In the Trenches: Motivated Gray Improving, Says Best Yet to Come from Defense
9/29/2021 9:00:00 AM | Football, Features
On this week's edition of the "In the Trenches" podcast, Jon Jansen welcomes defensive back Vincent Gray, who discusses his improvements from last season to this season, acclimation into the Wolverines' new-look defensive scheme, and thoughts on this weekend's big game in Madison.
By Brian Boesch
When Steve Clinkscale joined the Wolverines staff as defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator in mid-May, one of the first ways he connected with his new players was to send a text asking for their feedback. Clinkscale wanted to learn what his players felt were their strengths and their weaknesses.
It was a great framework with which to begin, especially considering the previous changes early in the offseason. After all, Michigan brought in a new defensive coordinator in Mike Macdonald, along with a new safeties coach in Ron Bellamy, early in the offseason. Despite all the changes, the defensive backs were eager to work with another new face in Clinkscale, so they all responded with their answers on the same day.
Senior Vincent Gray submitted three desired areas for improvement to Clinkscale. First and foremost, he wanted to learn more about the game. His goal was to study offenses and their formations, along with how he should digest and react to that information. Gray also hoped to utilize his size and length better, while enhancing his physicality in games. These improvements, combined with the new defensive scheme, have propelled Gray's game to a new level.
"I had a really good offseason. I was highly motivated going into this year, based on the year that I had last year," Gray told Jon Jansen on this week's edition of the "In the Trenches" podcast. "Especially playing in this defense, I'm playing with a whole different mentality than I was in the past at this level. I'm not just relying on my athletic ability now. I'm able to read plays throughout the course of a game, and I can identify route combinations and stuff like that way better."
Like many Wolverines defenders, Gray has raved about the revamped staff on that side of the ball. From Macdonald's broad leadership of the defense to Clinkscale and Bellamy's specific work with the defensive backs, Gray believes the players have taken on the personality of their coaches.
"They helped us a lot, especially from a mental standpoint," Gray said. "The mentality that they bring to the game -- like a dog-like mentality -- it helps our room out a lot, and it helps us to go out and attack people on Saturdays."
Michigan's defense has enjoyed plenty of success on Saturdays so far this season. Entering Saturday's game at Wisconsin, the Wolverines boast the nation's fourth-best scoring defense at 11.8 points per game. No Michigan foe has mustered more than 14 points in a game so far this season. Despite those impressive numbers, Gray believes the best is yet to come for this defense.
"We feel like we haven't even played our best ball," Gray said. "We can play better. We can get better. We can tighten a lot of stuff that we do. We make mistakes every game that we learn off, and we just have to keep stacking our accomplishments.
"We have to keep going. We have to keep stacking these performances on top of each other, and we can't settle."
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