and run it — I have a lot of respect for the way that guy competed and performed. Copenhaver: Jake Rudock. I think the most outstanding player was Jabrill Peppers, but my MVP would have been Rudock.