In Praise of Norm Parker
The past two University of Michigan football games against the Purdue Boilermakers have provided a moment of clarity for me: the Michigan defense isn’t just incredibly bad; it’s not just one of the worst defenses in college football; it’s in the conversation amongst the worst defenses in the history of the program.
There were reports prior to the start of the season that Michigan would base it’s defense on the USC Trojans. My guess is they weren’t looking to draw comparisons to the defense USC played against Oregon but that’s pretty much how it’s turned out.
This attempt clearly hasn’t worked out very well and there are probably two reasons why that’s the case. The first is USC boasts some of the biggest stockpile of high-end talent in all of college football. While Michigan has a fair number of players who will go on to play in the NFL they don’t have anywhere near the talent the Trojans can put on the field.
The second is something that Pete Carroll admitted after USC got blown out by Oregon: his defense - stockpiled with future NFL draft picks - was simply too young and inexperienced to handle the complex gameplan that was implemented for that game.
With that being the case perhaps the Wolverines should set more modest goals when it comes to playing defense. I think they could do a lot worse than look at the Iowa Hawkeyes defense and use that as a template rather than USC’s defense.
The reasons are twofold and are the exact opposite of the comparison with USC. First Michigan boasts far more talent on defense than the Hawkeyes could ever hope to assemble. Sure the Hawks have developed some high-quality NFL players like Bob Sanders and Chad Greenway. But that doesn’t compare with the amount of NFL talent coming out of Ann Arbor every year.
The other reason is Norm Parker’s defenses tend to be very basic. He almost never switches out of his base 4-3 defense. The players are able to know their assignments inside and out and can play instinctively which allows them to react quickly and always know their assignments.
That basic defense has allowed the Hawkeyes to play solid, fundamental football and put out top ten rush defenses fairly regularly. They currently rank 14th in the country in total defense and 13th in scoring defense.
Michigan’s offense is just fine. If not for a missed field goal they would have put up 40 points yesterday. Their #1 running back has been injured all season, their #1 offensive lineman has missed the majority of the season and they are playing a true freshman quarterback. The offense could conceivably average over 40 points per game next season. But until their defense improves no lead will ever be safe. The Cincinnati game against UConn last night was a perfect example of that as the Bearcats had to replace 10 of 11 starters on defense last season. UConn quickly erased a three touchdown deficit to nearly tie the game.
Michigan has plenty of talent on defense, so there’s no excuse for the defense to be as bad as it’s been for the past two seasons. Rather than chase pipe dreams of assembling the talent USC has on its roster it’s probably much more realistic to emulate Norm Parker’s defense at Iowa.
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