Despite returning talent, Michigan Wolverines' defense among worst in the country against the pass
It's been a disappointing 2024 season for the Michigan Wolverines. Despite returning plenty of talent from their national championship-winning 2023 squad, their defense has been one of the worst units in the country, even without playing many high-powered offenses. This has popped up in the passing game especially. The Wolverines are 110th(!) in passing yards […]
It's been a disappointing 2024 season for the Michigan Wolverines. Despite returning plenty of talent from their national championship-winning 2023 squad, their defense has been one of the worst units in the country, even without playing many high-powered offenses.
This has popped up in the passing game especially. The Wolverines are 110th(!) in passing yards allowed this season, allowing almost 260 yards per game through the air. Their 12 passing touchdowns allowed this season are the second-worst in the Big Ten, just ahead of UCLA's 14.
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Even crazier, Michigan has yielded 71 passing plays of 10-plus yards. 71! This is an embarrassing stat considering the sheer amount of talent that they returned on the defensive side of the ball.
The Wolverines returned two elite defensive tackles in Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, both of whom are presumed to be first-round picks. Their edge rushers, Josaiah Stewart and Derrick Moore, have been two of the best in the country this season. They brought in talented transfer linebacker Jaishawn Barham to pair with productive junior Ernest Hausmann. Cornerback Will Johnson, who might be the best pure cover corner in the country returned, and CB2 Jyaire Hill has had a strong season as well.
And yet, the defensive production is downright horrendous. They are simply too talented to be this bad. Why?
It's easy to point at and blame coaching as a universal catch-all, but in this instance, it plays a part.
They fail to adjust, both in-game and game-to-game. The Wolverines' defense has given up big play after big play when they play Tampa 2, getting beat vertically seemingly every time they run the coverage. That hasn't stopped them from continuing to call it.
It's not just their inability to adjust what they're running, it's also an inability to adjust to what the offense is doing. They just don't check and match their coverages based on offensive personnel at all. When you don't have these, good play callers can exploit your defense with ease using motion and shifts, something Steve Sarkisian, Lincoln Riley, and Jedd Fisch have all done so far.
They also just bust too many plays, even ones that are familiar to them. Against Washington, Michigan brought a HOT blitz (3 deep, 2 under).
The Wolverines completely bust the coverage and fail to adjust their coverage based on Washington's offense. HOT is a great call against trips, but nobody takes the seam receiver. The whole point of this play is designed to be tighter coverage to give time for the blitz to come home and…well, it didn't go that way.
What is problematic is that Michigan has called these blitzes and several of the coverages they have busted in prior seasons. They aren't running a lot of "new" concepts on defense, but the execution of these have been abysmal compared to last season.
This has been a frustrating problem for Michigan all season. With games against Illinois, Oregon, Indiana, and Ohio State on the schedule, the hope is they took a step forward in solving this over the bye week. If not…it might not be pretty.
