Michigan Spring Game Review: Old School Is New Again
Wink Martindale brings his face-melter defense to Ann Arbor and one particular concept stood out, the use of a Safety Trap 2 pressure versus the 'heavy' personnel used by the Wolverine offense.
Take Spring Games with a grain of salt. These ‘contests’ are highly curated and controlled. Much like an NFL preseason game, the scheme is surface-deep, and the real game plans won’t be shown until the whistle blows to start the first real contest in Week 1.
Still, what is illustrated in these games is the direction and overall philosophy of what each side of the ball wants to accomplish. Michigan is about to go through a major transition period, not just because Jim Harbaugh is now in the NFL. The entire landscape of college football and the Big 10 is shifting.
Beginning in 2007 with the retirement of long-time Head Coach Llyod Carr, the Wolverines’ football program began to slip. Rich Rodriguez brought the Spread from West Virginia to Ann Arbor and was an abject failure, going 15-22 in three years with one measly bowl game. Following him would be a ‘Michigan Man’ in Brady Hoke, who had worked at the school from ‘95 to ‘02.
In his first season, Hoke won 11 games but subsequently won less every year afterward until he was let go following the ‘14 season, where he went 5-7. The following year, the Wolverines hired Harbaugh to resurrect the program. Harbaugh has been known to quickly turn programs around, even if his style is a little unorthodox.
His first order of business was to hire a defensive coordinator, and DJ Durkin, who was working under Will Muschamp in Florida, was selected. Following the ‘15 campaign, Durkin would leave to take the Maryland Head Coach position. In only a year, Harbaugh had to reconfigure his defense.
With Durkin’s vacancy, Harbaugh selected Don Brown, who was at Boston College then. Brown’s philosophy is simple, ‘Solve your problems with aggression,’ which is exactly what the Wolverines did. Brown’s pressure package and affinity for Cover 1 matched the brutality at which Harbaugh wanted to play.
The defense was elite in Brown’s first two seasons, finishing in the top 10 in DFEI, a metric similar to the NFL’s DVOA that measures overall efficiency. Beginning in ‘18, the defense would dip into the teens and eventually bottom out during the 2020 Covid season at 90th overall (BCFToys). The honeymoon was over, and Harbaugh felt he needed to make a change.
Brown’s overaggressive philosophy eventually was taken advantage of by the rest of the Big 10. During Brown’s tenure as DC, the league shifted to become more spread-friendly, similar to what was happening in the SEC. With few coverage tools, Brown’s defenses couldn’t adjust to the evolution within the Big 10. Harbaugh saw this and shifted philosophies.
The shift is where the recent trading of coaches begins between Jim at Michigan and John in the NFL with the Ravens. Jim Harbaugh wanted a forward-thinking younger coach who could come into the fray and realign the defense in Ann Arbor. John offered his young LB coach, Mike Macdonald. In his first year, Macdonald had the Wolverines back to elite status on defense.
Macdonald’s time was short-lived in Michigan. John was going through a similar transition on defense with the Ravens and wanted Macdonald back in Baltimore. ‘Change is inevitable, and growth is required,’ John commented at his first press conference following the Ravens Week 18 loss to the Steelers. For several years, the defenses in Baltimore were sinking to the bottom of the league, and Harbaugh knew he needed to make a change. This is where the story comes full circle.
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