Preparing to face Notre Dame and an offense that put up over 500 yards of total offense in the first week, the University of Michigan had another reason to feel confident heading into the first night game in the 133 year history of UM football.
Under the lights (“turn up the lights in here baby, extra bright I want y’all to see this“) and under the national college football microscope this week, with ESPN Gameday in town, the biggest question mark for big blue the season is the defense. And that’s understandable given how they had one of the worst defenses among all schools in the BCS automatic qualifier conferences last season. It’s too early to say much better they’ll be in 2011.
But this is promising: Wolverines safety Jordan Kovacs was named Lott IMPACT Player of the Week on Tuesday (Sept. 6).
Kovacs notched his eighth career double-digit tackle performance last Saturday with a team-leading 10 tackles in Michigan’s 34-10 victory over Western Michigan. Kovacs also totaled two sacks, one forced fumble and one pass breakup. His sack-fumble in the third quarter led to senior linebacker Brandon Herron’s (Stafford, Texas/Dulles) 29-yard touchdown return and a 27-10 lead.
Kovacs surpassed 200 career tackles in the 2011 season opener. A former walk-on who had 116 tackles in 2010, Kovacs was named to the Lott IMPACT Trophy preseason watch list. The Lott Trophy was won by J.J. Watt, the Wisconsin Badgers defensive end and Michigan’s Big 10 brethren.
Kovacs’ performance complements Herron’s performance which earned him Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the week honors. These are good steps in the right direction.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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