Michigan's New Defensive Coordinator Asked Directly About Ohio State

With the season still six months away, folks are already wondering what Michigan is doing to prepare for Ohio State.

Michigan Defensive Coordinator Mike Macdonald met with the media on Thursday to discuss his defensive philosophy and what he likes about his roster so far.  Of course, he was also asked directly about Ohio State.

On what the Michigan defense will look like

“We’re going to be multiple. The best way I can describe our scheme is that it’s going to look like a lot of the places I’ve been previously. But you watch our Baltimore defense and tell me the times our defense looked like a 3-4? There’s going to be a percentage there. But there’s a lot of times we’re going to look like a 4-3, there’s sometimes where we’re going to look like a 6-1, there’s sometimes we’re going to look like a 6-2, sometimes you’re not going to know what the heck it looks like. So it’s hard for me to say that we’re going to be a 3-4 per se.”

On what Michigan is doing to be more effective against Ohio State

“In all honesty, we’re trying to get as good as we can get right now. It is a “what's important now” focus, from meeting to meeting, from rep to rep, from practice to practice. All the stuff in the season is going to take care of itself and we cannot worry about all of that until we get really good at what we’re doing right now. So those conversations - I’m going to leave those private to us and our guys.”

On early observations about his personnel

“We have good players here. The number one thing that I am most pleasantly surprised with is the attitude and energy.”

“Guys that stick out to me...I mean you’ve got Aidan Hutchinson. He hasn’t been practicing but you feel him out there. Josh Ross hasn’t necessarily been out there everyday but he’s a guy that’s really attacked everything. I’d say Brad Hawkins is a guy that’s really attacked what we’re trying to get done and can play multiple positions for us.”

On who or what brought him to Michigan

“Well the ‘what’ is that it’s Michigan. I mean that’s a pretty simple answer. When the opportunity first presented itself, quite frankly it wasn’t on my radar so I was a little bit in shock from coach John Harbaugh. The more I thought about it, it really was a no brainer…”

“It’s pretty simple. This is the winningest program in all of college football...Jim Harbaugh is someone that I really respect and have been familiar with over the years. Coming from John Harbaugh meant a lot for me as well, so put those three things together and it was pretty simple.”