Michigan D

Mattison charged with fixing Michigan defense

New Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison knows the numbers.

He knows how much the Michigan defense struggled the past three seasons. But he also told himself before taking the job that he wasn't going to look at a lot of film from 2010.

"The only reason I was looking at film was to see players, not schemes," said Mattison, who was defensive coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens. "It's not my place to judge what happened before. I've always taken that approach. I was hired to do a job, and my job is to get the defense to play up to Michigan standards."

Mattison's ability to do that will determine if Michigan is able to return to the bowl business and perhaps be a dark horse in the Big Ten Legends Division under first-year coach Brady Hoke.

It has been a while since the Wolverines were a serious Big Ten title contender, last winning a share of the crown in 2004. That was under Lloyd Carr, who retired after the 2007 season. Rich Rodriguez took over, and Michigan sank to depths it hadn't experienced since the pre-Bo Schembechler days in the 1960s.

At the root of Rodriguez's problems was a horrible defense, one that ranked last in the Big Ten in total defense (450.8 ypg), scoring defense (35.2 ppg) and pass defense (261.9 ypg) last season.

After Hoke was hired away from San Diego State, he reached out to Mattison to run the defense. The duo has a close relationship that dates to their days on the Michigan staff as defensive assistants. Mattison was an assistant in Ann Arbor from 1992-96, while Hoke was there from 1995-02.

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