Sorry, Charles Woodson. Tough luck, LaMarr Woodley. Oh well, Aidan Hutchinson.
We understand your passion, but face it.
Defense isn’t cool.
That’s the summation of a sports talk radio host overheard recently. It wasn’t his own opinion, but a take while surveying the landscape of college football these days.
It’s not an unreasonable conclusion, either, even if it’s dead wrong.
Where’s the juice these days? What draws the greatest excitement? It’s hanging 50 (or 60, or 70) on opponents, turning the pushups-for-points sideline warriors into workout machines.
It’s winning shootouts and racking up College Football Playoff style points like offensive linemen downing donuts. It’s score, score, score … then score some more.
They used to say defense wins championships. Put that notion forth these days, and the kids will ask you if you fought in World War I.
Even Doug (et tu, Brutus) Karsch, Michigan’s savvy sideline reporter, points out that teams can win conference championships and draw pretty close to a national title without a Woodson & Company-like crew.
“Well, we’ve seen some teams compete for national championships without elite defenses,” Karsch offered. “Last year, Ohio State made it to the national championship with a pass defense that ranked 122nd out of 127 Division I teams.
“Now, does that happen when you’re leading the whole game, and the other team is in catch-up mode, so you’re giving up a lot of yards? That could influence it, but it’s clear Ohio State’s defense, a year ago, was not elite, and yet they were playing for the national championship.”
Well, there’s a double gut punch.
“I’m not sure you can compete for a national championship without a pretty potent offense anymore,” Karsch added. “But it looks like you can compete for a national championship without an elite defense.”
Thankfully, he added the obvious. There's no law against getting good on both sides of the ball. In other words, there’s more than one way to skin a pig.
Jim Harbaugh’s team entered the season unranked — hardly the stuff of national championship talk. But this year isn’t about that. It’s about regaining solid footing, after getting swept away in an avalanche of underperformance a year ago.
To that end, the Wolverines planted their feet in the season opener, even if it only involved routing Western Michigan. Tougher tests lie ahead, obviously, prompting Hutchinson — Michigan’s motivated and blunt junior defensive end — to declare: “We haven’t done a damn thing!”
In the big picture, that’s probably true. But in laying down some background on a canvas promising to eventually portray a better day, there were some noticeable brush strokes.
The Wolverines’ quarterbacks handed the football off and threw it to the proper team, all afternoon long. The results were far more dynamic than almost anything witnessed a year ago, including runs of 74, 43 and 30 yards, with touchdown throws that went for 76 and 69.
Quarterbacks Cade McNamara and J.J. McCarthy (a redshirt freshman and true freshman, respectively) combined to go 13-of-17 passing (76.5 percent) for 216 yards and three touchdowns. That’s while the Wolverines also posted 335 rushing yards.
Cynic Disclaimer: It was against Western Michigan, so none of it counts.
Following 2020, we’ll put it this way: it beats the alternative.
Meanwhile, across the country and around the Big Ten, there were signs that uncool can be hot.
Georgia hung seven sacks on Clemson in scraping the stripes off the Tigers, 10-3. Iowa served 2020 upstart darling Indiana a plate of historic Hoosier, 34-6. And Penn State made an early statement by taking down Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium, 16-10.
It says here, if Michigan goes to Wisconsin on Oct. 2 and surrenders only 10 points, the Wolverines enjoy a raucous flight home.
First things first. There’s dealing with a Washington team embarrassed and angry from dropping its opener to Montana. The Huskies will come out with a point to prove.
New U-M defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald will look to make his own point, after scoring more than a few with his players in the opener. According to them, Macdonald — a “scientist” and a “stud” in the words of redshirt sophomore cornerback Vincent Gray — was calling out WMU plays from the sideline.
Macdonald, fresh from the Baltimore Ravens and their stout defenses, is building early confidence among the troops — and after 2-4, that’s essential.
“The players were pretty impressed, pretty enthusiastic,” Karsch said. “That’s exactly what you want, right? You want your coaches putting players in place to make plays.
“They believe in him. I don’t have any doubt the guys on defense believe in him. They have a vested interest, and they should be all in and believe in their guy. It sounds like, early on, that they do … their excitement level was pretty high about what they think this defense can be.”
It might not be cool. But if it can help ice a few upcoming opponents, it becomes the Atomic Balm to ease the sting of 2020.
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