Steve Clinkscale on Michigan secondary injuries — ‘what they can take mentally is the biggest thing’

The Michigan defense hasn’t been clicking on all cylinders — a lot, but not all — through 5 weeks, a scary thought given how well it’s played. Injuries have prevented the secondary from playing to its potential (though it’s been good), but they’ve also allowed secondary coach/co-defensive coordinator Steve Clinkscale to develop needed depth behind the starters.

So far this year, junior safety Rod Moore, senior safety Makari Paige, and sophomore cornerback Will Johnson have all missed significant time with injuries, both in practice and games. More recently, nickel Mike Sainristil has been limited with a lower body injury. Clinkscale has been looking for the delicate balance between encouraging them and pushing them.

“Each person’s different,” the Michigan assistant said Wednesday. “What they can take mentally is really the biggest thing. It’s not so much the physical limitations. The trainers tell us what’s physical. Now it’s trying to get into their psyche, understanding how I can push, how I can back up. How I sound like I’m pushing … or maybe he thinks I’m not pushing him, but I’m trying to give him a little encouragement.

“Each player is different. Rod is a tough guy, so he’s going to go out there and try to do as much as he can. If he feels he can’t go anymore, he knows I’ll see that before he makes that determination. But he’s been battling through, taking care of his body. I’ll give a little encouragement from time to time when he gets a little fatigued with what he’s working on … just needs that little extra push, that’s all.”

Former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler used to say a lot of coaching was about pushing the right buttons based on a player’s personality. Clinkscale essentially said the same of his group.

“Some people you’ve got to be blunt; some people you’ve got to be gentle with it,” he said. “At the end of the day, they know their bodies. It’s not my job to go out there and say what you can and can’t do. Tell me you can’t do it, and you can’t do it. If you think you can try, just try a little bit. Take a little bit more. Add a little more to that. Before you know it, most of the time, they’re doing a lot more than they thought they were able to do.

“But … they were biting at the bit to come back. It’s not like they are sitting around trying to protect themselves or anything like that. So, Will … he was there the whole time. I tried to monitor how much I wanted to put him in the game. It was a little bit of his comfort level and a little bit of getting him exposure. I wanted to get him a few plays before we hit Big Ten play, and that’s what we were able to do.”

Since then, Clinkscale noted, the Michigan sophomore has been playing about 30 snaps. It helps that they haven’t been on the field a lot … and it also doesn’t hurt that they’ve developed the depth to confidently rotate others in during their absence.

When he’s on the recruiting trail, Clinkscale continued, he tells kids the benefits of going somewhere where they’re developing you — that “you don’t get better if you don’t play.” This year is a perfect example, he said.

“Yes, you’ve got to know your playbook; you’ve got to know your assignment,” he said. “You’ve got to be somebody I can trust out there. There might be certain things you’re not going to be great on, but I’m going to keep working on that.

“In the meantime, the more depth we can develop, that helps Will Johnson Mikey, Makari … it helps the guys starting and it helps you because you’re learning how to do it with the best player in that position in the country. Now, we all continue to get better. Now, we’ve got a lot of depth out there and I can rotate guys randomly, and not worry about who is out on the field because everybody understands the expectation.”

Which will help when they hit the meat of the schedule in November and — hopefully — well into January. That’s when the secondary will need to be clicking, and they’ve got plenty of time to prepare.

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