The old saying goes “defense wins you championships.” Well so far Michigan’s defense under Jim Harbaugh hasn’t, but it has been stellar under his defensive coordinator Don Brown. Since arriving in Ann Arbor, Brown has led the Wolverines to a top three defensive ranking every year since arriving in 2016, starting out with a bang of tied for first in 2016, then knocked down to third in 2017.

Well, 2018 is showing that they will finish in the top four again as long as they can keep up this trend as they are now ranked as the number one defense in college football. Their stats are pretty impressive as well, playing in five games, allowing 1,163 total yards, 3.58 yards per play (one of only two schools allowing less than four yards per play), and averaging 232.6 yards per game, the lowest in the country.

The defense hasn’t ever been an issue for Brown since arriving, even in 2017 when it was depleted with a good majority of the talent going for the NFL draft that previous season. Michigan still has a long road ahead of them for the next seven games as they still have to take on the number four offense in Ohio State, 14 in Penn State, 35 in Wisconsin, and 65 in Indiana.

Brown also still has Michigan State, a tough rivalry game that no matter where either team is ranked, is always a tough game and it brings out the best in both schools and sometimes trick plays are even pulled out, which can surprise the defense and allow a big gain or score and change the scene of the game.

Michigan should be proud they are ranked number one but only sit on that horse for a minute as if they get too focused on being number one in defense, they could start losing focus on the bigger picture, being the number one TEAM in the country.