(Big Ten) The Wolverines play on an artificial field (FieldTurf) at Michigan Stadium (seats 109,901)…nicknamed the “Big House” it is, in fact, the biggest stadium in college football!
- Brady Hoke is in his first year as head coach of Michigan (click here for their schedule). Why did he win the job? Most recently as head coach of San Diego State, he led the Aztecs to their first nine-win season since 1971 and prior to that as head coach of Ball State, he led the Cardinals to their first AP Top 25 appearance in school history (reached as high as 12). He replaces Rich Rodriguez who, in three seasons, won just 15 games and lost 22.
- Hoke will need to fix what former Head Coach Rich
Rodriguez destroyed: DEFENSE. Entering 2010 we were shocked to look back on what was perhaps the worst season defensively in Michigan’s history (allowing 393 yards of total defense). But last year Rich-Rod took it to another level. Michigan ranked 110th in the nation in total defense, giving up 450 yards per game! They ranked last in the Big Ten in Total Defense, Scoring Defense, Pass Defense and Turnover Margin. Scoring defense was particularly bad as Michigan opponents made the record books, scoring 179 more points than Michigan’s previous worst scoring defense had allowed. The good news is that it can’t get any worse for a unit that will be learning its fifth different defensive system in five years!
Head Coach Brady Hoke
- Who played running back for the Wolverines in 2010 and who will play this year? It was their Quarterback Denard Robinson who ran with the ball as many times as the top four running
Quarterback Denard Robinson
backs combined. And yet with one man responsible for Michigan’s offense, they showed impressive statistics with one of the top offenses in the nation. But this year they intend to have a running game with real running backs running the ball and not just their quarterback. This balance should help them. However, as of spring practice, no one had emerged as the go-to running back.
- Michigan will return to the Pro-Style Offense in 2011. Rich Rodriguez Michigan ran the Spread Option Offense. Quarterback Denard Robinson thrived in this system because it relies on a quarterback who is equally skilled at playing running back. However, Brady Hoke is implementing a Pro-Style Offense and brought over his Offensive Coordinator from San Diego State, Al Borges to effectuate it. According to Borges Michigan will “throw it down the field a lot. He also explained that the change for the receivers will be more intermediate cuts, but that they will still line up with three and four wideout sets as a spread team runs [spread teams “spread” across the field].” Denard Robinson will have to adjust from working exclusively out of the shotgun to taking snaps under center (not exclusively, but it will happen a lot). Luckily, this is the same offense Robinson ran in high school.
- How to fix the abysmal defense? Defensive Coordinator Greg Mattison will be focusing on the linemen. He says, “you can’t have a great defense unless you have a really good defensive line.” And on the next level of defense, Linebacker Jake Ryan (the redshirt freshman, not the hot jock from “Sixteen Candles”) stood out in the spring game by disrupting plays and intercepting back-up quarterback Devin Gardner for a touchdown. And in the secondary (which is actually the third line of defense) Carvin Johnson’s two interceptions in the spring game showed hope for the Wolverines.
- A good sign of things to come for Michigan: Hoke hates “Ohio.” Yes, he won’t refer to them as Ohio State—only as “Ohio.” His hatred started when he was an assistant for Michigan from 1995-2002. Even when he coached at Ball State or San Diego State, he refused to wear red—the color of both of those schools—because it is also the color of Ohio State. This is even more important considering the perception that Rich Rodriguez didn’t understand the importance of the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry.
