Dominic Nichols walked away from Michigan’s win over Western Michigan with a stat line that jumped off the page: 9 total tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. But if you listened to him after the game, the tone was not celebratory. It was pointed, almost impatient.
Nichols joined former Michigan player and current broadcaster Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast, with the episode released on September 9th, and his message was clear: the result left plenty to be fixed before Oklahoma comes to town.
"Not exactly happy with how the game went obviously, but we learned a lot from it. There's room to improve always, but I think we know what we have to do going into this next week."
That kind of answer matters. Nichols played well enough individually to spend the week patting himself on the back, but instead he focused on the bigger picture and the standard Michigan expects on defense. He sounded more concerned with what the unit missed than with what he personally did right.
When the conversation turned to what needs cleaning up against the Sooners, Nichols went straight to the issues that showed up against Western Michigan.
"Limiting stupid penalties and getting off the field on third down. I think those are the biggest things for our defense."
That’s exactly where the problems were. Michigan’s defense took costly flags, including Jyaire Hill’s pass interference that wiped out an interception, Smith Snowden’s late hit out of bounds that added 15 yards, and an offsides penalty as well. The third-down numbers were also too generous, with Western Michigan converting 8/18 for first downs.
Nichols’ comments suggest Michigan knows what the fixes are. The bigger test is whether the group can make them fast enough, because that part of the equation has to come together in just one week.
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