Jay Hill explains how his BYU teams led the country in interceptions
· Yahoo Sports
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Last week, Wolverines senior cornerback Jyaire Hill shared his thoughts on The Team on YouTube about expectations of the new-look defense under Jay Hill, noting that it should provide a lot more takeaways.
Visit asg-reflektory.pl for more information.
"I feel like one of the things when the fans want to see -- more excitement," Hill said. "We got like more swag, more ballplayers. So it's going to be a lot of big plays. It's going to be made. I mean, if they get fans, they want to see some more (turnover) buffs. So we're going to get that to them, for sure. You know, put a little personality out there. Get them a little dance or something."
He wouldn't be imagining that to be a possibility. The past two seasons, BYU under Jay Hill, had 39 interceptions -- one more than Texas had in that span -- and Hill explained why his Cougars were so good at takeaways and why he feels like it will carry over to the maize and blue.
"We've had as many interceptions as any team in the country for the last two years combined," Hill said. "I think a lot of that goes with how we disguise. A lot of it goes with the multiplicity of what we're doing to quarterbacks and just never really letting them just set their feet and feel comfortable. I think that's a lot of it.
"Just, yeah, we try to be super physical, and it's something that we stress. We practice turnovers. We fight like crazy to be good at getting turnovers in the last couple of years we have, and it's something that Coach Kalani stressed at BYU, that he and I were super familiar with one another. We were both together on Coach Whittingham's staff at Utah, and just this system has been in place for a long time. It works. It's time-tested, and we believe emphatically that it's the best system in the country."
And he's already seeing his coaching style paying off, having noted a scenario in the Wolverines' second practice of the spring sessions where a safety heeded his advice and came away with a pick. So, as long as his players trust him, he feels like there's a strong chance that his defense will have a lot of opportunities for takeaways.
"Then there's times out on the field where -- like today it happened, where I yelled at the free safety and I said, 'Hey, I want you to cheat this way,'" Hill explained. "He cheats this way and gets an interception. I need those players to be able to trust what I see, and it's through those interactions and those opportunities that you actually gain the trust of those players."
The Wolverines are two practices into spring ball, with eyes on the April 18 spring game, which will be held at The Big House at 2 p.m. EDT.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Michigan football defense promises 'more excitement'