Fox Sports Bruce Feldman: Michigan has the #1 DL in the country
1. Michigan: Former Wolverines head coach Brady Hoke, an old D-line guy, did not leave the cupboard bare. This is a young group that blossomed last year and should be special in 2016. New DC Don Brown comes from Boston College and inherits a huge, talented group up front. And that could be a scary mix. "What he does from a schematic standpoint because he's so outside the box with the way that he packages his pressures where they're bringing five, six every snap trying to get ready for all that stuff in one week's time is a bitch," one veteran offensive line coach said. "The scheme will definitely help their production."
Seven of the Wolverines' eight in their two-deep across the front could also weigh 280-plus with only back-up sophomore DE Chase Winovich being under that size. The headliner of the group at this point is a versatile -- and agile -- 6-5, 303-pound Chris Wormley, who had a breakout season in 2015, notching 14.5 TFLs. Maurice Hurst and 6-6 Taco Charlton are a pair of 285-pounders who combined for 15 TFLs in 2015. The most underrated of the group is 300-pound senior Ryan Glasgow, their anchorman who was a force in 2015 before going down with a shoulder injury the last month of the season. How valuable was Glasgow? The Wolverines allowed 2.42 yards per carry before he was hurt and 5.22 after he went down. "He's pretty salty," one Big Ten offensive line coach said. Glasgow, along with 315-pound sophomore Bryan Mone, who missed last season with a broken leg, will make it difficult to run against Michigan. The other name to remember is Rashan Gary, the 6-5, 295-pound uber recruit from New Jersey who several college coaches say is the best big D-lineman to come into college in a few years. Gary's size, agility and versatility should be a great fit for Michigan.
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Plenty of talent, plenty of depth, fresh new faces at the 5 star level. It's going to be fun to watch!
Why diss Feldman, when an article like this, helps recruiting and our upward trajectory? Would you rather have writers sandbag us instead? It was a well written article, and spot-on... you should applaud it.
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...I still have a sinking feeling that tOSU's gonna drop 40+ on them. Again.
I hate this.
By the time Michigan played OSU last year UM was missing 3 starters on the DL (Ojemudia, Mone, Glsgow). Now how do you think OSU's defense would do without Bosa, Washington, and Tommy Schutt on their DL?
Secondly, I think it's clear Durkin had no clue how to defend the spread option. Utah, Minnesota, IU, and OSU all moved the ball on his defense with that option run game. He simply was too stubborn or not bright enough to adjust his scheme. Don Brown isn't going to have that problem. 11 OSU opponents did better defending their run game than Michigan did. That wasn't a talent issue, it was a schematic disaster.
checks out.
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in the hat. Generic hat. If only we knew.
In addition, while we have "joked" about it on here a lot about him having crabcakes on his mind, I am sure that the new HC gig did play some role in his preparation for the week and was no doubt a distraction if nothing else. I am not saying we would have shut them out, but he certainly looked over his head and the HT adjustments, if any, did not help.
If there is one thing I give Brady Hoke for it's his preparation for the OSU game. Sure, we were pretty much unprepared for every other game, but I always felt like we went into The Game ready to brawl and with a good game plan while he was coach. It was like he prepared for that game all year and forgot about all the others.
And I think MaizeHaze is right. Durkin had no clue how to stop Indiana either, and that was before his Maryland interview (I think). After that game I knew deep down that OSU was going to kick our asses.
Ohio State crushed Notre Dame last year without those exact 3 players you named: Bosa, Washington, and Schutt (Bosa was ejected for targeting in the first quarter).
We lost last year to OSU because they were better and had a better game plan. There's no shame in admitting that, and the NFL Draft backed that up. I don't think Glasgow, Mone, or Ojemudia would have changed that.
As for this year and the person you were responding to, well, I don't have that sinking feeling at all with Harbaugh at the helm. I don't know if we win this year because Ohio State is still a talented football team, but I have faith our team and coaches are going to look a lot different than last year in the Game.
Game's probably closer if Glasgow could play, since the way to beat them was to force them to throw it downfield at our very good secondary. But if you can't stop the run, they aren't going to bother throwing it much.
And yeah, they were loaded with talent. How they turtled themselves into losing to an MSU team playing without its QB is still beyond my comprehension.
good hands AND a power stache
This is the point where I bang my head against the wall.
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Yeah. They're just really, really good. They have an all-time great college coach and ridiculous talent levels. As long as they recruit well (they are) and Urban is there (no 'health' issues yet), they're going to be one of the top five teams in the country. Their offense, especially, will be outstanding, and with the way the rules are consistently shifted in favor of offenses, they will be putting up points.
We're just going to have to be better. Harbaugh had a super season last year. Vegas and pundits have us in the national championship discussion pre-season. All signs point to this being a fantastic rivalry over the next decade.
Ohio st 481 yds
Minnesota 469 yds
Indiana 519 yds
Looks like scheme trumps talent.
Ohio State beat Notre Dame's JV team. By the end of the year ND had lost almost 10 starters on both sides of the ball.
I assume you also hold Florida in the Whatever Bowl to this same standard.
Pretty well. His defense is designed to stop them - and they have. While Clemson beat BC last year, they didn't have an easy time moving the ball or scoring. Brown will be just fine operating against the spreadd offenses this year...
If Brown can slow a Clemson team down with pretty good talent, he'll put up a better fight than D.J. did last year. He has the top DL and a top group of seniors in the back pretty much. He is the linebackers coach as well I believe so I'd think he'll have Pep, big play McCray and Gedeon kicking asphalt sooner than later. Ohio better hope they have a running back step up and produce fast because if he isn't close to the talent level as Elliot, they are in trouble. I don't care who they have in the ranks. They lost some damn skilled guys who have been main producers off of that side of the ball. Book it!!
34 points and 532 yards of offense.
Your snark aside, that's what most are concerned about - the rushing aspect. But we'll also ignore how BC's offense contributed to that, what with five 3 and outs, the longest offensive drive lasting 3:19, two drives exceeding 20 yards, 10 drives of 20 yards or less, and gaining a grand total of 241 yards on 62 plays.
Has/Had no Offense, the D was on the field like the RR days here and they had the number #1 D in the nation.
Thats one hell of an achievment.
that he spent two days in Maryland that week either. . .
You mean like when they dominated Notre Dame while missing all three of those guys? Probably like that.
There is a reason for depth charts.
And there's no doubt, injuries or no, we wouldn't have won last year. There was too much well coached talent on OSU and our well coached talent had only been well coached for a year. That's not the case this year. Not promising a win, but it's not going to be like last year. No way, no how. And for MSU? We're going to tear them a new one so bad they'll never be constipated again...
There's a difference between cautious restraint and lunatic, unhinged, apocalyptic pessimism.
The only way OSU drops 40 on us is if Gary, Mone, Taco, Glasgow, and Wormley all break their legs, Harbaugh leaves mid-season for the Raiders, and GERG is hired as head coach.
Seek ye help. There be meds.
I don't often neg people, but when I do, it's for stupid shit like this.
I would not mind some NSFW UFRs myself that involved some very good defense, come to think of it. From the little that has come out of the Fort regarding Brown and how he has been getting everyone on board, I can say that it sounds like watching opponents get first downs might be amusing, let alone watching them attempt to score.
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