Michigan Football: 3 questions the defense must answer in 2019

Will Michigan continue to stick to solely man-to-man coverage?

While one of the Wolverines most glaring weaknesses was covered up most of last season because of a dominating front, Michigan football and Don Brown, in particular, has to find a way to make some adjustments in coverage.

Against Ohio State, the pressure didn’t get home and when Dwayne Haskins had all day to throw, he picked apart the Wolverines with crossing routes and other man-coverage killers. Florida did something similar to Michigan a few weeks later in the Peach Bowl and so after being the No. 1 defense all season, UM ended the year before surrendering more than 40  points in consecutive games.

Playing strictly man-to-man coverage will work against some teams, especially the ones with inferior athletes to Michigan. But against teams like Ohio State, that same old things aren’t going to work.

Obviously, getting a guy like Daxton Hill, a safety that runs 4.3 is going to help both in terms of coverage and tackling, but remember, the Wolverines also have to replace starting corner, David Long. There is plenty of talent at defensive back and no reason for Michigan to abandon its man defense completely.

However, when it’s not working, Brown has to be able to adjust and last season, he struggled too and that was a big part of all three losses. In 2019, he needs to find an answer, otherwise, his days as defensive coordinator could be coming to an end much sooner than expected.