Wolverines Report: Notes, Quotes

--New head coach Brady Hoke made a significant hire when he lured defensive coordinator Greg Mattison from the NFL to take charge of Michigan's beleaguered unit. Mattison has more than 30 years experience at the collegiate level, most recently as defensive coordinator at Florida.

--The Wolverines have added Air Force to the 2012 schedule and will face the Falcons in the home opener a week after opening the season against Alabama at Cowboys Stadium. Alabama, Air Force and Notre Dame will make up the nonconference portion of the 2012 schedule. The Wolverines beat Air Force 24-7 in 1964 in the only previous meeting between the schools.

--Hoke brought six members of his staff from San Diego State to Michigan, including offensive coordinator Al Borges.

--To provide a critical link with the current players, Hoke retained long-time Michigan running backs coach Fred Jackson at the same position on the new staff. Jackson will begin his 20th season as a member of the Wolverines coaching staff in 2011.

SPRING SNAPSHOT

Practice priorities: New Michigan head coach Brady Hoke had to look at just one line on the 2010 season stat sheet to determine where his focus would need to be once he got his team out on the practice field for the first time this spring. The Wolverines gave up an average of 35 points and 450 yards per game last season, and that needed to get fixed. So Hoke takes his team into spring with a revision in the format, moving from the 3-3-5 defense preferred by former head coach Rich Rodriguez and converting to a 4-3 scheme. Both Hoke and new Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison prefer the 4-3. "That's something we're both familiar with. We've played it a lot and coached it a lot," Hoke said. Their first order of business for spring is to make that Michigan's defense for the 2011 season, and make certain it works much more efficiently than the unit from 2010.

Michigan will also spend some time this spring tweaking its offense, which was one of the best in the country in 2010. This is not a case of fixing something that is not broken, but rather a move to protect junior QB Denard Robinson from the punishment he took last year when he rushed for 1,702 yards, the best single-season rushing performance ever by a quarterback. New offensive coordinator Al Borges plans to tweak the Michigan spread into more of a pro-style attack that more evenly distributes the workload, uses the pass more and is more adept at ball-control.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"Our mind-set and our goal was to get guys who were going to represent Michigan and Michigan football." -- New Michigan coach Brady Hoke's succinct assessment of his approach to assembling his first recruiting class.

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