One thought on Michigan's defense
You may recall that Don Brown unsuccessfully looked for a head coaching job for a couple of years while serving as Michigan's DC.
This may be have damaged recruiting. Why go to a school when you don't know who the DC will be? We are seeing the results now.
We also Pep Hamilton and Tim Drevno hang around while looking for jobs.
Nick Saban would never allow such a thing.
November 9th, 2020 at 9:46 AM ^
Sounds like a good reply (not its own posts) to one of the million, "Thoughts on defense" posts.
November 9th, 2020 at 9:46 AM ^
nick saban assistants frequently take HC jobs, or he takes ex-headcoaches as coordinators for 1-2 years while they recover
November 9th, 2020 at 10:06 AM ^
Nick does run a rehab program for several different addictions. Sarkisian for drinking. Kiffin for being a cheatin' punk. Kyle Flood for being Kyle Flood. Locksley for sexual harassment.
November 9th, 2020 at 9:52 AM ^
That was more than one thought on Michigan’s defense.
November 9th, 2020 at 9:52 AM ^
Let's glance at one of the top collegiate DC's resume (Dave Aranda) over the last decade:
2010-2011 Hawaii (DC)
2012 Utah State (DC)
2013-2015 Wisconsin (DC)
2016-2019 LSU (DC)
2020 Baylor (HC)
It was a tough recruiting sell for any of those programs to state that Aranda would be around long enough to see a typical recruit graduate.
November 9th, 2020 at 10:05 AM ^
Nick Saban is, I believe, on his third DC in the past 4 years. And the last DC "jumped" to the NFL to be a defensive line coach at Cleveland for a year before going to the Falcons for the same role a year later. Coaches looking to move up isn't a bad thing.
November 9th, 2020 at 10:30 AM ^
You can't blame recruiting for losing to Michigan State and Indiana
November 9th, 2020 at 10:36 AM ^
Harbaugh made a huge mistake not letting Brown go after the 2018 game. Recruiting was off, his refusal to adjust his defense to obvious 101 mistakes getting exposed and the total lack of owning his failures should have had Brown escorted out of the building.
Harbaugh should have let him go and either make Gmatt a codc or move on entirely with a new dc.
November 9th, 2020 at 10:49 AM ^
Boner.
November 9th, 2020 at 10:54 AM ^
There has to be more to it than that. Hinton....5 star isn't doing squat. Paye...projected 1st round pick...not doing much either. Hutchinson...4 star not doing too much. McGrone...high 4-star who had a great year last year...not so much this year. The list goes on and on. There are many good recruits simply not playing well.
November 9th, 2020 at 11:42 AM ^
The whole idea behind Don Brown was that his scheme could do less with more. He was successful at BC with limited talent and so one would infer that if he had better recruits, he would have an elite defense. He kind of did for awhile, to everyone not named Ohio State but then we got exposed on crossing routes and it's been a slow burn ever since. Our recruits that we have should be perfectly fine to run a competent defense. At least one that could beat MSU this year. Iowa stomped MSU and they have actual known cultural problems. At some point, we have to stop making excuses and trying to break down why it isn't working and just accept it isn't working regardless of reason.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
This is what I need Seth or Space Coyote or someone to explain. What the hell happened to Don Brown? Did he just get complacent once he had Mo Hurst, Winovich and Bush? Because he didn’t have those guys at BC and he did fine.
November 10th, 2020 at 10:07 AM ^
Crossing routes happened
November 9th, 2020 at 12:01 PM ^
Brent Venebles has also interviewed for head jobs and it hasn't hurt his recruiting. Don Brown's ego, arrogance and Harbaugh's support of him has damaged Michigan. Brown's stats are all built upon beating up on crappy teams.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
Nick Saban loses assistants all the time.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:58 PM ^
In terms of leadership-Jim Harbaugh will never ever be close to Nick Saban as a leader of a football program. He was beaten by Will Muschamp at South Carolina who is about to get the AXE
November 9th, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^
it's not like BC had stellar seasons when Don Brown was there
November 10th, 2020 at 1:36 AM ^
Yeah they did. I think they were the 4th ranked defence.
I also believe Brown came on a soft recommendation from Bill BelichicK.
November 10th, 2020 at 10:33 AM ^
that 4th ranked defense was on a team that went 3-9.
November 10th, 2020 at 10:44 AM ^
Doesn't that suggest they are pretty good? They lose all these games and are clearly on the field an awful lot yet the defense can still put up great numbers?
I'm not defending Don Brown ~ I'm defending the hire.
November 9th, 2020 at 2:30 PM ^
the whole league has the keys to beating this defense.
- They'll jump at hard counts
- the DBs hold so keep going at them and law of averages will kick in for a PI call
- They can't defend crossing routes
November 9th, 2020 at 7:03 PM ^
That's more than one thought.