Let’s just say this group has a lot of potential — but said potential was there last season, too. With a talented group of defensive linemen eating up blocks down low, these guys should have been raking in the tackles. Instead, they accumulated a lot of blown assignments and, what I like to call Cement Feet, when the LB squats about five yards from the line of scrimmage and takes too long to make his read.

For example, take a look at the 1:17ish moment on this video:

Hear that *CLAP* at 1:24? That’s a pulling guard smacking into Michigan’s middle linebacker. Yeah, that shouldn’t happen.

You’ve got to be able to make that read and fill the hole. If he steps up and meets the pulling guard at the line, Buckeye running back Beanie Wells has nowhere to go, instead of a huge lane all the way down the sideline. And not only does he wait for the blow instead of attacking, but because he does, he gets blown back, taking three defenders with him.

To put it shortly, the linebackers were just too slow last year, with their reads and in pass coverage, which is an increasingly important skill-set for LBs in a newly spread-heavy world.

With new defensive coordinator Greg Robinson’s hybrid 3-4 scheme and another year under Mike Barwis’s brutal training regimen, those troubles may be over. Most of the names from last year are back, sans John Thompson, who I’m not sure would find a comfortable spot on the field in the new-look defense anyway.

And, as people are clamoring about, there’s a new edition to the defense, both in player and position. Enter the much-maligned Stevie Brown as the hybrid backer. Say what you want about Brown, but this just might be a perfect fit for him. First off, the scheme is taking an uber-athletic player — Stevie Brown — who’s been mediocre in his best moments as a Wolverine and playing to his strengths.

Brown isn’t a safety. Pure and simple. Michigan fans have been learning and relearning that since the first game in 2007 — you know, that one opponent who starts with an “A” and ends with a “-ppalachian State.” But as the quick hybrid backer in the 3-4, he’ll be closer up to the line, where he can play more run support and match up against receivers in the middle, where he can — hopefully — keep track of them better.

He’s still got to work on his instincts — i.e., don’t let yourself get shaken out of your britches by David Cone in the Spring Game — but he definitely has the skills that could define what, exactly, this new position will be for the rest of the Robinson era.

Next up is Obi Ezeh, who will be wreaking havoc in the middle as the Mike, or middle, linebacker. He’s shown signs of brilliance in the past — but he’s also shown signs of hair-pulling agony. I feel a little sorry for him. As a middle linebacker (basically the quarterback of the defense) it has to be difficult having three completely different defensive coordinators with completely different schemes and philosophies in three years.

But if he can settle down and make his reads quicker, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with back there. He’s an old-school MLB (read, his pass coverage isn’t all that great), but with Brown closer to the line and Jonas Mouton at outside backer, that should take some of the heat off him in that category.

I wouldn’t put him in the upper echelon of Big Ten MLBs, but he’ll be an effective defensive weapon.

Now, that brings us to Mouton, who, was one of Michigan's most improved defensive players by the end of the year in 2008. I love his size — a very safety-esque 6’2’’, 220 lbs. — and athleticism at the outside linebacker position (the position I tried out for, no big deal or anything).

He missed spring ball in lieu of shoulder surgery, but he should be fine come Sept. 5, and I don’t really have a lot of concerns about him. As long as he continues to progress like he did in the second half of last season.