UCLA's Defense Under Defensive Line Coach Greg Robinson

(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

The Michigan football team is now on it's fourth defensive coordinator in the last five years. Past Michigan football defensive coordinators include:

Jim Herrmann 1996-2005

Ron English 2006-2007

Scott Schafer 2008

Greg Robinson 2009

I posted a while ago a summary of Greg Robinson's historical exploits in college and the NFL.

Here's Greg Robinson's summary resume:

1975-1976 Pacific - Assistant Coach

1977-1979 Cal State Fullerton - Assistant Coach

1980-1981 North Carolina State - Assistant Coach

1982-1988 UCLA - Assistant Coach, Defensive Line Coach

1989 UCLA - Offensive Coordinator

1990-1993 New York Jets - Defensive Line Coach

1994 New York Jets - Defensive Coordinator

1995-2000 Denver Broncos - Defensive Coordinator

2001-2003 Kansas City Chiefs - Defensive Coordinator

2004 Texas - Defensive Coordinator

2005-2008 Syracuse - Head Coach

2009-? Michigan - Defensive Coordinator

What have intriged me most were Robinson's achievements at the college level. Probably the most relevant and representative to observe would be the period between 1982 and 1988 when Greg Robinson served as assistant coach and defensive line coach at UCLA under one of Bruins' most decorated head football coaches, Terry Donahue.

1981

In 1981, UCLA was coming off a 7-3-1 record in the regular season which included an excruciating one-point loss to cross-town rival USC 21-22, and a rather embarrassing showing at the Bluebonnett Bowl in Houston, Texas versus an 8-3-0 Michigan team.

The Bruins lost to the Wolverines decisively 14-33. UCLA's other key losses that year were to Iowa 7-20 in Iowa City (eventual Big Ten champion), a three-point loss to John Elway's Stanford team and a frustrating tie to Washington State 17-17.

Interesting, UCLA's 1981 defense was led by a former Michigan assistant coach under Bo Schembechler named Jed Hughes . Season football statistics for this period are sparse for most college teams, and UCLA is no exception. But we do know that under Hughes in 1981, the Bruins gave up only 197 points over 12 games (16.4 points per game).

Pretty damn good results against decent-to-very good competition. Hughes had some fantastic players at his disposal over his career at UCLA, including such characters as defensive backs Kenny Easley and Johnnie Lynn, and All-American Bruin linebacker Jerry Robinson, among many others.



1982
Bob Field was the defensive coordinator under Terry Donahue for 16 years and later because UCLA's athletic director. Greg Robinson worked for Field between 1982-1988.
1982 was Greg Robinson's first season at UCLA after holding a defensive assistant position for Monte Kiffin at North Carolina State. At NC State, Kiffin tried Wolfpack finished 6-5 in 1980 and 4-7 in 1981.

In 1982 Terry Donahue's Bruins were starting to really attract national attention for it's explosive passing attack. This was mainly due to UCLA's incredibly strong start that year of 7-0-1, with only a tie to Arizona to blemish it's record.

In 1982 Bob Field and Greg Robinson inherited a pretty good situation on defense in that several starters returned from the '81 team, including defensive tackle Irv Eatman, defensive lineman Karl Morgan, linebacker Neal Dellocono, and defensive backs Eugene Leoni, Lupe Sanchez and freak-of-nature safety Don Rogers.

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