Despite some troubling signs early this season, Michigan's defense once again ranks among the best in the country -- up to eighth after a dominant performance last week against Notre Dame.
Don Brown's unit held the Irish to 180 total yards to spark Michigan's 45-14 win.
"We played really well," Brown told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket. "I just had a good feeling with this group, we’ve done a good job during the practice week of focusing on the things that are important and executing at a high level. We’ve had two, I think, really special defensive performances this year: Iowa and obviously Notre Dame. Really happy with how the guys prepared. Nothing got in their way."
The same things couldn't be said of the defense back in September -- or at the end of last season, for that matter. Things hit rock bottom at Wisconsin when the Wolverines were mauled for nearly 500 yards, including 359 on the ground. For Brown, that was a turning point.
"Sometimes your worst days help you get things straight, and we couldn’t have been much worse against Wisconsin," he said. "There were reasons for that, and I’ve talked about it a little bit, but we’ve been really laser-focused when it comes to the run game. Somebody gave me a crazy stat."
That stat: Michigan has allowed just 158 yards on 271 carries -- an average of 1.7 yards per attempt -- since the Wisconsin game. On the season, the Wolverines have surrendered the 10th fewest yards per carry in the country.
"Guys have really paid attention to the run game, they’ve really paid attention to the fits. I think the ability to run to the ball got completely magnified (against Notre Dame), because their whole run game was edge, was to get on the perimeter, and it's pretty frustrating when your two linebackers are as fast as those tailbacks," said Brown.
One of those linebackers is sophomore Cam McGrone, who's taken major strides in his second season.
"That’s what happens in college football. Guys leave, they graduate, they go onto the NFL, and you have to be prepared with the next flock of guys. I think we’ve exhibited that we’ve done that," said Brown. "In '16 we were really strong, physical, big up front. Jabril (Peppers) made us faster, Ben (Gedeon) and Mike (McCray) were tough guys, we had a great secondary led by Jourdan Lewis, Delano Hill, Dymonte Thomas, but we were stout. This group here, we’re probably not as stout, but boy, can we run. All 11 positions now."
Brown pointed to the likes of Carlo Kemp, Michael Dwumfour, Aidan Hutchinson, Kwitty Paye and Michael Danna. Five defensive linemen north of 260 lbs., and all of them can run. And if we're talking about speed, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention freshman defensive Dax Hill. Brown can't talk about him enough.