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TheWolverine.com Chat: Michigan football, Jose Perez, recruiting, and more

Chris Balasby:Chris Balas•07/13/23•

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Michigan coaches Jim Harbaugh and Juwan Howard have won titles in Ann Arbor. (Photos by Getty Images)
thewolverine-com-chat-michigan-football-hoops-portal-nil-and-more
Michigan coaches Jim Harbaugh and Juwan Howard have won titles in Ann Arbor. (Photos by Getty Images)

The latest edition of TheWolverine.com Michigan football and hoops Chat, brought to you by MyPerfectFranchise. Join us here: THURSDAY CHAT.

RELATED: Michigan football: Interior line is taking off under Mike Elston

RELATED: Michigan edge rushers are making huge strides, including one ‘dominant’ one

Today, we talk about some of the recent comments on the defense by assistants Steve Clinkscale and Mike Elston. The two have their position groups ready to go, and it could lead to one of the better Michigan defenses we’ve seen — and the top unit in the Big Ten. Not many boast the Wolverines’ talent, after all.

That’s the goal, Clinkscale said on the recent In the Trenches podcast with Jon Jansen. The co-defensive coordinator and D.C. Jesse Minter have been busy putting the pieces together. Everyone in the room, though, will have a say.

“Really, it’s allowed us to dig deeper on the fundamentals side of the game,” Clinkscale said of the Michigan returning experience. “The concepts and the scheme, they understand it and we’ll keep building on that. Coach Minter always talks about our foundation, our pillars, things that we’ll continue to improve upon and grow on. We’ll just continue to advance it.

“The guys, when they’re understanding the scheme and the system, they’re able to focus more on the effort, a lot more on the angles to the ball and the pursuit. They’ll do a better job of tackling and creating takeaways, and a lot better job of communicating. We want to continue to work on that. If you can merge them both, marry them both up, I think it will make us the best defense in the country.”

On the line, Elston has a plan to let everyone compete for pass rushing duty. All will get their chances on both the interior line and on the edges, and there are several candidates. Watching them compete has been a joy, he said.

“That’s the really cool part of it, the competition piece of being able to pressure the quarterback,” the Michigan assistant said. “The thing we spent a lot of time on this spring was working together with the defensive tackle position. In the fall, you’d see a great rush from the left side, and then the right side has a breakdown because they’re not at the contain level of the quarterback and different things. So, although we want to win quick and we want to make sure we’re dominant on all sides … we have to work together as we do it.

“The left end needs to know what the left tackle’s doing. The right end needs to know what the right tackle is doing. And we can’t be working opposite of each other, or then we get three great rushes but one guy has a breakdown.”

Finally, on the basketball front, head coach Juwan Howard and the Michigan coaches are bringing in West Virginia transfer Jose Perez at the end of July. U-M appears to be in good shape here. Perez didn’t play at WVU last year after being denied a waiver, but he appears to be in good shape … we discuss that and more in chat.

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Today’s chat is presented by our friend Andy Luedecke, from MyPerfectFranchise — are you … 
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Andy’s Story
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Andy Luedecke
www.MyPerfectFranchise.Net
p: 404-973-9901
e: [email protected]
Book time with me at: Andy’s Calendar

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