Michigan hires Baltimore Ravens Defensive Coordinator Greg Mattison

New Michigan head coach Brady Hoke has hired veteran coach Greg Mattison as his defensive coordinator. Mattison replaced Rex Ryan as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator two seasons ago, and presided over the 4th ranked defense in the NFL (by DVOA) in that timespan. He is 61 years old and brings a wealth of experience to Ann Arbor, including over thirty years of time spent coaching college football. In fact, this is Mattison's second tenure with the Wolverines after serving as defensive coordinator for two seasons under Lloyd Carr (1995-96.)

Mattison left Michigan at the end of the 1996 season to become defensive coordinator at Notre Dame under Bob Davie. He stayed at Notre Dame through the Tyrone Willingham era, albeit in a reduced defensive line coaching role, until Charlie Weis was hired, when he then jumped to work under Urban Meyer at Florida.

At Florida, Mattison worked as co-defensive coordinator with Charlie Strong from 2005-2007, and the Gators ran an aggressive 4-3 scheme that used the famed Florida speed to great effect. When he took over in Baltimore, Mattison largely retained the 3-4 structure of Rex Ryan, and largely retained the success of Rex Ryan, as well. Because of this diversity of scheme throughout his career, it's hard to forecast exactly what Mattison will run at Michigan, but it's not hard to predict that they will improve.

From a pure résumé standpoint, this is a fantastic hire by Michigan. Mattison has collegiate experience and an excellent reputation as a coordinator, and unlike his predecessor, Greg Robinson, Mattison's success is recent. His experience as a defensive line coach instantly upgrades a unit that has struggled since Lloyd Carr's retirement, and his familiarity with Brady Hoke (they both coached under Jack Harbaugh at WKU) prevents the messy situations that Rich Rodriguez found himself in with both of his defensive coordinators.

Rodriguez' constant meddling with the defensive coaching staffs' gameplans created an amalgamation of philosophies and styles that did more harm than good. Mattison's arrival brings one unified, experienced voice to the table with Brady Hoke, and this alone should pay dividends in the future, if not next season.

For all the good this hire does for Michigan, however, it still does not address the primary problem they've had over the past three seasons. No defensive coordinator can craft gold out of aluminum, and Mattison will be no better than Greg Robinson or Scott Shafer unless Michigan begins recruiting like Michigan once again. I expect marginal improvement for the Wolverines on defense next season, for the simple fact that they are on the same page once more, but they will not return to one of the top defenses in the nation, or even the conference, until the athletic ability of the roster improves.

The current recruiting class seems like a total lost cause for Hoke, as it now stands at ten players with a few more wavering. But a coaches' first full recruiting class is always one of their best-- i.e. Ohio State 2002, Auburn 2010, Florida State 2011-- and Hoke's focus must be on the long-term instead of the short; he can make his mark in 2012 with a new staff behind him. Still, it appears that the defensive rebuilding project at Michigan will be delayed a year.

At 61 years old, Mattison probably isn't the dynamic recruiter he was once known to be, but he does bring a level of credibility to a program suffering from a reputation as a defensive backstop. His experience as a defensive line coach, combined with Hoke's, probably aids the Wolverines in recruiting stud 2012 defensive tackle Chris Wormley (Toledo Whitmer), who was already a large Michigan lean. Those types of recruiting battles are where the real improvement will take place first, and where we, as fans, can gauge how quickly Michigan's improvement will happen.