Mike Macdonald

Success doesn't come without it's downfalls in the college football world. After Michigan's most successful season in the last 17 years the departures started with interior defensive lineman coach Shaun Nua heading out west to USC. That loss wasn't the biggest deal, however the loss of the young and promising defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald hurts quite a bit. 

Jim Harbaugh went to his brother John and the Baltimore staff to replace Don Brown, the 34 year old Macdonald had been coaching linebackers for the Ravens before coming to be a coordinator for the first time in his career. And after one season, big brother John came back to take his coach back. 

Macdonald came up in the NFL world, and it's no surprise that the 12 month recruiting cycle of the college football coaching world didn't appeal to him and his family. But his success was quick and his departure, even quicker. Michigan took major leaps in a lot of areas under Macdonald. When Don Brown was the DC he ran a man coverage, blitz heavy scheme that put our corners on islands all of the time. Not too bad when you're playing the Northwestern's of the world, but when it came to the better offenses, with elite wide receivers our defense consistently got torched. 

Now nothing Macdonald did would blow your hair back, Michigan finished 8th in scoring defense, 18th in total defense, 27th in passing defense, 24th in rushing defense and 100th in turnovers per game. These aren't exactly irreplaceable numbers, however it was the pro style scheme and the defenses ability to hold the #1 scoring offense of Ohio State to 27 points in their win that Macdonald is most praised for. His defense didn't come without flaws however, which was to be expected from a first year coordinator. 

Versus Michigan State, he struggled keeping up with the hurry up offense that the Spartans would use periodically. The defense struggled covering the flats and would constantly give up chunk plays to receivers and backs who snuck into the flats. And of course no one can forget the disaster of giving up five touchdowns to Kenneth Walker in East Lansing. So his loss stings, but isn't insurmountable.

Looking at the defense this year, it's fair to ask whether or not Macdonald had the biggest impact on the defensive performance, or whether it was the senior led group with guys like Aidan Hutchinson, Josh Ross and Brad Hawkins covering all three levels of the squad. Now both Aidan and David Ojabo flourished with his stand up edge style of rushing, but that's not something the new coordinator has to abandon, improve on and tweak the defense to fit the players we have coming back.

Losing Macdonald after one year sucks, I won't sugar coat it. But he's not irreplaceable, the worst part is we don't get to benefit from his improvement as he gains more experience. Buyer beware for John Harbaugh though, while I predict Macdonald will go on to have a heck of a career, he was still out coached horrifically by the 30 year vet Todd Monken in the college football semi-finals. So any Raven's fan who thinks he will come in and have the instant success that he did at Michigan might want to pump the breaks a bit.

With all of that said, a heartfelt thank you to Coach Macdonald. It may have only been one season, but it was one hell of a season. Good luck back in Baltimore, but all of us who wear the maize n blue know you'll kill it......eventually.