Big Ten Football: Meet Greg Mattison, Michigan Wolverines Defensive Coordinator

Brady Hoke's first season at Michigan was an unqualified success, with a Sugar Bowl win over Virginia Tech culminating an 11-2 season that was good for a four-game turnaround from 2012. There was also, for the first time in eight years, the victory over Ohio State, or as Buckeye fans refer to the game: "whatever."

The key to the turnaround was, of course, the defense. Michigan went from an eye-searing disaster on defense under Greg Robinson to one of the better defenses in the nation (17th overall in total defense, 4th in the Big Ten in 2011).

The difference? Hoke's hiring of Greg Mattison, an absolute stalwart of defensive coaching.

Mattison's collegiate resume stretches back 36 years to 1976, when he was a graduate assistant with Illinois. From then, he's been a defensive line coach and/or defensive coordinator at every collegiate destination, including a five-year career at Michigan in the mid-90's, when he spent three years as DL coach and two more coordinating the defense.

It was at Michigan that Mattison first worked with Hoke. When Mattison moved to defensive coordinator, it opened up defensive line responsibilities, and Hoke came from Oregon State to coach defensive ends at Michigan.

In the two years Mattison and Hoke coached together, Michigan gave up just 16.3 points per game. Mattison then went on to have successful stints with Notre Dame, Florida, and the Baltimore Ravens.

Many people blamed Michigan's defensive failures under Greg Robinson on Robinson's unfamiliarity with Rich Rodriguez's 3-3-5 defense, and that's probably a valid observation. But it's also worth noting that Mattison didn't consider scheming to be the problem; he thought it was just poor technique.

In this mgoblog report from a coaching clinic that Mattison hosted back in February, Mattison told attendees: "don't be a scheme coach, be a technique coach," and said he'd never seen such awful technique" from Michigan's defensive linemen. He also discussed specific practice drills such as treating all incomplete passes as live balls, which gets players into the habit of running toward the ball at all times, and the result last season was an 80 percent recovery rate on fumbles.

This all makes sense. When it comes time to make a stop on 3rd and short, it's crucial to move the line of scrimmage backwards. No matter how strong a defender is, he's not going to make much of a push unless his pad levels are low enough. That's pure technique, and it usually matters more than where the other defenders are lined up and assigned to go on those short plays.

That's something Greg Mattison understands, and for that fact he's been a godsend for Michigan football.