In many respects, comparing last year’s Michigan football team to this year’s group of Wolverines is a fruitless endeavor. From top to bottom, Michigan is a changed team with new star players and a different staff. So in most cases, looking backward is something that the current Wolverines have tried not to do.
But there’s one area that Michigan statistically led the nation in a year ago that it has struggled with this season. It’s something that Michigan coach Sherrone Moore and his players are frustrated with because it has nothing to do with a skill gap — discipline.
Last year, an underrated facet of the Wolverines was the fact that they almost never took penalties. In fact, they ended the year with the fewest penalties per game and the third fewest penalty yards per contest. This year, those rankings have flipped on their heads with Michigan slipping to 54th and 75th in those categories, respectively. And that’s something the Wolverines are working to change with a renewed focus.
“Some of those are just football plays,” junior defensive lineman Mason Graham said Tuesday. “There’s some dumb penalties, there’s always dumb stuff that we can clean up. But that’s something we pride ourselves on, just trying not to get as many penalties because that obviously hurts you. Kills drives, and prolongs drives on the defensive side, so that’s something we need to work on.”
Graham’s point, that penalties have hurt the Wolverines, has been apparent through the first three weeks of the season. In three contests, Michigan has taken 16 penalties and totaled 169 yards lost. And this past weekend against Arkansas State, the impact of those mistakes was especially apparent.
Early in the first quarter with the Red Wolves working their way downfield on their first drive, the Wolverines pushed Arkansas State to the brink on a 3rd-and-20. The Red Wolves completed a short pass, gained 11 yards and fell short of the sticks — and it appeared that Michigan’s defense had earned itself a punt and some rest. But then, a late hit from junior linebacker Ernest Hausmann drew a flag, and Arkansas State had the opportunity to move itself into field goal range.
And then again late in the first half, on the other side of the ball this time, a penalty cost Michigan heavily — 25 yards to be exact. After a rocky first half, senior quarterback Davis Warren appeared to have found junior tight end Colston Loveland for a 20-yard gain to the 40. But instead, the Wolverines got called for an illegal formation and had to move back to their own 15.
“We’ve got to eliminate the penalties,” Moore said Saturday. “We talked about the penalties, saw the penalties, and you could say they’re this or say they’re that, but you can’t have them. We’ve got to clean those up and be more disciplined. I’ve got to do a better job with the team making sure we’re more disciplined from this day forward — and I will.”
The Wolverines’ lack of discipline last Saturday, and really through the first three weeks, has been one of the starkest departures for the team from a year ago. So it’s unsurprising that when Moore and Michigan talk about how they plan to remedy those issues now, they return to the keys that fueled their success last year, the so-called “four pillars.”
With tackling and communication two of the key pillars, Graham and the defense see emphasizing these facets of the game as key to maintaining discipline.
“It’s just the pillars,” Graham said on how the Wolverines are emphasizing discipline. “Taking better angles, better position of tackling. Not putting yourself in a bad position to maybe pull someone’s face mask or hit them out of bounds.”
This Saturday against Southern California, Michigan’s margin for error is slim. It doesn’t have the benefit of facing a weaker opponent, and it’s at a point in its season where it can’t afford another loss. With a contest so close and so influential, Moore and the Wolverines know that a lack of discipline could cost them the game.
And so at least in that respect, it’s an area where Michigan finds looking backward to last year’s team worthwhile.
The post Michigan focused on discipline, limiting penalties as Big Ten play approaches appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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