Michigan’s defensive strategy hinges on four pillars: block destruction, ball disruption, effort, and communication. With three games in the books, LaMar Morgan’s group is placing special emphasis on improving communication moving forward:
Former Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter had a system that was highlighted by his four pillars — block destruction, ball disruption, effort, and communication. Though the Wolverines have a new defensive coordinator, the pillars remain intact.
Last season, those four pillars were critical to Michigan ranking first in the nation for points allowed, giving up just 10.4 points per game. So far this season, though, the Wolverines have struggled to maintain that lethal defense, allowing 19.7 points per game. The Michigan defense lives and dies by those four pillars, and the strength of them have played a factor in their early-season woes.
“The pillars are just the standard of where we play here,” defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan told the media on Wednesday. “I think every team has different ones, but I think a lot for us is pre-snap communication. A lot of teams we play have all these motions and orbits and shifts and stuff, and I think that’s something where a safety needs to make sure he takes that over. You have to make sure everybody’s calm, everybody’s on the same page.”
Thus far in the season, the pillars are wobbling a bit. Block destruction has been far weaker this season, as the Wolverines have recorded just 13 tackles for loss. Though Michigan’s three interceptions match the three interceptions through three games last season, its ball disruption is evidently weaker, as it’s yet to recover a fumble. Though effort can’t technically be quantified, being outscored in the second half against Arkansas State, 15-7, suggests a lack of it.
But communication truly can’t be quantified. There’s no measure of how loud Michigan is and whether that’s on par with last season’s communication, but it is nonetheless quintessential to the Wolverines’ success.
“Communication, we gotta do better at that, too, as well,” safety Makari Paige said earlier this week. “As a defense, as a team, obviously we gotta do better in a lot of areas, so communication is one of those things that we gotta be better at.”
One area where the communication really needs to be improved is with the safeties, according to Morgan. Between Paige and Quinten Johnson — both seasoned veterans for Michigan — the two have extensive experience under this defensive system. Both Paige and Johnson have experienced effective communication that elicit results. Now it’s time for them to get back to what they’ve proven capable of in years past.
“It’s not the complexity of the defense,” Paige said. “Just on the field, sometimes it be loud so you can’t really hear each other. So just being louder in that aspect on the field.”
The Big House is always loud, and generally that’s to the Wolverines’ benefit. Still, there are lots of new pieces in this Michigan defense, and it’s been a slow start getting adjusted. The next step is working on communicating more effectively.
In many ways, communication impacts the three other pillars. With strong communication comes the ability to thrive in block destruction, ball disruption and effort. As Michigan prepares to face USC this weekend, it will need to prioritize strong communication.
Because the pillars that hold up the Wolverines’ defense could start to crumble even more if things go south this Saturday.