Ann Arbor, Michigan—— We now know a little more about the defensive scheme Jay Hill has planned for Michigan football (which he claimed Thursday is very similar to Jesse Minter’s in Ann Arbor in 2023), but why is this the scheme he chose?
Not many people run such complex systems, especially in college. While the Wolverines’ previous program was spearheaded by Wink Martindale — initially installed by Mike McDonald in 2021, refined by Minter in 2022-23, and run by Martindale himself the first two years — a similar schematic identity has always been Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah State Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah, Utah State, Utah State, Utah State His final year leading Utah’s defense was his son Kyle’s first, and the younger Whittingham took over Utah’s defense the following year.
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So when Jay Hill was hired to oversee BYU’s defense after nearly a decade as Weber State’s head coach, the former Ute player and coach brought that attitude with him.
“So, it’s a crazy thing. I actually played on this defense,” Hill said. “This goes back to the late ’90s when I was recruited to the University of Utah. Coach Whittingham and his father were both coaches at the University of Utah, and it was something they developed when Coach Whittingham’s father was an NFL defensive coordinator. I’m one of the very few people who has actually met Coach Whittingham and what he calls it. I can tell you, he’s the best defensive coordinator with the best defensive mind. I’ve ever seen.
“So, we’re not trying to change too much. Now, as college football evolves, we’re always making adjustments and things. I think we’ve evolved some things. But the roots and the skeleton of the defense goes all the way back to those guys.”
Not only does the scheme work, but Hill, as a former offensive coach — overseeing tight ends and running backs at Utah for five years — knows exactly what opposing offensive coaches want to do. This largely determines how he deploys his systems and schemes, and he spends a lot of time making sure his version of the defense can confuse and confuse opposing offenses.
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“Everything we do is reasonable. We’re not going to guess. I’m not going to just throw out, ‘Hey, this front looks like something cool that we drew on a napkin.’ We’re not going to do that,” Hill said. “Those things are sound. It’s balanced because we’re not putting six guys on the field and one on the boundary and just hope it hits. Like we’re not doing anything like that. It’s sound. It’s evenly spaced. But it’s coming from different directions. And it’s hard to pick up.
“One of the blessings I had when I was an assistant coach was that I coached the offense for six years and I knew how we protected things, I knew how we tried to beat certain screens or certain defenses. I knew how we slid protection to blitz. Well, now I can turn that around and try to beat the offensive mind on the other side of the ball. That’s a big thing in my career, is understanding the offensive side of the ball and trying to create chaos.”
The Wolverines have completed two spring ball practices and have 12 practices remaining before the final practice is the annual spring game at the Big House.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football’s Jay Hill explains origins of defensive schemes, schemes
