Jay Hill aims to make Michigan defense unpredictable

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jay Hill doesn’t just want to tell you that the defense will be good; he wants to show you. And with that, that side of the ball is diligently working to ensure that it improves daily.

Pioneering what he’s called ‘the most complicated scheme in America,’ Hill says that he has about 60% of the defense installed, and that it might not get to 100% by fall camp’s end, or even year’s end. Even still, he wants to see a group that does what it can do at the highest of levels, and with that, he’s more in show-me mode rather than tell-me.

“I think in general, it’s always a good policy for all of us to let your actions speak for themselves,” Hill said. “I don’t think we’re in the business of just talking about what we can do. We’re in the business of letting our actions show it. And I think we have that team that will show it. But we’re one practice in. And I think we’ll just get better and better and better and better. And then take the nation by storm, hopefully.”

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Like what head coach Kyle Whittingham said at the beginning of spring ball, Hill agrees that the strength of the team right now, or at least the defense, is the front. However, he feels like the middle and the back-end are right there. It may take some time, but he feels like the whole of the defense will be cohesively good by the time Michigan hosts Iowa for the Big Ten opener at the end of September.

“I think that they should be a strength of our team right now,” Hill said. “I’ve seen a lot of groups continue to get better and better. I think the corners are going to be a really strong group. I think by the time we play the first game and get three games under our belt, I think you’ll see every position we’re playing at a high level.”

As far as the scheme is concerned, Hill — like his offensive counterpart in Jason Beck — wants to be unpredictable. That adds to the complication, but even still, he’s cognizant that it’s more important to do things right than to have an oversized menu of options, noting, ‘It doesn’t matter how much you do if you don’t do it well, and so we’ll do as much as we can do if we’re doing it well.’

Hill sees his job as making life as difficult as possible for opposing offenses — whether it be the quarterbacks or the coordinators. Thus, he always wants the players to be comfortable in what he’s running, while opposing teams are uncomfortable simultaneously.

“I don’t want quarterbacks sitting in the pocket just saying, ‘I know they’re in man,’ or ‘I know they’re in cover 3,’ or ‘I know they’re in cover 2.’ So we try to give multiple looks. We try to give multiple disguises. We change the fronts, so we’re multiple in the front. We’ll bring blitzes from all different directions and all different kinds of blitzes. Man pressures, zone pressures, fire zones, simulated pressures. So I think the thing with us is I just don’t want an offensive coordinator to just say, ‘I know what they’re doing, and we’re attacking this specific area.’ You’re going to have to try to figure this out first.”

Fall camp is one practice down with a month to go until the Week 1 season opener against Western Michigan at The Big House.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Jay Hill aims to make Michigan defense unpredictable