Michigan’s bye week has arrived with plenty to fix and, from the sound of it, no shortage of work still ahead.
The Wolverines are 3-2 and 0-2 in Big Ten play after back-to-back losses that stung in the same way: Michigan held fourth-quarter leads in both games and still couldn’t close them out. That’s the part head coach Kyle Whittingham pointed to as the most troubling.
“Two weeks in a row, we’ve held a lead going into the fourth quarter, and haven’t been able to hang onto it,” Whittingham said, “and that’s at the top of the list of the most discouraging things is to go into the fourth quarter, you know, ahead and just not being able to finish.”
With Penn State waiting on Oct. 17, Whittingham said the bye week is a chance to take a hard look at what Michigan is doing well and where the staff should lean more heavily.
“Self-analysis: what do we do best?” Whittingham told host Jon Jansen.
“What is our, through five games, what’s been our strength? Where do we need to gravitate?
What do we need to gravitate towards schematically? Personnel-wise, you know, who have been our best players through those five games?
And are we getting those best players on the field often enough and enough reps?”
The timing matters even more because Michigan’s offensive line has already dealt with multiple injuries, adding another layer of urgency to the break.
Jansen asked Whittingham whether he planned to use the bye week to take a breather.
“No,” Whittingham answered. “Just keep grinding, you know, the players are the ones that have the physical toll on their bodies and they need to get rejuvenated, but as coaches, you got to be an Iron Man. You just got to keep going.”
On the defensive side, coordinator Jay Hill offered a more optimistic read when he joined Brian Boesch, describing a group that has been encouraging through five games and still seems capable of more. He singled out the linebackers, Troy Bowles and Nathaniel Staehling among them, as a unit that keeps moving forward.
“I got no problem with that group (the linebackers) saying that they’re going to make the plays they’re supposed to make,” Hill said.
“The crazy thing right now that I see is I still think on defense, as good as we’ve done in moments this season, we’re still scratching the surface on what I think we can become. The scheme is only going to become more and more familiar to them and they’ll start making more and more of the plays that we’re close to making,” he continued.
Sophomore defensive tackle Bobby Kanka, a Howell, Mi., native, is another player on the rise. Kanka said defensive tackles coach Larry Black has pushed the group to study J.J. Watt’s college film, using him as a model for consistency and splash plays.
“One thing Coach Black always talks to us about is J.J. Watt’s college film, and the thing that made his college film so good is he would have splash plays.
He would never drop super low. He’d have consistent plays and then he’d have a splash play.
Kanka said the last two weeks haven’t shaken the group’s confidence.
“Just kind of stick to your process,” Kanka added. “I think if you have a strong faith and a strong belief in what we’re doing and I think we all do.”
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