Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown is a tough guy to impress, holding his group to a high standard. Even he’s been excited by what he’s seen the last two weeks, however.
Since giving up 42 in a blowout loss at Penn State, his group has been ‘unbelievably good,’ Brown told reporters Wednesday.
“Some of yesterday’s practice … we can’t go much harder. If we go much harder, somebody’s going to get hurt,” Brown said. “That would be dumb. I think there’s kind of a sense of urgency. I don’t think we’re fat catting by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly focuses your energy, enthusiasm and passion to get the thing right.
“Obviously, Penn State’s a pretty good offensive football team, scored 35 in the first half [at Ohio State]. They’re pretty good. But we didn’t play our best game. I’m not making any excuses, they had a lot to do with that. We’ve got to be better than that. That’s the experience part of it that you’re looking for, to get young people to understand how we’ve got to go about our business and our approach more than the end result.”
The veterans and young guys both are excelling, he continued.
“I coach the best young people in the country. I say that all the time,” he said. “I’ve got a great room to coach, a tremendous amount of pride. I’ll say this; from a concept standpoint, our guys talk football. I hear it, and this is so awesome … they’re talking about raider coverage, say, ‘hey coach, do we switch this?’ It’s just awesome.
“[Frosh corner] Ben St. Juste made a play yesterday in practice where I went, ‘wow. Wow!’ That’s the side part of practicing two groups. They’re all young. One looks like an old veteran group, the other all freshmen getting better because we’re giving them equal work.”
Setting up what he hopes will continue to be a dominant defense in the future.
NOTES
• Don Brown called Minnesota’s offensive line the best run blocking line they’ll see this year.
“They’re going to run the rock. Their mantra, you can tell, is the big, strong type … the best offensive line we’ve played to this point in terms of run blocking, and they’ve got multiple running backs that can carry the load,” he said. “We’ve got to do a great job in controlling the run game and then obviously do a good job on third down from our standpoint.”
• Freshman defensive tackle Aubrey Solomon earned a ‘wow’ from Brown after his first start Saturday.
“Just a big boy growing up,” he said. “He’s learned the system, he’s minimizing errors and kind of solidifying himself as a solid guy we can depend on, on a three-down basis.
“It’s not rocket science. On third down we’ll do whatever we want to do anyway to get off the field. Some of those he’s involved; some of them he’s not involved. But he’s a tremendous run defender and a very solid pass defender.”
• Michigan gave up three or four plays and not much else to Rutgers. Brown described them in detail.
“I tip my cap on the pass because the kid made a one handed catch,” he said of a throw over junior Tyree Kinnel. “I thought Tyree was in great shape. I want him to be able to lean into him, go through his hands, but at the end of the day it was like that.
“The bottom line is … let me paint a picture for you. You’re in zone coverage, and we played a bunch last Saturday, by the way … but we play combination coverages. We don’t want guys running free … this guy here, this guy dropped him. Not doing that. I’d rather spend my time teaching great technique, great fundamentals. Let [coaches] Brian Smith and Mike Zordich do their deal, also be able to mix in when we decide other concepts that will cover people. Not people running through air and relying on zone pieces , though. That’s just not what we do.
“The big thing there was the throw was contested … lean in, go for the rock. Did he do that? The answer is yes. Did he make a play? No. But I don’t know. They had 90 yards passing. There’s 21. We’re in zone coverage and they throw a 30 yards pass. Right like that, Noah [Furbush] on it. Get your eyes back and play the rock.
“They’re going to make a few plays. The fewer, the better.”
Janarion Grant’s long touchdown, though, irked him to no end.
“Simple counter. Guard pull, wide pull, one of our guys misses the pull. That’s on me,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we get on the pull. Still we have a middle third coming down, still a backside I don’t think was flying to the rock. We’ve got to fix that. That’s what we talk about. If you eliminate that run play and one other play. Come on. Come on. That’s pretty good defense.
“At the end of the day, what did they have, 195 yards, something like that? The day was solid, especially when you have a young group that’s come off a game where they didn’t play as well as you’re like. Now you’ve got to regroup and go, but at the end of the day I thought we played really well. Don’t forfet, five sacks, 11 TFLs and they went back 21 times to throw the ball, on the ground 11 times. Back to business, back to here we are. That’s a good thing.”
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