Where's the D?

Two years ago this week, the Wolverines travelled to Happy Valley with one of the best defensive units ever. Led by soon-to-be Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson, Michigan's D was brash, loud, aggressive and - most importantly - unpenetrable.

In a display that was remarkable in both its simplicity and its thoroughness, the fourth-ranked Wolverines dismantled the second-ranked Nittany Lions, 34-8. It was a statement game in a statement season. The team made the statement, but the defense provided the exclamation mark.

But this Saturday, Michigan will bring a limping defense into Beaver Stadium against a ferocious, hard-hitting Penn State bunch. Oh, how the tables have turned.

SAM HOLLENSHEAD/Daily The Michigan secondary has seen a lot of things happen in the past two years. Unfortunately for the Wolverines, a lot of those things have taken place in their end zone.

Michigan's defense didn't disappear all at once. It went in bits and pieces. First, Woodson left early for the NFL draft and Glen Steele graduated, leaving holes in the secondary and the defensive line. When Marcus Ray accepted benefits from an agent and received a half-season suspension, the secondary became even more vulnerable.

By last season's fifth game, Michigan's defense had already let up more points (120) than the '97 defense did in its 12 (114), and lost two more games.

But still, no reason to panic. Scores dropped as the season progressed. After letting up 74 in the first two games, opponent's scored 20,17, nine then six. Over a four-game stretch in mid-season, the Wolverines allowed just 30 total points including a 27-0 victory over those pesky Lions. Everything seemed to be normal again.

Despite more personnel losses this season - a lineman (Juaquin Feazell), a linebacker (Sam Sword) and a defensive back (Andre Weathers) - Michigan, led by its defense, rolled to a 5-0 start.

All was well in Ann Arbor, right?

Apparently not.

Boom, boom, boom. Three games,100 points.

"At times, we give up the big pass play," Michigan safety Tommy Hendricks said. "That's the biggest thing that's killed the secondary. It's hurt the whole defense. You take that away, we're successful."

But Michigan can't seem to take away the deep pass, and you can't take it out of the past. As nose tackle and team captain Rob Renes said earlier this week, there are no take-backs in football.

So what's wrong?

Just two years ago, Michigan's secondary was the center of a special team, an aggressive, attacking force not to be trifled with. Throw on those Wolverines? Not likely.

"We lost some key guys," Hendricks said. "Guys in the secondary and guys in all the defense."

But the big problem hasn't been who's gone. There's still plenty of talent in the secondary, the players there just haven't lived up to it. For three games, they played on their heels. They didn't blitz, they didn't attack. They played passive defense as Spartans, Illini and Hoosiers cut over the middle and up the sidelines for big gains.

"The last couple weeks, we've had breakdowns," safety DeWayne Patmon said. "We're not there yet."

A major part of the problem has been Todd Howard, a cornerback who's been beaten more often than the Washington Generals - Michigan State's Plaxico Burress and Indiana's Jerry Dorsey both did pretty good Globetrotter impressions against Howard. No one questions Howard's talent; for the sophomore, the problem may be lack of maturity.

"We've got a lot of new faces, but we've got a lot of guys that have been there before," Howard said. "We've got to get on their backs. They're going to carry us through this."

When Woodson started as a freshman, he wasn't climbing on anyone's back. Instead, he took the team on his back. He turned the biggest game of that freshman season into a personal coming-out party, grabbing two interceptions against Ohio State in a 31-28 victory.

Woodson had swagger. Howard and Michigan's secondary have just staggered.

"We played well at first, then Michigan State had the big game against us offensively through the air," Hendricks said. "That shook us up a little bit."

Basic instinct

If Michigan jumps out to an early lead this Saturday, don't be too quick to grab the remote. Michigan has a habit of making games exciting, even when they shouldn't be. How else can they explain blowing a 21-point lead to Illinois, then almost blowing a 17-point one to Indiana the next week?

"We'd get up, and sometimes we'd have a tendency to relax a little bit," Howard said. "We've discussed that at meetings and practices. Four quarters are four quarters."

The '97 defense had a killer instinct - if the offense gave them a lead to work with, you could pretty much put the W in the books; in those games against Indiana and Illinois, the current Michigan squad proved it lacked one.

"Against Illinois and Indiana, we'd get a lead on them, then we'd have a letdown on the defense," Hendricks said. "We weren't playing up to our capabilities."

Northwestern coach Randy Walker thought he saw one in Michigan last week.

A new-look Michigan squad frequently used a nickel package and blitzed out of an aggressive secondary while holding the Wildcats to 79 passing yards in the 37-3 victory.

"We wanted to get after this team," Hendricks said. "It was a good job by coach Herrmann in his game plan. Defensively, we played the way we're supposed to. We got them down and we didn't let them breathe."

But Northwestern never tested Michigan's biggest weakness, the deep pass. The real test comes this Saturday against Penn State.

"We wanted to show people that the last couple of weeks is not really an indication of how we play," Patmon said. "We want to show people that we can really come and knock people out and can cover."

11-11-99