Mason Graham reveals four 'main pillars' of Michigan football defense

Michigan Wolverines football has one of the finest defenses in the land. The Maize and Blue rank third nationally in both points allowed per game (11.5) and yards allowed per outing (250.3).

They’ve been strong against both the run (79.8 yards per game, third in the country) and pass (170.5, eighth). But it starts with the former, with players like freshman defensive tackle Mason Graham wreaking havoc on the interior of the line. Michigan has held three of its five Big Ten opponents to under 100 rushing yards.

In the last game against Michigan State, the Spartans averaged 8.8 yards to go on third down, which got them off schedule.

Being that stout against the run starts with one of the “main pillars” of the Michigan defense, Graham revealed: block destruction.

“We have pillars of our defense, and that’s one of the main pillars of our defense,” Graham said. “Every week after the game, we show a different amount of plays of block destruction — that’s what we call it. We’ll show game clips that we have of our block destruction. That’s what we look for every game.”

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For a player like Graham, destroying a block and getting off of it can lead to cutting the field in half for the ball-carrier, allowing his Michigan teammates to rally to the ball.

Graham, by the way, said he shows up in those clips “every here and there.” He has 13 tackles, including 1.5 sacks, and 1 pass breakup so far in his first collegiate season.

The other pillars, said, are shocking effort, ball disruption and obnoxious communication.

“Always run to the ball, get in that frame of the video on film,” Graham said of shocking effort. “Ball disruption — that’s more of turnovers. We’re looking to get more strip sacks, or get strip sacks. Obnoxious communication, just knowing what we’re doing and [having] everyone on the same page.”

Michigan senior defensive back Mike Sainristil said something the Wolverines are working on to take the defense to the next level is being as dominant from the get-go as they have in the second half. The Maize and Blue have been great at adjusting at halftime, having allowed just six points in third quarters all season.

“Just honing in our game plan,” Graham said of what it will take. “It changes every game. But the same basis of destroying blocks, winning your one-on-ones is going to be the same every game, so just improving on those, the foundation of our defense, every week.”

He also provided some insight into the halftime process.

“It’s just like, keep on doing us,” Graham said. “In that Penn State game, they got a few plays on us. It looked closer than it was. We came into halftime knowing we had a good first half and to keep playing the same way in the second half. Things just turned on after that.”

Mazi Smith taking Mason Graham under his wing

Michigan senior defensive tackle Mazi Smith has taken Graham under his wing. Smith, a captain, has been described as one of the most wise U-M players. He’s also one of the best, with 32 tackles, including 3 behind the line of scrimmage, even while taking on frequent double teams.

“Obviously, he’s in my position group, so I’m with him a lot of the time, I’m on the field with him, I’m right next to him,” Graham said. “So he’s been a big guy that I’ve looked up to and tried to see what he’s doing and try to take after him.

“Just during the preseason games, he was just telling me that it’s going to get a lot harder once we get into Big Ten play, and we were just working at it every day in practice.”

Smith is an extension of defensive line coach Mike Elston and the staff.

“Just in our D-line room, he gives us a lot of knowledge, even though Coach Elston has been a coach for such a long time,” Graham explained. “He’ll give us extra pointers here and there on technique or game notes that we’ll be expecting when we’re in the game. So that’s been big.”