GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — Top 20 Defensive Players Evaluations 5-1
Posted at 6:00am — 1/30/2012
GBMWolverine: Coach’s Corner — Michigan Football — Top 20 Defensive Players Evaluations 5-1
The college football season never really ends for any dedicated aficionado that wishes every week was game week. We here also plead guilty and have prepared tidbits for consumption looking at the 2011 and offensive and defensive personnel.
First off is a look back and ahead for key defensive players of 2011, and below is a short description relating to those key players.
Michigan’s defense underwent a metamorphosis throughout the 2011 season. Here are the twenty principals in this transformation.
After seeing our ranking of players come to the message board and give your opinion and how you would rank the defensive players.
5. Thomas Gordon:
Thomas is another player who benefited from having a defined role.
Yes, he still gets sucked up on play action at times, but his presence in the middle of the field made a big difference over 2010. He is still looking to make that “ESPN type hit” that everybody wants to be on Sportscenter. He has done a better job, but needs to continue to work on his tackling.
Next season:
Thomas must improve his play recognition and become very fundamental at getting to the ball carrier or receiver.
4. Kenny Demens:
With all his assets, Kenny still gets lost in space at times and quick teams will always be a challenge for him.
Still, his toughness and physical play against power running games remains a key to the unit’s success and one of the factors of the improvement of the defense this past season. The new scheme benefited him a lot as well having another body in front of him to help keep him clean to make plays and get to the ball carriers.
Next season:
Kenny must improve his total game, especially recognition and space to become better than an average Big Ten linebacker.
He will be counted on especially with losing three defensive linemen and in our rankings losing 2 out of the top 3 defensive players on the team and all in front of him.
3. Ryan Van Bergen:
Ryan thrived in his role as a 3-technique defensive tackle and just like Kovacs of being a good player once your in a sound scheme that benefits the talent. He also isn’t the flashiest player around, but just gets the job done and was one of the leaders of this football program and you don’t need the “captain tag” to be a leader.
Ryan will be very tough to replace, and replacing both Martin and RVB is scary for what those two did this season. Both being in our top 3 just shows how big of an off-season many of the younger defensive linemen need to step up and be ready to play next fall. There time to take that step.
He had a much greater impact on the field in 2011.
2. Jordan Kovacs
Jordan is a lesson for everyone in all walks of life. Once a walk-on that got cut, but he fought his way through an injury and tried out for the team the following year and not only made the team, but ended up starting and hasn’t looked back.
He epitomizes the saying that a motivated and efficient average talent is better than an unmotivated under-performing superstar. Just shows you that recruiting sites aren’t the end to be all of ranking players and a lot more goes into it than just a combine work-out on the actual football field.
It is amazing what having a defined role in a sound scheme can do. Jordan has his defects and he still gets out matched in space at times. But his brains, preparation, and intensity are key to his success more than his 40 yard time.
Next season:
Obviously Jordan needs to work on his feet and quickness to improve his play in space.
Hard to believe what a walk-on can do for your program. He has taken Notre Dame’s “Rudy” to a new level of a player that should probably never or hardly see the field, but his heart, determination, and intelligences pushed him past more talented/athletic football players.
He could leave Michigan with starting more than 45 games if he remains healthy and 300 tackles if he continues to keep pace with the past several years.
This might be the first time in quite awhile you won’t hear many Michigan fans ask the question “who is going to beat out Kovacs this spring”? Well we might have a few of those questions this spring, but not as many as the past couple of seasons.
1. Mike Martin:
Another pretty obvious choice at the #1 position in our opinion.
Here is the rock from which Coach Mattison started the transformation. Good things happen to good people when the opportunity occurs and perseverance wins out.
Mike finally stayed healthy and it showed in his game performance. His leadership and toughness will be almost impossible to replace.
He was probably the only defensive player the opposition had to weekly spend extra time planning for in game scheming.
Hope you enjoyed this series of ranking the offensive/defensive players for the 2011 football season.
Next season:
Wish him the best and hope he can land on a NFL roster and enjoy several years doing what he enjoys doing “creating havoc” for offensive linemen.
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
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