Defensive Recruiting in the Coach Rodriquez Era
Coach Rodriquez has had three recruiting seasons to help build the defense at Michigan. In his first recruiting class, we already had commitments from the likes of Will Campbell, J.T. Floyd, Kenny Demens, Brandon Smith, Mike Martin, J.B. Fitzgerald and Boubacar Cissoko from Coach Carr and staff. Other current defensive players are holdovers from Coach Carr's staff: Obi Ezeh, Jonas Mouton, Brandon Graham, Donovan Warren, Stevie Brown, Troy Wolfolk, Ryan Van Bergen, etc. These players have tried to "fit in" to Coach Rod's system including a defensive scheme change from a 4-3 to the current 3-4 plus three defensive coordinators in three years. Two of his 2008 defensive recruits left the team: Taylor Hill and Marcus Witherspoon. The other 7 recruits were offensive commitments: Feagin, Odoms, Moore, Roundtree, Shaw, Barnum and Omameh. Off 22 new commitments in 2009, only 9 were defensive, two are playing, 6 will probably redshirt and one didn't make the grade. Adrian Witty may re-commit for 2010. Teric Jones was recruited as an offensive player, pledged as an offensive player; however, he moved to defense in the August, 2009 camp. Here is a list of his 2009 recruits and their status of help to our 2009 defense:
| Defensive Recruits | Status | Notes |
| Lolata, Anthony | Redshirt | |
| Emilien, Vladimir | Redshirt | |
| Turner, J.T. | Probable Redshirt | |
| Roh, Craig | Starter Quick LB | 14 tackles in 5 games |
| Jones, Mike | Backup OLB-SAM | 2 tackles in 5 games |
| Gordon, Thomas | Redshirt | |
| Hawthorne, Brandin | Redshirt | |
| Bell, Isaiah | Redshirt |
Here is a list of 2010 pledges on the defensive side of the ball so far:
| 2010 Defensive Recruits | Position |
| Talbott, Terry | NT/DT |
| Wilkins, Kenny | DE |
| Kinard, Antonio | ILB |
| Robinson, Marvin | OLB-SAM |
| Paskorz, Jordan | Quick LB |
| Avery, Courtney | CB |
| Talbott, Terrence | CB |
While our defense has ranked amongst the worst in NCAA Division I and Big Ten football for the past two years under his leadership, he continues to emphasize offensive recruiting. Of 19 pledges thus far, only 7 are defensive. According to the concept of building a solid football team according to Coach Rod, the mathematics are as follows: 32 offensive and 18 defensive players over the past three years. 64% of his scholarships are dedicated to offensive players; this would equate to 54 of 85 scholarships held to the offense and 31 to the defense. Of his 18 defensive recruits, 3 are not on the team to help us, 6 aren't yet ready to help the team and 8 more are coming next year. This only leaves two contributors in 2 years.
| Year | Offensive | Defensive | Total |
| 2008 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| 2009 | 13 | 9 | 22 |
| 2010 | 12 | 7 | 19 |
| 3 years | 32 | 18 | 50 |
Under Coach Rodriquez' leadership, the defense is poor, doesn't appear to be emphasized nor does the future of the defense look promising with the lack of commitment to defense on his part. All he seems to be interested in is building an offense, and particulary obsessed with a quick strike offensive juggernaut at the expense of a sound defense. How can we win a Big Ten or NCAA BCS Championship without a solid defense?
| 2008 | Big Ten Rank | NCAA Category | 2009 | Big Ten Rank |
| 51st | 6th | Rushing | 81st | 8th |
| 87th | 9th | Passing | 88th | 8th |
| 66th | 9th | Total | 91st | 9th |
| 90th | 10th | Scoring | 55th | 5th |
| 81st | 10th | Pass Efficiency | 52nd | 5th |
| 107th | 11th | Turnover Margin | n/a | n/a |
| 35th | n/a | Sacks | 94th | 10th |
If you were a good defensive player, would you want to come to Michigan to play defense under Coach Rod?