The Michigan football team has played a similar defensive style dating back to the Jim Harbaugh era. Under Harbaugh, the team employed a man-heavy 4-3 scheme and was highly aggressive. When Sharrone Moore took over, he tweaked the defense to a 4-2-5 nickel base defense. Enter Kyle Whittingham, whose defense runs a different scheme entirely but will retain traces of older ones as well. Whittingham prefers a more man-to-man coverage scheme. What does it mean, and does Michigan, as it stands now, have the right type of players to run a man-to-man base defense?
New defensive coordinator Jay Hill will not use man-to-man coverage exclusively; it will be the base scheme. Hill will also deploy zone blitzes, pressures, and different coverages to mix in with the man scheme. Reading between the lines, if Hill is mixing in different looks, it could be because the Wolverines lack the right type of players to go exclusively with man-to-man. It could also be that Hill just wants more flexibility for in-game play calling.
With just 15 spring practices, more teaching and learning have to wait until fall camp. While man defense is the base, until players have a full grasp of their responsibilities on the field, it is wise to also have a more familiar scheme for players to run as they integrate the new scheme, which is more complex to run.
This could be a tough start to the season if players don’t pick up the man defense in fall camp. I’m a little worried they won’t.