Steve Clinkscale talks 'more aggressive' Michigan DBs: 'They're vibing off of me'

The Michigan Wolverines football secondary continues to make strides. After struggling mightily in 2020, when U-M allowed 250.5 passing yards per game (90th nationally), co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale said he had to help restore the group’s confidence. Last year, the Wolverines were much improved, yielding just 204.5 yards per outing through the air (27th). Heading into 2022, even though three starters have departed, the trajectory is still pointing up.

Clinkscale, who was hired last summer and didn’t go through 2021 spring ball, feels like he and his players are more on the same page.

“Well, the biggest thing is always the communication piece we always talk about,” Clinkscale said about his Michigan defensive backfield. “As coaches, that’s the No. 1 thing. If you can’t get lined up and can’t make the checks, you can’t make execute your assignment.

“The coach has something in his mind — what he wants — and the players have to understand what we’re communicating to them and go out and do their job. The other thing I’ve seen a little bit more of in the secondary is just that personality. They’re kinda vibing off of me. I tell people all the time, by nature, where I’m from, you have to have an aggressiveness, you have to have a mentality that you’re going to take it to them and not get hit in the mouth.

“They’re playing, they’re covering a lot better and they’re being more aggressive. They understand what they’re doing. You hear me say that all the time — ’understanding understanding.’ To me, that’s a big piece of the teaching. But I see those guys being definitely a lot better as a unit than they were last year.”

RELATED

• Michigan football: Steve Clinkscale on Ja’Den McBurrows, recovery

• Steve Clinkscale assesses Michigan freshman DBs Will Johnson, Keon Sabb, more

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh said he feels the unit is further along now than it was a year ago at this time. That remark was surprising to some, considering how elite the Wolverines were defensively, but Clinkscale agrees for one reason in particular — the system isn’t new. Michigan has been able to hit the ground running, with first-year coordinator Jesse Minter running the same system as Mike Macdonald, who departed for the Baltimore Ravens after one season in Ann Arbor. 

“I think the previous defense was a really good scheme and everything [under Don Brown from 2016-20], but we added so much more, we’ve done things a little differently and given them a little bit more responsibility,” Clinkscale explained. “I think once they were able to get a year under their belt, they understood the expectations.

“Most of the menu that we have, a lot of our players have already experienced it. It’s a lot easier for the coaches, as well, to communicate it and understand all the nuances and all what’s going to happen — try to predict, anticipate the issues. If you can coach like that, then your players can think like that, and then it helps us stay further ahead with communication, with effort, with knowing their responsibility. I would agree with that, especially just as far as understanding the game a lot better.”

And while things were good last season, Clinkscale still wants to see more from the Michigan defense. He’s harped on creating more turnovers ever since taking the job — Michigan forced 16 in 2021, tied for 68th in the country — mentioning it in each media availability, and Thursday’s session was no different.

“To have the season we had last year, they know in order to win all our games, to do the things we want to do, our group has to play better,” Clinkscale said. “We’ve got to create more takeaways, we’ve got to eliminate big plays and eliminate confusion.”

Clinkscale commands respect, which is exactly what his players give to the Michigan coach. He was excited when talking about that “vibe” his players are showing during fall camp.

“I think personalities are contagious,” Clinkscale said. “If you’re just kind of a boring person, then people around you are going to be bored. I’m not a boring person whatsoever. I have a standard of respect in our room, and we also have a standard of understanding they can talk to us about anything.

“We’ll stop meetings and we’ll talk about how you should sit in class — how you should sit in the front, sit up, act interested, lean forward, nod your head, track your professor. To that professor that may be teaching swahili, for example, that’s the most important thing in their life. Same thing as a coach. Give them that respect; if they feel like you’re not interested, you don’t want to be there.

“So, we’re teaching life lessons here at Michigan, and we also teach them the opportunity that — you can relate to me, you can talk to me. I can be that father figure, that brother, that uncle, but when you’re on that field, that’s our world. We’re all together, and embody the aggressiveness that I bring to the table.

“Just being able to relate and have that communication, that relationship, is huge. Whenever you feel like you can relate to somebody you work with, for, or they’re leading you, I think you always give more.”