3 things Michigan football needs to do to turn its season around

A more vanilla but effective defense

There are times when the Michigan football defense looks really good and other times when it looks really bad.

It's hard to understand, like I said, when you have Will Johnson, Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, Josaiah Stewart, and others. There is too much talent for this team to be this bad, especially when it comes to giving up explosive plays.

There are too many busted coverages, too many missed tackles, and just too many mistakes. Wink Martindale needs to simplify things and rely on talent. Few teams have as much talent as the Wolverines on defense so they don't need to get super cute.

Yes, you can't be vanilla all the time. You've got to mix it up, but the Wolverines are doing things some of their young players in the secondary aren't capable of and it's canceling out the talent of the defensive line.

Be vanilla. Make teams be patient and go on a 10 or 12-play drive. See how long they can go avoiding pressure. The run defense has been solid all season. Now, Michigan just has to stop the bleeding. The answer, in my mind, is to get the players thinking less, and playing football more.