In about as direct a way as they’ll ever say publicly, which is to say in a roundabout manner, Michigan football’s defensive players admit they knew some kind of change was necessary after last season. So far, they like what they’re seeing with a new staff in place.
“I’m fired up,” senior defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said. “We’ve got a young staff and I really love all the coaches that coach (Jim) Harbaugh brought in. It’s kind of a different energy around Schembechler these days.”
Only a week into spring practice, safety Brad Hawkins said the team is only on the fourth install of coordinator Mike Macdonald’s defense. They’re still learning, still making mistakes and still at the point of the year where that’s OK. It’s only March. Broad phrases like “high energy,” “reset the culture” and “get back to our winning ways” can be thrown around without consequence.
Last year, the winning ways were hard to find. The Wolverines went 2-4, with their defense at the heart of the issues. Between injuries, opt-outs and on-field struggles, problems piled up. At the end of the year, Harbaugh chose to replace Don Brown with Macdonald, previously a position coach on the Baltimore Ravens’ staff.
“You can tell he’s been in the league for the past eight years, he’s kinda got that way about him,” Hutchinson said. “I like what we’re doing with the defense, I like the culture that he is instilling in us, I think he’s doing a really good job and I’m just fired up to have him as my coach.”
When asked about the details of Macdonald’s scheme, which is a total unknown due to his lack of experience as a coordinator, players avoided concrete answers. Hutchinson said he’d play both as a standup defensive end and in a three-point stance. Asked to compare his role to someone on the Ravens, he said, vaguely, to “Look at any of the edge guys for the Ravens.”
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“Just a lot of different things, playing D, playing in the box, playing on an island, just a lot of different things,” Hawkins said. “Of course we’re recovering, still the same, still covering, still playing some different types of varieties of defenses. It’s different in a way of playing different schemes, like I said, different terminologies.”
The youth of Macdonald, 33, and the defensive staff, which doesn’t have a single coach over the age of 40, stand in stark contrast to last year’s group.
“Definitely, more relatable,” Hawkins said. “Every single day you come out to practice, it’s just joy, fun, everybody’s laughing with each other, everybody’s having a good time. Bring a lot of energy to practices, to meeting rooms.”
That leads to a culture — one that players denied was a pervasive issue during last season, but one Hutchinson admitted Tuesday he wanted to reset — they feel shifting beneath their feet. Macdonald, Hutchinson said, is “a really focused guy.”
“We don’t care what happens to us, we don’t care if there’s a DPI on a third-and-10, and it’s another first down,” Hutchinson said. “We’ve just got to keep attacking, attacking, attacking, I think that’s what coach (Macdonald) is all about.”
All of this, right now, can be taken with a grain of salt. No eyes outside the program have seen what Michigan’s practices look like, which means no one who has seen it has an incentive to say anything but good things. Last season’s debacle means the benefit of the doubt needs to be re-earned.
But, if nothing else, it’s clear the Wolverines want to get back to that point.
“I’ve seen some energy, some things I’ve never seen these past three years being on this team,” Hutchinson said. “Just those little things — you can tell that guys just want to play ball.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown challenges at all of us — including The Michigan Daily — but that hasn’t stopped our staff. We’re committed to reporting on the issues that matter most to the community where we live, learn and work. Your donations keep our journalism free and independent. You can support our work here.
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