Michigan Football: The 10 most important defensive players in 2020

Michigan football players will be returning to campus soon and looking ahead to the 2020 season, here are the 10 most important defensive players in 2020.

Over the years, Michigan football has been a mixed bag on defense under coordinator Don Brown, who took over the job prior to the 2016 season.

Statistically, Brown’s units have done a lot of things well over the years. Michigan football is usually among the best pass-defenses in the country, at least in terms of yards allowed and the Wolverines are usually right up there in sacks, run defense, points allowed and yards allowed too.

Thinking back over the past four years, Brown has coached some really talented players. And at times, his defenses have looked flat-out dominant, well against everyone except Ohio State.

During his tenure, outside of the 2016 game, which was actually an incredible job by the defense and would have been enough to win The Game if it wasn’t for two terrible Wilton Speight mistakes, the Buckeyes have owned Brown.

His aggressive, blitz-heavy, man-to-man schemes work really well, especially against teams with inferior talent. Even Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Penn State, Iowa and Michigan State have all been dominated a time or two by Brown the past few years.

But can the defense finally find a solution to Ohio State and other elite offenses? The loss of Josh Uche hurt, there’s no question about it, yet the Wolverines are still loaded with talent.

Only time will tell if the results are improved. However, after breaking down the most important players on offense heading into 2020 for Michigan football, here’s a look at the top 10 defenders.