Michigan’s defense struggled against top competition in 2025 and rarely caught opposing offenses by surprise schematically. Michigan was inconsistent in pass coverage and seldom generated a pass rush. In all, Michigan ranked No. 23 in total defense, No. 54 in passing yards allowed, No. 19 in rushing defense, No. 58 in sacks, No. 43 in turnovers gained, and No. 47 in tackles for loss and No. 76 in red zone defense.
Wink Martindale was not retained as defensive coordinator, and new Michigan head coach
Kyle Whittingham hired BYU head coach Jay Hill as DC. Hill brings a new scheme and a new philosophy to Ann Arbor. In an interview with Jon Jansen, Hill laid out his vision, mentality and schematics for the 2026 Michigan defense.
“Attacking,” Hill said. “And that means so many different things. First and foremost, you’ve gotta stop the run, but we want to stop the run by being in different spots that the offense doesn’t know where we’re at. I don’t want O-linemen teeing off on our D-linemen, so we’re gonna play straight up sometimes, we’re gonna stunt, we’re gonna blitz. And we want to attack weaknesses of players, we want to attack weaknesses in scheme, but I don’t want quarterbacks sitting back in the pocket knowing where we’re at. I don’t want them run checking and getting their best runs always to where we’re weak. I don’t believe in that. I think we need to make it hard on the offenses for what we’re doing schematically and what we’re doing with our personnel.”
Making things hard on opposing offenses also means installing complex schematics that will take some time for Michigan players to get a grasp of. Based on Hill’s comments, it appears it will take spring practices and fall camp for players to be fully acclimated to the intricacies of the new scheme.
“I would say we run the most complicated scheme in the country,” Hill explained. “We have more calls, we do more things with fronts and coverages, so this is not something that they just pick up in a day. We’re going to need all spring, we’re going to need all summer, we’re going to need all fall camp to have us ready to go for the first game. And by then, we’ll be ready to go.”
Hill runs a 4-2-5 base defense, and no matter how simple or complex a defense is, all that matters is being effective. And Hill will need to get Michigan’s defense looking better than they did last season. Hill’s comments are based in reality. If his scheme is the most complicated in the country, it’s undoubtedly going to take some time for players to learn it. The hope is the end result will be an attacking defense that can dominate against the pass and the run.
