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Mike Macdonald Explains Edge Rushers, Defensive Approach

Coaching defense in college football these days is extremely difficult, but new Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald made it sound pretty simple and says he's doing the same thing with his players.

College football is all about offense these days. Every week defensive coordinators have to deal with dual-threat quarterbacks, zone reads, read options, crossing patterns, bubble screens, deep balls and everything in between. Playing defense truly mean defending the entire field in today's version of college football. It's certainly not easy, but Michigan defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald is trying to make it that way for his players.

Under Macdonald, Michigan will play some semblance of a 3-4 defense with newly implemented edge rushers. According to Macdonald, it doesn't matter what those edge rushers are called, they have a few key jobs to do, and that's pretty much it. He explains those jobs in the video above, and also touches on how complex his defense is meant to look, while remaining pretty simple for the players who make it up.