At Michigan Media Day, quarterbacks coach Rod Smith laughingly said that new defensive coordinator Greg Robinson’s playbook is probably 700 pages because he throws so many packages into his repertoire.

For redshirt junior Obi Ezeh, who has played under three different defensive coordinators in as many seasons, a complicated and confusing scheme like Robinson's could be tough to pick up in the first year.

So Ezeh literally became a student of the game.

In the summer, while the defense was studying the pages of quirky schemes in the playbook, someone passed Ezeh a slip of paper — a test, to see if he was grasping his new responsibilities.

“They’d pass out little tests, just little reminders about what we had to do so you kind of retain all that information, so we could pick up where we left off in spring practice,” Ezeh said. “That way, you don’t have to go back and teach (the basics), because you only have a certain amount of time. You don’t want to spend half of training camp relearning what you did in spring ball.”

The tests have obviously worked. Although Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez has stated several times that he is concerned about the depth and youth on that side of that ball, he’s very happy with the progress they’ve made in learning the new scheme.

At Monday morning’s press conference (yes, there was talk of things other than allegations of NCAA violations regarding workouts), Rodriguez said the defense is progressing nicely days before a tough Western Michigan squad heads to Ann Arbor.

“I have not seen a lot of mental or missed assignments in practice, so I think they understand the basic schemes pretty well,” Rodriguez said. “You know, Western and Coach (Bill) Cubit traditionally will do some unconventional things.”

Ezeh says he is very excited about where the squad stands now. Compared to last year, he said the Wolverines have a better grasp on the scheme than this time last season.

He said that they have all of the basic packages down at this point, and Robinson will build more and more as the season goes on.

“(We’re) learning not only what you do in the defense, but what everybody does and just seeing the whole concept of the defense,” Ezeh said. “It helps you realize how important it is that you’re in your gap or you do what you’re supposed to do.”

Last season, Ezeh played a more traditional middle linebacker role. He said he was “kind of let loose to just go out and make plays,” but in Robinson’s scheme, he has much more specific tasks.

This year, he’ll be taking much more lateral movements with gap responsibilities.

“It allows you to fall back and make more plays,” Ezeh said. “As long as I’m in my gap, doing what I’m supposed to be doing, then I can check that and go make it play.”

There won’t be time for a learning curve this weekend, since the Broncos are definitely talented offensively. Senior quarterback Tim Hiller has thrown for almost 80 career touchdowns, and many college football pundits say he could have been one of the best quarterbacks in the Big Ten, let alone the Mid-American Conference.

“When you get a fifth year senior quarterback, kind of been there, done that, he'll be able to adjust to some different things and things that you want to throw against him,” Rodriguez said. “I think he's a very accurate guy, and he'll be able to find the open guy. So we've got to do a great job of breaking on the ball.”