 Miami LB Joey Hudson Ultimately, the RedHawks hope, listening to the music and crowd noise during practice will help the team avoid hearing the song too much – such as following Wolverine scores - during this Saturday’s game.
One of those charged with keeping the noise and Michigan scores down is linebacker Joey Hudson. The senior holds down the middle for a linebacker corps that will play an important role against Michigan.
“It’s going to be crucial,” Miami defensive coordinator Jay Hood said of the linebackers’ role. “They are going to be out there in that open space, and they’ve got to make plays against both the run and pass. We put a lot on those kids, but we expect a lot out of them, too. They are going to have to make plenty of plays.”
The open space Hood referred to is a product of the spread offense, which new Wolverines head coach Rich Rodriguez brought to Ann Arbor. Had Hudson made a different decision back in 2004, he might have seen the spread offense every day - in practice.
Rodriguez, who was coaching at West Virginia at the time, was interested in bringing Hudson into the Mountaineers fold. Hudson, however, decided he wanted to stay closer to his Piqua, Ohio home and signed with Miami.
Utilizing a relatively new scheme known as the spread offense, Rodriguez led West Virginia to unprecedented success. That success eventually led him to Ann Arbor, where he is installing the spread offense in a traditionally power football program. In the first test of that offense and his new team, the Wolverines fell to Utah 25-23 last weekend.
“I watched (the game) once in my dorm room and twice yesterday,” said Hudson, who wishes the RedHawks had more useful material to study. “You can’t look at Michigan (tape) from last year. It’s just a completely different team,”
One difference is personnel. Among the departed from the ’07 Michigan squad are offensive lineman Jake Long (No. 1 pick in 2008 NFL draft), quarterback Chad Henne, tailback Mike Hart and receiver Mario Manningham – all key performers with solid careers in Maize and Blue.
Another difference, however, is the offensive scheme.
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| Hudson (49) had one fumble recovery against Vanderbilt Saturday and 14 tackles. Photo: Mike Smith |
“Michigan is an interesting team, because they are in a transition from styles,” Hudson said. “They went from smash-mouth where they would line up two tight ends and the full back and wear things down. This year, they’re going to spread you out a little more.”
Getting the personnel to run a spread will take time, and this year’s squad is getting some on-the-job training. As the season develops, Hudson expects Michigan to improve while executing an expanding playbook.
“They were able to do a lot more (at West Virginia),” Hudson said while noting the Mountaineers experience with the spread system and the lead of quarterback Pat White. “Their offense was a lot more complex than this year when (Michigan) is starting out.”
Hood agreed. “West Virginia obviously had a lot more in their package,” he said. The Wolverines “are still young in their system, but they do plenty of good things, and they do them well. They’re going to be a lot better this week.”
After falling to Vanderbilt 34-13 in their opener, the RedHawks feel they need to get better this week, as well. Hood and Hudson agreed that the Miami defense played well for much of the game against Vanderbilt.
“They had five plays for 185 yards, which was over half their total,” Hood said. “We just gave them too many easy plays and too good field position. We can’t continue to let that happen.”
Hudson, who led Miami with 14 total tackles and also recovered a fumble, pointed to Commodores quarterback Chris Nickson and defensive back/kick-punt returner D.J. Moore as the main problems for Miami in their loss to Vanderbilt.
Nickson gained 166 yards, including 59 yards on one quarterback draw, and scored two touchdowns. He also threw for a score while Moore picked off a pass, forced a fumble, intercepted a pass and returned a punt 91 yards.
“He was banged up last year, so I know he wasn’t 100 percent when we played them,” Hudson said of Nickson. “He definitely had a little extra this year.”
Hudson said watching the Vanderbilt game tapes revealed breakdowns that can be corrected.
“On our defense, eleven guys have to do their job every play,” Hudson said. “It wasn’t an effort thing. It was just a guy who wasn’t in the right spot” on each play.
He continued, “You would like to limit (the mistakes) as much as possible, but it was something that we looked at on film … and (saw) it was nothing major. We can get it fixed, and we’ll be okay.” |
