I saw a few of Michigan’s games from last season, so in a way I shouldn’t be surprised by the story Matt Melton’s Big Ten SDPI numbers tell, but dayum:
First in offense and last in defense… that’s a pretty nifty trick. And neither was a particularly close call.
I’ve got to think that’s not easy to pull off. Looking at the numbers he’s posted so far for the Big East and the ACC, the only team that’s approximated Michigan’s performance was Cincinnati, but even there, it was only a next-to-last defensive performance. The Wolverines managed a last place finish in a league with three more members. That’s impressive.
The offensive number will get Rodriguez a job soon, but if I were the AD hiring him, I’d sure want to know what he had in mind for his defensive coordinator before I’d sign the contract.
Get The Picture 
Man, don’t you wish he had in fact ended up in Alabammer? How fun to watch would that have been?
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RichRod’s defenses at West Virginia were somewhat hit or miss, but he had three or four years where they finished at the top of the Big East. Haven’t looked at the other years at Michigan, but it seems to raise the question of whether his scheme was a poor fit for the B1G or if it was a matter of not having a chance to match his personnel to what he wanted to do.
(Of course, it could be that his talent at WVU was just that much better than the rest of the Big East.)
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Intuitively speaking, you’d think that a team with a dynamic offense wouldn’t completely suck on defense, if only because (1) the defense would be under less pressure to carry the team in wins and (2) the more time a team’s offense spends on the field moving the ball, the less time its defense should have to be out there stopping the opponent.
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Keep in mind guys, on defense, he was left with less talent than Derek Dooley. Their secondary was seriously looking like a 1-AA outfit after Carr left. Now granted, he didn’t exactly take it by the horns, recruit and hire to correct that, but still, he did revive the offensive side of the ball, where again, Carr wasn’t exactly tearing it up. Michigan was undeniably getting better each year. Painful, absolutely, but still, getting better. Carr left an implosion behind. It would have been interesting to see what he would have done this year, knowing his offense was set (finally). But no such luck.
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Michigan has fallen into that all too familiar trap–do not give the coach enough time to succeed, fire him, then do the same with the next guy. Michigan now has the personnel for the spread and a new coach who runs a different offense. Taken straight out of the Atlanta Falcons Owner’s Manual circa 1966-2001.
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“Michigan now has the personnel for the spread and a new coach who runs a different offense.”
Same with Florida. Maybe we won’t go 2-8 in the second decade.
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+100. Last year it seemed that they really didn’t have the personnel for the spread but ran it anyway (and still beat us). This year their skill position personnel does seem more suited for the offense they say they plan to run which makes one wary, however.
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Other than their senior QB who is pro-style, I thought UF’s other QB’s were more suited for the spread rather the pro-style that Will and Weiss are implementing.
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Yeah, but they’re makin’ ’em all into tight ends and whatnot.
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+1.
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Sounds like the genius CPJ is following right along in RRod’s footsteps. Hope he has as much success.
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Defense wins championships!
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Remind me where Auburn ranked nationally in defense this past season, would you please?
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