http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=871469

I do agree with you that SS coming in with a staff already assembled is worthy of consideration as a possible contributor. No matter what, the players still have to execute on the field. Players don't get worse (age & health not withstanding), they play worse if their heads are not in the game. If they were ever able to execute the basics last year, then they should be showing it now, but they aren't.

This defense is what it is…and they are playing up to their current talent level. Average!!! As the saying goes…"You can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh-t." Then when you combine that with the fact that they've been on the field more than the offense game in and game out, is it's a wonder why this mediocre defense has worn down?

I do believe that it's possible that the D-staff has to get itself together, but you don't fire them at this stage of their tenure.

Also, according to Scout insiders (maizeman,Coach Bt) the 3-3-5 stack is gonna be permanent. This speaks of a loss of faith in the DC by Rod. Also the rest of the staff are not adept at dealing with his schemes, he was hired last and had to work with the staff in place, dunno what the dynamics is in the staff room. What seems obvious is a lack of direction on D, and if there are these differences then no amount of time will help, unless we get some studs who can play immediately.

Plus, Trent and Warren weren’t bad tacklers last year, yet now they have regressed. Harrison is now falling apart..this is not due to players not being good or something, as some have claimed, it is just them losing confidence.

And it was the staff that thrust a Mike LB(thomspson) at SAm and a SAM (Ezeh) at Mike, so its their problem to fix.

We believed that the defense would be the strength of this team, and it is, but we’ve learned that it’s not very strong. The defense was exposed last year when it had problems tackling and covering. We couldn’t stop a division 1-AA school from scoring over 30 points, and we couldnt’ stop Oregon who moved at will. It was because Michigan won more games last year, that we never really looked closer at the defense, but it was average at best. Now we’ve brought in a new D-Coordinator with a new system and we’re blaming the coordinator. Right!!!

Schafer didn’t cause these problems. He’s run a successful defense everywhere he’s been, primarily because they already knew how to block, cover and tackle. Now he is trying to teach them to do the same thing here, when they should have already known how to before they ever hit the field.

As bad as this year has been, you cannot fire anyone now. You have to give RR and SS at least time to coach their own recruits. RR told us before the season started that he and his staff was trying to teach this team their “fundamentals.” Even during the bye week he was working on their fundamentals with them. They never learned it under the previous administration. Therefore, this year is the learning year.

Offensively this team has “somewhat” improved since the beginning of the year. This maybe the breakout game for the offense. We’ve established a ground game with Brandon Minor which helps the passing game. Even the Special Team made some noise. Now that we know there will be no bowl game this year, they can officially view the rest of the season as training and preparation for next season.

Don’t panic, things will get better.

THAT’S MY OPINION!!!

What do you mean? Are you trying to say that Michigan’s players are better than Ohio State’s and Penn State’s defense? That makes no sense.