Breakdown Sports

The aspect of MSU’s defense that gets the most focus is undoubtedly the CB position. Fans and media folk love to point out the fact that the CBs are often left on an island by themselves, remaining hip-to-hip with their receiver from the snap of the football to the play is dead. But it is my opinion that CB may not even be the most important position in the Spartans Cover 4 secondary. In fact, it is the safeties that are consistently taxed mentally, pulled between run support and coverage. While CBs receiver the brunt of the bait, the safeties are left with the largest quandary. It has long been my opinion that, at the heart of attacking MSU’s defense, lies attacking the safeties. Unfortunately for teams facing the Spartans, Michigan State’s safety rarely make that an easy task either.

For the most part Michigan played pretty solid in coverage against MSU, but also had some significant busts that lead to big gains for the Spartans. There have been some questions about a few of the ways that Michigan has worked in coverage, and I'll briefly discuss how Michigan plays man coverage to help clear that up as well. At the end of the day, what you see from this exercise though, is that you can be very good most of the day, but if just a few mistakes get exploited, the opposing team can put up points. Man Coverage People have been wondering about if Michigan is doing this right. Namely, the common complaint is not turning back and looking for the ball. In man coverage, once you flip your hips, you have two basic techniques you will play: in-phase (in-sync, in-step, in-line, even) and trail. In-phase means that you have your hip on the front side of their hip and your shoulder on the front side of their shoulder, and you're using your body to gradually defl...