Michigan football was seen to have two of the best coordinator hires in college football this offseason, but only one is holding up his end of the bargain.
The Wolverine defense under Jay Hill is No. 2 in the country in total defense, No. 1 in yards per play, but the offense in No. 130 (of 138 teams) in total offense, and No. 124 in yards per play. The maize and blue have the No. 101 rushing attack after finishing 2025 14th, and the 127th passing attack.
On Wednesday, Hill was asked how he would react as a head coach (he did oversee Weber State for nine years) if he had a coordinator who was struggling as much as Jason Beck currently is.
"Here's one thing I would tell everybody, and it's not just football oriented: is there's gonna be highs in your
life where it seems like everything's going right, and then there's gonna be lows in your life where it seems like things aren't going quite as well," Hill said. "And the only answer I have is to keep fighting, keep clawing, keep digging, and researching, and studying, and that never stops. Even when you're having success, you better keep researching and keep studying, keep finding ways to get better, because you're either in a storm, you're just coming out of a storm, or you're going into one.
"And luckily, right now on defense, that we've been out of one so far. But that's just, in general, football's that way. I mean, nobody goes undefeated every year. There's storms that everyone hits. The No. 1 team in the country a couple weeks ago has had two straight losses. And that stuff occurs if you don't just keep finding ways to get better."
Given that Hill has had nine years serving as a head coach, he knows what it's like to oversee things. Kyle Whittingham has spoken of there being a disconnect between philosophy and execution, and Hill says that it's incumbent upon him as the defensive coordinator to be even better. Because it's about the team, and thus, if the offense turns the ball over so many times, the defense has to get that many more takeaways.
"Well, I mean, first and foremost, you gotta win the turnover margin. And that's not just on the offense, that's the defense," Hill said. "If you turn it over twice, your defense better get three. If you turn it over five times, defense better find a way to get six. And in our losses right now, we're not winning the turnover margin. We have to do that.
"Field position is another critical piece to football. If you just look at our game last week versus Indiana, that I believe was two really good football teams going at it. They won the turnover margin. And because of the turnover margin, had a couple fewer short fields. It's the only time they scored on us when they took over the ball and said the 25-yard line. It's the only time they scored on us, the overtime, and then the two field goals they got. But that's what good teams do. The defense has set up the offenses, and you win collectively as a team. And so I would say the defense has just as big of a part in everything going on right now. If they score seven points, then the defense better hold them to six. And that's kind of how we look at it right now, is collectively as a team, we're all in this together."
As far as his defense is concerned, minus the final play against Iowa -- which Hill says he still thinks about -- he doesn't feel like his group has done everything possible to win games. He is pleased with the progress, but there's still more that can be done to win games, he says.
"Well, no, you never do everything. There's no way you do everything," Hill said. "I am very proud of the players, and they've bought into everything. And they're playing at a very high level, and they're executing. We are constantly looking for things that we could do better. And like I say, when you fall short, then there's no way I'll answer that question in a positive, because we could have done something more. We could have held them to three points instead of six, and then block a field goal, and then you win in regulation. Just there's always something more we're looking to try to improve."
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan DC Jay Hill addresses Jason Beck's offensive struggles
