Positive Thoughts in Michigan

So how much difference can a coach make?  At Michigan, that is the big question before this fall.  The ineptitude of the defense made more headlines than the explosive offense.  And as it turns out the inability of the defense to stop anyone, had a bigger impact on the decision to change coaches than the ability of the offense to run over just about anyone.  Enter Brady Hoke and Greg Mattison.

So the trick here is to improve the defense without reducing the offense's output too much (it's going to be almost impossible to not be slightly less effective on offense than last year).  It shouldn't take too much to improve the defense.  And with one of the best defensive minds in the business, there should definitely be improvement.  But how much depends on the athletes themselves.  Michigan's defensive is shamefully devoid of big time athletes.  Mostly small, fast guys, who can't bring a guy down by themselves if their life depended on it.  So Mattison is emphasizing size, the problem is you can only work with what you have.  So the question remains: "Keeping all things equal, how much difference can a coach make?"

I'm hoping he can make a big enough difference to get to a good bowl game and win.  What do you think?