Michigan football's Don Brown sprinkles in zone coverage: 'More is more'

Don Brown has had many more good days than bad during his three years at Michigan. Plenty of great ones, in fact. 

But this is a high-pressure job. And Michigan's defensive coordinator is coming off the close of a season that featured his worst day, an outing fans have not — and will not — forget about until something flips. 

Brown's defense, dominant for 10 straight games last year, fell apart in a 62-39 thrashing at Ohio State, victimized by a game plan that exploited Michigan's man-to-man coverage schemes and every single zone check in Brown's bag. He knows it. You know it. He knows you know it. He's as angry as you are. 

"We won 10 games in a row, we had great moments. Then we have the Ohio State debacle. Don't blame the players," Brown says, raising his hand to accept full blame himself. "But if you live in the world of negativity, are you ever going to get yourself out of it? You're not. 

"We'll be ready to go. Every day there's a part of the day you're getting ready to be better as a professional. Trust me, that's the approach I take." 

Michigan wrapped up its 2019 spring practice this week in Ann Arbor and, like each one of his previous three years on campus, Brown's defense has preached pressure and aggression in both its blitz game and its man-to-man coverage approach. 

Brown admits he's gone through his yearly bout of evolution. And that includes zone coverage. 

In part because he believes he has the personnel to do it. Also because he knows he's going to need more options when it comes to defending some of the country's highest-powered offenses. 

"Coach (Harbaugh) tells me all the time, more is more," Brown said. "Make sure you have enough answers." 

Brown didn't want to get into specifics with regard to the new wrinkles he's put into his defensive packages this spring. His routine answer to that question stays the same: "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." 

Brown said Michigan has about nine different ways to attack offenses with a variety of different coverage packages that can be used throughout the year. 

Michigan's never going to be a full-zone team, though, Brown stresses. It's not going to be an even mixture of anything. It will adapt and change what it does based on opposing offenses. 

But the Wolverines are going to have an identity. And aggression will always be the piece that shines the most. 

"If you just live in the reaction world, that means you're not acting. So, what's your identity? Well, you don't have one, you're just reacting to an offense," he said. "I'm not saying we're perfect. But we're going to have an identity. We're going to stand for something. I make that clear to the players. I think the players understand we need that. 

"I think if you went in the room and asked them they'd be fairly strong (on that). You've got to be careful about being reactionary." 

Man coverage will still be the primary option. Michigan has used zone concepts before, so some of this is nothing new. 

Brown has sprinkled in his vaunted cover-2 trap schemes plenty over the years. He put in zone checks during the Ohio State game, and other games, last season. But there are fundamental truths his defense will always live by. 

And not getting shredded on the ground will always be one of them. In today's game, with run-pass options everywhere, Brown argues that a reliance on full-zone coverage is an easy way to get yourself run off the field the hard way. 

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"It's very difficult to defend RPOs and play a lot of true zone coverage," Brown said. "I'm being honest as a heart attack. If you're defending zones against what (Michigan offensive coordinator) Josh Gattis does, hang onto your hats. You at least have to have enough guys to cover your run scheme gaps and cover guys. Now, that's not the only way to defend it. There's other ways to defend an RPO. 

"But an element of that has to be accounting for (the pass) while also having the numbers that are effective to stop the run. If you don't have the numbers, because they read the box, if you don't have those numbers to stop or manage the run — they'll run the ball up and down the field." 

Brown was extremely hard on himself after a 2017 shellacking at Penn State where his group gave up 506 yards. He thought about how to fix the problems that showed up in that game for a full year. The Nittany Lions didn't have the same talent level in 2018, but Brown's defense responded anyway, holding PSU to 186 yards. 

He has internalized what happened at Ohio State and is in the process of doing what he can to fix it. Brown is the first to tip his hat to Ryan Day and the Buckeyes' offensive staff for what he admits was a better game plan. 

But he's not ready to throw in the towel with regard to what might come next. 

"My hat's off to them. They had a better game plan than we did," Brown said. "You look at their season. Maryland, Purdue. There's games there, it just happens. It's beautiful when it doesn't, but it's not happening those ways anymore. You just don't go out ... people do a good job of game planning on a week-to-week basis. That determines success and failure. When you succeed, you move on in a humble way. 

"When you fail, you fix it." 

Contact Nick Baumgardner at nbaumgardn@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickbaumgardner. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter.