While season tickets arrive in mailboxes, while fanatics venture out to their local sporting goods stores to stock up on their school colors, and while fans from around the nation are anxiously awaiting another fantastic year for college football, there is a very positive thing brewing on the defensive side of the ball in Big Ten country. A defense from the Great Lakes state will provide even more excitement for the college football world, or the state of Michigan anyway. No, Crazy, I am not talking about Michigan State.

A young man from Pomona, California will be the head of all this hoopla about the 2006 Michigan defense. Ron English, a California-Berkley alum, will take over the defensive coordinator responsibilities after the previous regime of Jim Hermann. English coached the defensive secondary his first three years in Ann Arbor, starting in 2003. His presence was most surely felt as his secondary only gave up an NCAA-leading nine touchdowns in his first year. The group, including All-Big Ten performers Jeremy LeSueur and Markus Curry, picked off 14 passes which apparently is attributable to English’s aggressive style of play.

Defensive aggressiveness has been lacking the past few years. Last year, we gave up 334.5 yards a game, which was 33^rd in the world of college football. Yeah, no one wins the Big Ten with those kinds of numbers. We were also 27^th in the land when it comes to rushing defense, and 59^th in pass defense. Yeah, that isn’t going to get the job done either. English, will help immensely with this problem. English is said to have led some pretty spirited practices and work outs.

He will also have a solid supporting cast. Steve Szabo will handle the linebackers, and former Wisconsin defensive back’s coach, Ron Lee, will coach the cornerbacks.

By the way, aggressive = better. Last year, Virginia Tech was the top team in terms of total defense. Amazingly enough, the Hokies recorded 37 sacks, which is 13 more than Michigan. That tells you that we are not being nearly aggressive enough and the blitz packages, which we rarely ran mind you, were pretty much unsuccessful. Virginia Tech also scored seven touchdowns on defense; Michigan only had one. The Wolverine D was 71^st in the nation last year in sacks. This is where English comes in.

All that we say in the preseason is pure speculation, but the big man commented on English’s “new” defense. “Ron English has great energy, great enthusiasm. He’s an outstanding teacher,” Carr said, “He’s a guy that, through his intensity and his ability to communicate, has really had a great impact already. Ron is going to be one of those guys who is very successful in his coaching career. This is a tremendous opportunity for him, to coordinate this defense. He’ll do very, very well.” Carr has seemed to place a lot of confidence in both of his new coordinators. If you look back to Why the Michigan offense will succeed..., you will see what he had to say about Mike DeBord.

This may be the area I am most excited about. We haven’t had one of these defenses since 1997…and we all know what happened in 1997. Ron English, Steve Szabo, and Ron Lee were part of the revamping of the coaching staff, but the players still need to get the job done. I feel confident in the abilities of LaMarr Woodley, Alan Branch, etc. to get a good pass rush going so that we can boost that sack number. It will help out the defensive secondary a lot, and not leave them hanging out to dry.

As the season approaches, slowly but surely, we can only anticipate how the defense will do. But, my friends, Ron English will bring back the hammer in the Michigan defense that has been absent for so many years now.

Go Blue!

Quotes Credit: The Wolverine.