The Michigan blueprint for defending Ohio State

Michigan has beaten Ohio State four years in a row.

• 42-27 in 2021
• 45-23 in 2022
• 30-24 in 2023
• 13-10 in 2024

For each of those last four seasons, Ohio State had more or less the same sort of team as they do now and in each of those seasons Michigan brought more or less the same gameplan into “The Game” and came out victorious as a result.

[Join Inside Texas TODAY and get 7 days for just ONE DOLLAR!]

“So, doesn’t everyone else just do the same thing? How come Ohio State is beating everyone else?”

Everyone else is NOT just doing the same thing. Either they feel they can’t or believe they know better than the Michigan staff how best to defend Ryan Day’s Buckeye offense. Clearly they don’t and particularly not the last two teams to face Ohio State, each of whom got smacked around.

The Michigan method is unorthodox for college football but it’s there for Texas if Steve Sarkisian, Pete Kwiatkowski, and the rest of the staff want to make an attempt to copy it. I’m going to explain the method and how it could translate with the Texas defense.

The Buckeye offense

Ohio State under Day is really built around one principle feature, the combining of a vertical weapon in the slot with a deep threat on the outside. Every year the Buckeyes have a slot receiver who’s been taught to run a bender (post or seam route where the slot runs into open grass away from wherever the safety is aligned) at a high level. Hitting this route every year is a major factor in the overall offense and arguably the cornerstone piece of the system.

Here’s a very recent example of this year’s slot, Emeka Egbuka, running the bender and quarterback Will Howard nailing it:

This Will Howard-Emeka Egbuka connection was 🔥 pic.twitter.com/IBzAiUenJ1

— Eleven Warriors (@11W) January 1, 2025

It’s very hard to stop without committing a safety to bracket it, but if you do that it’s hard to also bracket the star outside receiver on the team in a given year (this year it’s Jeremiah Smith) unless you want to try and play the run down a man.

In this example the Oregon safety on the inside of Egbuka’s bender is busy playing over the top of Smith. The other safety is playing over the top of the other Buckeye receiver, which is a total waste. I really expected better from Dan Lanning. Most of the game Oregon played single-high so they’d have a defender in position to help against the run game. Good call, Oregon.

So on a given Ohio State play-call, the defense has to be ready to deal with this inherent stress:

Texas’ normal, single-high Match 3 coverage they’ve relied on this season would have the strong safety drop down to match the tight end while the free safety dropped deep to defend the post. The bender to Egbuka could be a risky throw (unless he put a good move on the safety), but whichever cornerback was facing Smith would be on an island against a vertical outside.

Texas has played outstanding football in the secondary this season, but covering Egbuka and Smith 1-on-1 are tough assignments.

At 6-foot-3, 215 pounds with flypaper hands and track speed, Smith is just on a different level. Egbuka is awfully good as well and benefits from the wide open spaces of the deep field playing in the slot.

The Michigan method

So what does Michigan do?

They don’t let Ohio State get 1-on-1 matchups and leverage for the slot bender or outside vertical. How do they prevent it? They play two-high coverage, often Cover 6:

The safety playing to Jeremiah Smith’s side should always be gaining depth at the snap after starting with a lot of initial depth. pic.twitter.com/WcI3Cy3KnE

— Captain Bruisin, cruise director (@Ian_A_Boyd) January 2, 2025

Cover 6 is a combination coverage with both safeties playing back. You play Cover 2 to one side of the formation and Cover 4 (quarters) to the other side. The idea is to play Cover 2 over Smith and Cover 4 to the side of the field with Egbuka.

In our example above:

Assuming Smith is on bottom as the “Z,” the strong safety would play Cover 2 over the top of him while the free safety would play quarters and match any vertical by the slot with inside leverage with help underneath from the “Star” (nickel).

If both are on the same side of the field, for instance if Smith were the X, the backside safety would look to slide over and help “poach” the bender while the frontside safety would stay over the top:

Ohio State has a number of different formations designed to confuse who’s where and over stress the coverage, but there’s usually an answer if you’re willing to live with 1-on-1 matchups against everyone else.

So why doesn’t everyone else do this?

Because you get zero help in the run game, that’s why. The front six are isolated against the five O-linemen, tight end, and Ohio State’s star running back platoon of Treveyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins. The prospect of playing an honest box against Ohio State’s front has been too intimidating for most teams. Every year Michigan has come into this game saying, “run as much as you’d like, we think you’re soft.”

The Wolverines also get the quarters safety involved because if Egbuka isn’t running a bender, and you can tell early in a play if he is or isn’t, then the safety can arrive late and help against the run. He’s playing deep though before the snap so it’s not much help unless the front six plays things well.

They’ve been rewarded for using this approach each of the last four seasons with wins and below average Ohio State performances. Without the bombs over the top, Ohio State’s offense can get much more ordinary in a hurry.

Can Texas use the Michigan method

Can Texas similarly rely on Cover 6? I don’t see why not, the Longhorns have those sorts of split-field quarters concepts in the playbook even if they’ve received less emphasis this season than last year. Assuming everyone in the secondary didn’t forget how to play Match Quarters, it shouldn’t be too hard to build a gameplan heavy on two-high coverages and even mix in single-high for the purpose of having change-ups and disguising the coverage so Ohio State can’t tee off.

There are two drawbacks to using that method, the first is really obvious and the second less so.

The first is that Ohio State’s revamped offensive line might be able to line up in the friendly confines of AT&T Stadium without the psychological baggage of repeated Michigan losses or the literal forms of Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant manning the trenches and just smash Texas in the mouth. Can the Longhorns stop the Buckeye run game with the front six while a seventh defender comes late into the box?

I don’t know if they can, the Ohio State run game has improved since the Michigan game. It’ll likely be tempting for Texas to trust the secondary and pass defense which carried them to this point and send some help to the run game. I think this is would be a mistake though, Texas had real trouble corralling the Clemson spread passing attack on first downs and Egbuka and Smith are on a different level than the Tiger skill weapons.

The less obvious drawback would be if Ohio State has finally worked out some solutions to the Michigan method. Presumably Day and his staff spent the time between the Michigan loss and round one anticipating other teams trying the same blueprint and working up some solutions. The easiest solution is to run the dang ball but throwing to the tight end or the opposite field receiver are also viable options. The first play of the game against Oregon was a wheel route to the tight end which did considerable damage.

Were I Kwiatkowski, I’d safeguard against these possibilities with the following strategy. I’d employ the Michigan method but use Michael Taaffe and Jahdae Barron over Smith while asking Andrew Mukuba to balance the tasks of playing Egbuka inside and coming up late in the run game. Malik Muhammad would draw the other Buckeye wideout on an island all day. If that became a problem he could switch with Barron but my guess is Day wouldn’t want to go into a press conference and answer questions about why Smith didn’t touch the ball so I’d rather Barron match him. Texas will want to get the Thorpe winner involved in the game as possible short of asking him to repeatedly check a freak like Smith 1-on-1.

Ohio State would have to run the ball very effectively to force me out of these looks and do so beyond the opening script. If the Buckeyes did do so and Texas needed to start getting stops to get back into the game, of course the Horns should take their chances in 1-on-1 coverage. Before then, I’d prefer to blunt the sharpest edge of the Buckeye offense and attempt to draw them into a mud fight where the inconsistent Texas offense could have a chance to make enough plays to win.

If I had to guess, I’d say PK will probably instead run Match 3 coverage and have the cornerbacks play with some cushion on the outside receivers before mixing in Tampa 2 (three deep safeties to bracket everything!) on 3rd down. Much like every other week. It sounds like a reasonable strategy, but that’s what Oregon was thinking a few days ago as well and we saw how that turned out.

[Subscribe to the Inside Texas YouTube channel!]

Instead, PK should play to Ohio State’s weaknesses as Michigan has done and see how well the Buckeyes hold up schematically and psychologically if their normally overwhelming attributes aren’t producing.