Youth, depth still a concern on Michigan's defense
Defensive coordinator Greg Robinson didn’t need eight spring practices to identify Michigan’s biggest defensive weakness. It’s the same thing it was last year - a lack of dependable, experienced depth.
Michigan returns eight starters who logged heavy minutes on one of the Big Ten’s worst defenses last year, but Robinson is working hard to expand his playing group this spring.
The Wolverines have seven spring practices left, including the spring game April 17.
“I think you got to play 18, 19 players,” Robinson said Thursday. “I don’t know that we really felt good about playing 18 or 19 players last year. We played them at times because to try to play at the tempo we play at, you got to have that. And that’s what we’re striving for right now.”
More often than not, Michigan relied on its 11 defensive starters last year with few substitutions. Greg Banks, Renaldo Sagesse and Will Campbell saw some backup time at defensive line, but in the linebacking corps and secondary, coaches never seemed to trust their reserves.
Robinson said depth issues popped up during spring practice last year. He recalled moving Troy Woolfolk from cornerback to safety midway through the spring after looking at the depth chart and saying, “Wow, we got a problem here.”
Woolfolk eventually moved back to cornerback after Boubacar Cissoko was kicked off the team last October, and is one of the few known commodities in Michigan’s secondary now.
“I said to you prior to the season, last spring and summer, I like to think I told you that the biggest concern I had was depth,” Robinson said. “Quite frankly, that’s really what came to hurt us. We had inexperience, we had some issues with some personnel and ... really that’s what it came down to. We didn’t have a lot of depth.”
Banks, Sagesse and Campbell have continued to make strides this spring, with the later two getting extended reps while nosetackle Mike Martin recovers from offseason shoulder surgery.
Banks is penciled in as a starting defensive end, and Robinson said he’s showing more leadership than ever before. Sagesse is up to 285 pounds after playing last year in the high 270s, and Campbell, a sophomore going through his second spring practice, looks like a different player after struggling with conditioning and leverage last year.
“He’s different than he was last spring, oh yeah,” Robinson said. “He was still thinking about the prom. He’s different now.”
Questions remain, however, in the back eight, where Michigan is young and could rely on several incoming freshmen not yet on campus.
At cornerback, sophomore J.T. Floyd and redshirt freshman Justin Turner are vying for the starting spot opposite Woolfolk. Another redshirt freshman, converted receiver Cam Gordon, has made strides at free safety while his competition, sophomore Vlad Emilien, recovers from a knee injury. And coaches remain hopeful that sophomore Kenny Demens can push his way into the playing group at linebacker.
“We have some guys that got a little bounce and they’re having fun playing football,” Robinson said. “They’re puppies and we’re on them, but I see them coming along.”
Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
Comments
Daryl
Mon, Apr 5, 2010 : 1:21 p.m.
What's going to hurt UM's defense this year will be lack of experience. Last year, they had problems with depth and experience...well, this year they will have depth but the depth won't have any experience. There are a lot of incoming and young players that are great athletes and will be able to help out, but they won't be as good as they can because of the lack of experience. I'm thinking by midseason the defense will start to gel and look like a real defense. If they can just get passed UConn and ND, I look for good things to come from UM next year
believeinM
Sun, Apr 4, 2010 : 9:47 p.m.
why does rr and his staff get the heat for all these defensive issues?? if anybody did there research you would see that this secondary has been terrible for years and the biggest reason is because of carrs lack of depth in recruiting in the secondary: quick example- 2004 jamar adams, charles stewart, and trent 2005: brandon harrison, johhny sears (we all know what happened to him) 2006: stevie brown (wasnt much of a safety and seemed to fit best in rr's system)2007: donovan warren, troy woolfolk, and mike williams 2008: brandon smith, jt flloyd and cissoko. note: these are the only players carr recruited for the secondary for the given years. 2009 rr's first: emilien, cam gordon, mike jones, justin turner and adrian witty. 2010: courtney avery, cullen christian, demar dorsey, carvin johnson, marvin johnson, terrance talbott, and ray vinopal. and with 2 already verbally commited for next year seems to me like everyone should stop bashing this guy. lloyd signed 12 guys in 5 years for the entire secondary.....rr 12 in 2 years. he was setup for failure when he took over and i dont care what anybody says when lloyd was at the helm we was wayyy to conservative and never fully used all of his athletes to their full potential and yes they had some good teams but teams that were preseason top 10 if not top 5 and NEVER lived up to it except in 2006 when they still came up short, all im trying to say is there is going to be a new swagger at michigan and rr is going to work these guys to death and coach them up to fit his system, he has shown his ability to recruit high profile guys with lots of speeeed on offense and defense and wants to prove all his doubters wrong. these guys are buying into this system and are having fun working hard with a chip on their shoulder. New stadium (By far the best of the best may i add), indoor practice facility, dave brandon as our new ad.....and oh yeah Devin Gardner WOW IM EXCITED GO BLUE!!!
mgobluegold
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 9:44 p.m.
Long story... but good, we got you in the desert and Terry in the snow... one thing stood out in your story is the Michigan flag around the US... without trying to brag on us like others do, it is true that people all over America do recognize the M and feel a part, too bad though a few recognize the M in struggle times and want to rag on us... keep good stories coming..
PortageLkBlu
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 2:30 p.m.
Relax boys and girls the season hasn't started and like all other seasons as you all know you can throw all your pre-season predictions out the window look, you know you rely your season on this great player or that great player, in one game injuries can wipe out your blue chippers and I know you all have seen that time and time again. Look at states current basketball situation. Also, you all know that a wealth of talent can come out of the woodwork that no one could have predicted. Like I say I live in the California desert and out here there are actually zealots that predict that California is going to fall in the ocean now does that affect Mich. football no way you say but hold on hoss think about it, if Mich. walks through the 10 well golly gee no Rose Bowl it's in the ocean, get it boys and girls it's silly to try and predict an upcoming season even if you have great talent just ask Texas when their QB went down against Alabama in the title game Whoops, end of game one player even if it was the QB and the game was over. Right now the name of the game for Mich is 2 things, one more experience playing together in RR's scheme and two, keeping the boys healthy. Now as far as me being foolish enough to predict the upcoming season I will predict those 2 things. Ask any military man about predictions and they will tell you and so will I from experience trying to predict what's going to happen can git ya killed. Look, you can read blogs all around this football country and there are a bunch of them saying the same things, Coach don't know what he's doing, players are leaving becuase of coach, players in trouble, things were differant with the old coach, blah,blah, and more blah. If you don't get it just look at Jo Pa's situation a few years back. I'll have a good time watching Mich. play on my TV set out here in the desert and you know what, they show every Mich. game out here and I mean every game. I fly my Mich. flag over my house on game day and you'd be surprised and how many people drive by and honk or even stop if I'm out in my front yard. Mich. fans that live out here like RR and what he's trying to accomplish maybe becuase out here our only option is the Rose Bowl and we feel that once RR gets this thing going we'll have much more opportunities to watch our Wolve's and not just watch but watch them win. We haven't had much success with winning in the Rose bowl. I've been to several Rose Bowl games and I have observed one very important thing about some of those losses, I truly believe that on a few occasions we were the better team except for two very important issues, one we were out coached and two speed truly does kill. I like this defensive coordinator Robinson and time and time again I've seen guys that can coach defense or offense and yet they fold when given a head coaches job and I've seen great college coaches that can't coach pro I'm very interested to see if Pete Carrol can make it in Seattle. I think Robinson given a fair amount of time is going to give us a fine defense, ya I like what I see at Mich. never mind the losses you know and I know that ya gotta crawl before ya walk, ya I think we're taking our first steps this year.
gatling64
Sat, Apr 3, 2010 : 10:40 a.m.
We have many reshmen that will contribute.Kovacs ha dno experiance and he played as well as his abitlities would sllow him.the recruits in hte DB are far more talented than Kovacs was.Players like Robinson, Furman, Dorsey, Christian, and Vinopal are all capable of being playmakers.We also have sleepers like Carvin Johnson, Terrace Talbot, and Avery that may emerge as real players.I hope RR doen't make the mistake of thinking they "lack experiance".With 4 weeks in the fall plus the first 5 games they should be able to begin the filtering in process.
RRisaHilljack
Fri, Apr 2, 2010 : 11:44 p.m.
Who cares about defense we'll have Shoelace left, Shoelace right, Shoelace on the draw and then punt--we don't care about wins anymore at Michigan just the dynamic offense of Rich Rod(marinelli) and Calvin Magee to keep us at the edge of our seats.
NoBowl4Blue
Fri, Apr 2, 2010 : 7:36 p.m.
All great teams have depth. Many teams can come up with decent starters, it is the depth that separates the good ones from the average.
aarox
Fri, Apr 2, 2010 : 6:33 p.m.
The dog days are over. We will return to the top of the Big 10 this year. Either 10-2 or 11-1, depending on you know who.
azwolverine
Fri, Apr 2, 2010 : 6:13 p.m.
I think the defensive stories come from the realization that, no matter how good our offense becomes, our defense has to improve drastically in order to move back into the B10 elite. I also agree with tulsa that our D-line should be pretty good, but just as in the 3-9 season when we had a stocked D-line, we need the rest of the D to step up and do something.
mgobluegold
Fri, Apr 2, 2010 : 4:31 p.m.
I agree with Terry Star21 above about "Defense Stories', sure has been a lot. Either we're in trouble or something good this way is coming! Must keep our spirits up.
tulsatom
Fri, Apr 2, 2010 : 4:12 p.m.
I think the defensive line should be pretty solid, so they will be counted on to stop the run and put pressure on the QB or else I'm afraid the inexperienced d-backs are going to get burned if the opposing QB has time to pass.
Terry Star21
Fri, Apr 2, 2010 : 4:03 p.m.
Great story, even us on the inside like to hear/read these comments. I have stayed the ground with this Campbell kid, and I am glad that Robinson is more settled this spring and has seen the veterans and has a real goal and progression plan for every player... we most certainly have gotten much more information on defense this spring than last... gotta be a good sign.... keep it coming! More Defense Articles - keep em up....... Theo212, Terry Star21, ans BlueSC - same person?