For the fourth time in five years, and for the second time in the Big House, the Huskies face off against the Michigan Wolverines in what’s turning into a rekindled, now in-conference rivalry. After avenging our loss in the 2023 National Championship Game last year at home, both teams are now led by a young nucleus of players who look to be the futures of their respective programs. However, while the players on the field may have changed since last year, the coaches at the helm have stayed mostly consistent and should bring a familiar flavor to this weekend’s game.
The Scheme & Personnel
Back for the second year in Ann Arbor, Michigan’s defense is again being called by Wink Martindale. The former NFL coordinator who is known for his aggressive, blitz-heavy schemes, is just the latest in the Baltimore-Ann Arbor pipeline of coaching talent that was established under Jim Harbaugh’s tenure at Michigan. Martindale’s defense last season had its ups and downs despite inheriting a loaded roster that brought back a few key pieces from the 2023 team. This season’s performances have followed the same pattern. In their loss to USC last week, Michigan was able to stay competitive for stretches due to a couple of key turnovers forced by their defense, but issues with fundamentals like tackling and gap integrity yielded too many explosive plays to USC for the Wolverines to overcome.
Tackling is hard to improve during the season, but gap integrity is something that can be improved with different play calls and assignments. That’s part of the reason why it’s hard to pin down exactly how good their defense is. The Wolverines have talent. Senior EDGE Derrick Moore is second on the team with 3 sacks on the season but has upside against a depleted UW offensive line. The rest of their DL, DTs Damon Payne and Trey Pierce, and DE Benny Rayshaun, are all upperclassmen with size (at least 6-2 and 300lbs) to anchor the LOS. They also return senior LB Ernest Hausmann at the second level and Jyaire Hill at CB who were major contributors last year. With all that talent and experience, they have the potential to be a really solid defense if they straightened out their scheme, but that’s a big if.
Keys to the Game
If we look at Michigan’s two losses this season for game plan inspiration, Oklahoma and USC were both able to control the pace of the game and win the time of possession advantage. Oklahoma did so with help from the QB run game, with John Mateer rushing for 79 yards and 2 TDs on 19 carries. USC did so with a gap-scheme heavy run game (rushing for over 200 yards at a 6.2 YPC clip) and a heavy dose of the screen game. Neither had to pass for over 270 yards, and both actually had more rushing attempts than passing attempts.
While UW’s offensive line is injury depleted, they arguably have the best QB-RB rushing duo that Michigan’s faced this season. As Demond Williams showed against Rutgers, if the defense is keying in on Jonah Coleman, he is a big play waiting to happen on the ground. The option threat from Demond, plus our significant screen package and diverse run schemes, could create huge pressure on Michigan’s questionable gap integrity. Martindale’s affinity for blitzes are the cause, or maybe just exacerbate, their gap integrity issues since committing bodies to specific gaps limits opportunities for players to flow to unfilled gaps that appear against gap run schemes and the option. Running against the blitz could be a huge opportunity for the Huskies.
If Martindale dials back his blitzes and tries the OSU or Maryland game plan of playing coverage and relying on the front four to control the line/create pressure, then it’s a completely different story. Denzel Boston may be able to score some big plays if he finds himself lined up against freshman CB Jayden Sanders, but it’ll likely fall on Dezmen Roebuck and the other receivers’ shoulders to carry the load in the passing game. One thing to keep an eye on though, USC made good use of their TEs against Michigan for significant chunk yardage. Between their two TEs that made receptions, they hauled in 4 catches for 83 yards and each had long receptions of 21 yards. Getting Decker DeGraaf involved early and often might be a good strategy.