Safeties

Michigan safety play was above average last season and the only departure is oft-injured Troy Woolfolk, a guy who bounced from corner to safety throughout his career.

Strong Safety:

Jordan Kovacs returns for his senior season to lead the defense from the strong safety position.  Kovacs went from feel-good story as a walk-on freshman becoming a starter to many fan's whipping boy as a sophomore to flat out baller as a junior.  As a senior, expect Kovacs to push for all-conference honors.  He may even be draftable in the late rounds next year or at least get invites to camps as an undrafted rookie. (Don't bet against him)

Backing up Kovacs will be the highly touted Marvin Robinson, a guy who regular comes in for praise for blowing people up in practice.  If Marvin ever puts everything together he could become an elite player (due to size, speed and athleticism) Another guy in the mix here will be Josh Furman who missed spring practice because of a criminal case against him, only to have all charges dismissed by the judge because he apparently didn't do anything wrong.  Weird situation but Furman was a guy who stood out on special teams last year and could possibly push for playing time.

Free Safety:

Thomas Gordon returns after a solid sophomore season.  Gordon seemed to be in the right place at the right time a lot, coming up with key turnovers.  Still, he battled Troy Woolfolk for the starting position and the coaches regularly went back to Woolfolk.  Gordon lacks the speed you'd desire in a deep safety but he seems to make up for it with making the right plays and playing with good instincts.

True freshman Jarrod Wilson enrolled early and will push to get himself into the 2-deep as Gordon's backup.  The depth here is a bit scary so it's possible/likely that Robinson and/or Furman also practice at this position.

Michigan should be very strong up the middle of their secondary this season.  Kovacs is simply not going to make mistakes.  Gordon can be trusted to play at a high level as well, he's proven he's capable.  This should be a real positive area for the Wolverines in 2012 and should help to make their defense one of the best in the Big Ten.


The MSU safety position is seeing a slight face lift after the graduation of captain Trenton Robinson.  However, like the rest of the defense, Dantonio has built a  lot of depth at the safety position.

Free Safety:

Returning starter Isiah Lewis will help keep the transition clean from Trenton to himself. Last year, Isiah was a second team all B1G selection. Isiah started all 14 games at strong safety and had two pick 6's.  (one was against Michigan, BOOM.)  Isaiah will be a player that's name is mentioned a lot this year.     Having made second team all conference, he should should make the leap to first team this year.  With 74 tackles and 4 picks, Isaiah is looking primed for a break out year.  Ball hawk skills and big pop make him a player other teams will avoid throwing deep against. 

Strong Safety:

Kurtis Drummond should be the starter at FS along side Isaiah. Though RJ Williamson has been showing a lot of skill and is right behind Drummond.  Last year, Drummond played behind Robinson and saw action in 12 games.  In his time on the field, Kurtis had 17 tackles and two interceptions.  Drummond has length and a good bit of speed out of the safety position.  He is the type of player that can easily drop back in coverage or sneak up and make plays against rushing quarterbacks.  I expect Drummond to hang on to the starter role mainly due to the experience he has.  However, Williamson will push him.

RJ came into his freshman year with a good amount of hype.  Especially once he got on the practice field.  Coach D was unsure if they should hold his talent back with a redshirt.  He had the ability to see playing time as a true freshman.  Now however, you will see that come together.  Like Drummond last year, I expect RJ to see a fair amount of playing time.  The drop from Drummond to Williamson will not be huge, which is a good thing MSU fans.

Other players to note would be Jarious Jones who is backing up Isaiah Lewis.  Jairus tore his ACL in last years spring practices and saw some limited action last year.  However, you may remeber him as being the guy that forced a fumble at Iowa last season to allow the first victory of MSU at Iowa since 1989.  Another player worth mentioning is Demeitrious Cox our of Jeannette, PA (i think the same city and high school as terrelle pryor.)  Cox will be a true freshman and was a four star recruit out of high school with some pretty serious offers including ND, OSU and PSU.  I would not be surprised if he skipped his red shirt.  However, Cox was unable to enroll early so he could be a bit behind as practice rolls around.

Overall, this is another position group that I think is stronger top to bottom than UM's.  I am a big Kovacs fan, but the way this MSU defense plays, I think MSU has the edge here.  This MSU safety group should receive the All B1G accolades, especialy Isaiah Lewis. As a whole, the MSU defense is just better than the UM defense.  I do not mean to take anything away from UM and what their defense did last year, but this if last year is an indication, or the norm, we have a good thing going.

Frick, I am excited for college football this year.