If Harbaugh is still on whatever meds that turned him from a man obsessed to a man whose barely breathing this won't matter one bit.

Why couldn’t coach have adapted and recruit better! Had the pleasure of meeting him and I came away feeling he was a really nice man but this business is all about results. Thank you Dr Blitz, May your orange mustache never be forgotten. 

It was time. The D fell off a cliff, and poor recruiting has set us back on that side of the ball for a few years going forward. It's unfortunate that we are doing all this coach-changing in a significant off-season for transfers, which we really need to focus on.

I’d take a Mattison style defense again in a heartbeat. His bend but don’t break style that gave FGs in lieu of TDs and was tenacious in the red zone was effective. Even against good teams. At that time is was our offense that couldn’t break 30.

It wasn't just the fact that Ohio State lit him up like a Christmas display 2 years running. It was also that once Ohio State did that once, the rest of college football had the blueprint of how to solve the Michigan defense, and Michigan could not, and would not adjust. The last two bowl games, and the last two Wisconsin debacle added fuel to the fire. 

This year's disaster of a "defense", from DL to secondary, sealed his fate. 

I think he will go on and be a really great coordinator elsewhere. Despite that, I get moving on. I really liked him. The recruiting failures doomed him here. You have to move on from Nua. The Dline has been meh for a bit now 

What did him in was Solomon transferring and no viable DTs. Trying to make a guy like Kemp who'd have been a star linebacker, was the wrong move.    His real success was with Hokes and Durkin recruits, both of which werent intended for this defense.

This move (like Harbaugh’s struggles) makes me 2nd guess everything. I was sure D.B.  was the greatest thing since sliced bread when we hired him. Wrong. Again.

I was definitely in the Don Brown had to go because opposing teams had figured him out camp, but if all the changes on the staff occur on the defensive side of the ball the elephant in the room is that offense has still been the bigger problem under Harbaugh. 6 years and nothing but mediocre to bad offenses have been produced. Not one close to great. At the very least the defense produced a couple of defenses you can argue were championship level. Feels like putting a band aid on a half off limb to think shaking up the defensive staff will change the overall trajectory. Though I can't be unhappy about the move either since  it needed to happen.

While I know it was time to move on, I can't help but be a tad melancholy about this.

I'd hoped that his coaching with aggression, getting to the QB and shutting down the run-game were the cornerstone elements to Dr. Blitz.  There were some brilliant moments but, unfortunately the times the defense were scorched were just too glaring to overcome. It was as if he could not unlock/adapt the players and schemes when things went awry during a game.  Add in this miserable season & somebody had to fall.  

However, - you gimme a coach that is nick-named "Dr. Blitz" who says things like "solve your problems with aggression" and "we're not leaving this field without a win"..... I'd tell you, that's my guy.  

I just liked this guy in maize and blue.  I don't know why.  I hope he doesn't end up at another Big Ten school that we face. I'd just have a bad feeling about it..... Revenge is a dish best served cold. 

Go Blue.  

Average to poor defense in big games and major roster gaps on D helping pave the way for this awful season.  Two big reasons for his dismissal.  I can't disagree with the move.

By all accounts, he is a really good person and cares greatly about his players as people. Too many of these posts have had an undercurrent of joy that he was fired. It might have been time for him to leave but it is a sad time.

Seems like we saw the slide off with the departure of Mathison.  Is that possible?

The 2017 class really came back to haunt this defensive staff, especially on the d line. Aubrey Solomon, Deron Irving-Bey, James Hudson and Corey Malone-Hatcher all flaking out from here. The corners and safeties in the 17 and 18 classes were also big misses. Brown got on this kick about recruiting these tall, lanky cornerbacks and it never really panned out too well. 

This year everything we suspected about DB was exposed. Lack of practice with a lot of new starters didn't help, nor did Ambry opting out and Hutch getting hurt.

What I'll compare DB to is to Larry Coker, who inherited an incredible batch of talent across the board as Miami coach when Butch Davis jumped to the new Browns. For the first two years, he was a genius. Miami 2001 team may have been the greatest collection of talent the world has ever seen. They got boned by the refs on the flag from heaven in 2002 vs. OSU otherwise back-to-back NCs.

The problem was once HE had to recruit and develop the next batch, Miami slid into a malaise for years to come (Randy Shannon, Al Golden, etc.) 

DB's D in 2016 was incredible and worthy of praise but was made up of Hoke recruits. I'll give him a lot of credit for keeping us in The Game in 2017 with JOK at QB. 

The real killer was experiencing the crossing pattern and being picked to death by Indy in 2018 by Peyton Ramsey and then not using that real world experience to prepare for the OSU game. That was a great moment to see what OSU would do live (with better talent - yes, but the same damn scheme), but we looked totally clueless even though we had seen a reasonable facsimile thereof the week before. 

DB was to defense like Mouse Davis was to offense. Great schemes, impossible to stop - until people figured it out and had a game plan and the talent to do it. With Mouse is was well-timed blitzes that rattled guys like Andre Ware plus a DL that could keep the QB in the pocket.

With DB, we were meshed, criss-crossed, picked, through over our heads, etc.

I do recall SMU in 2018 bringing in a back up QB and running the same kind of spread 'em out that Indy and OSU later did that year. We were always a step behind - the main thing was that the opponents afterwards (UW, PSU, MSU) didn't have the QB and talent to do the same so we thought things were fixed.

DB not a complete failure like Nussmeier was for Brady, but the ending was ugly

It’s not a panacea.

Wish him all the best. His groups were absolutely elite for years. Sad to see it end like this.

Can we at least get a THANK YOU to coach Brown for all the good he did here and the excitement he brought to the defense?

Seriously, imagine this is your uncle or your friend or something. 

File me in the camp that he had to go but it’s still sad. I remember Brian penning a blog about RR when he was fired - these things either end on the 50 yard line with confetti or with a press release... 

He did well until for whatever reason he didn’t - still wish him the best. He was inches away in 2016 from being a legend.

Good guy. He gave his best to Michigan for 5 seasons.  For that I’m thankful, but it was time to move on.  The downward trajectory was too hard to ignore.  The current talent level of the defense is woeful.  And there’s no signs the defensive recruiting is getting better.  

In fairness, someone had to cover him and I'm not sure we had anyone better for the job at the time. Devin Bush was really green in early-mid 2017.

Mike couldn't do it, but neither could the OSU linebackers or anyone else ford that matter.

I just don't know about this.  He had some really good D's over the past few years he was here but couldn't seem to get top quality  CB's / DB's.  Players have to make plays and I saw players in the defensive backfield not making plays or made bad decisions which put them out of position.  We lost a lot of talent on both sides of the ball over the past couple years and the defensive line this year didn't not get near enough pressure.

I for one appreciate his time here and I would have loved to have played for this guy.  I just liked his fire and his drive. I believe he always gave 100% and I think guys liked playing for him.

I am personally sorry to see him go.  I know the whole "slant" thing will always be his failure to most and not doing more "zone" but I liked the aggressiveness of his style of D I just wish we would of had the upper talent on the outsides and at Safety to truly make it all work. 

I hope we find someone as good or better.  If we don't get our offensive issues fixed and be way more consistent on that side of the ball no DC will do good here with their D on the field tired out of their minds because the offense isn't scoring or is always off the field. 

Thanks DB ..... I hope you find success on your next venture. 

Brown’s defenses were aggressive to a fault, over-pursuing, out of position, not tackling well.  The next DC needs to teach disciplined ball, play your responsibility, toughness.  
 

And DBs must look back for the ball more consistently like Woodson said at half of MSU game.  I put that on Zordich.  Woodson for secondary coach?

Seems like the wheels have fallen off of our football program. When Brown was hired I thought we were fortunate that one of the best DC wanted coach under JH. But after the 2016 season, we slowly got to observe how teams had adapted to his style of rush defense leaving DBs alone with talented WRs. Then we got to see the lack of DL talent and how team could run us over. Too bad Brown and Harbaugh did not recruit defensive players like Hoke did. Taking a look at our defense, it will take years to rebuild. May be by year 3 of Harbaugh extension, we will have a good defense again and get 10 wins and challenge for 2nd place in the B1G.

Wait—didn't I read a long, detailed post yesterday about how UM doesn't announce the firing of anybody until they've had time to line up a new job?