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Perimeter defense key to stopping Boilermakers
Everyone in Lemont remembers exactly when Dave
Molk, now the starting center on the Michigan football
team, exploded onto the football scene. It wasn't a snap, a
pancake block or a pregame speech. It was an offseason -
during the winter and spring, when the field outside Lemont
High School was iced over and nothing but the weight room
was open.
Dave entered high school at 5-foot-6 and 180 pounds - "a
pudgy little freshman kid," according to Lemont strength
coach John Coneset.
After noticing him on the freshman team, Coneset took
Dave under his wing and brought him into Coneset's world
- the weight room.
Dave was hooked.
The following season, Dave started on the Lemont Indi-
ans varsity team's offensive line as a sophomore.
From Lemont to Michigan, his size was questioned every
step of the way. He was too small. That's why Dave loved
the weight room. It's a direct comparison that never lies: you
versus me. Dave never lost the battle.
Within two years, he added 100 pounds and was out-
lifting Coneset. Dave also grew seven inches, which helped.
"Saying Dave liked the weight room would be anunder-
statement," Coneset said, glancing around at the rows of
equipment. "He loved this place. He was always the last one
out of here."
Dave was always the last one out of the weight room, but
that didn't mean he had reached the end of his workout.
Coneset and the other members of the Lemont coaching
staff alternated staying past 5 P.M. to lock up the weight
room after Dave finished his workout. They would go home
for dinner. Dave wouldn't.
"I'd work out at the high school gym for two-and-a-half
hours," Dave said. "When Coneset would finally say, 'Dave,
I'm getting outta here, you've got to leave,' I got in my car
and went to Powerhouse Gym for another hour and a half."
Thinking back, Dave's old teammates laugh - he never
had any company at Powerhouse.
4 "No, absolutely not," former Lemont tight end Sean
Brickey said. "Dave was a madman."
Even his best friends didn't understand it. Why would the
undersized lineman spend all his time in the weight room,
where no one even noticed?
The answer isn't so difficult for
Dave. It's in his blood.
He comes from a family of the big-
gest, strongest men you can find. His
father is 6-foot-5. Steve is 6-foot-4.
The other half of the equation came
from his mother.
"She's the toughest person I've ever
met," Dave said. "She might be a rea-
son I have never let an injury get to me,
because she never showed her pain.
She dealt with unimaginable pain, so
nothing I could have would compare."
Dave didn't use the game of football
to cope with his mother's death, but
rather to remember her life.
"She showed me just how precious
life is," Dave said. "I realized that I
wanted to do everything I could do to=
get the most out of mine.
"I wanted to make the most of whatx
I have because I knew, saw and experi-
enced how short it can be."
Today, a photo of Dave sits propped
against the window facing outof Cone-
set's office, overlooking the weight
room. The overlayingtext on the photo
reads, "Offensive Player of the Game:
David Molk - Eastern Michigan."
Coneset asked Dave for a copy of the r
photo after Michigan's win over the,
Eagles in 2009. Dave had it delivered
to the weight room. Michigan's All- Fifth-year senior c
America candidate will send another
photo when he reaches the NFL.
That Lemont High School weight room is where Dave
Molk was born asa football player.
"Fastest and strongest - that's why I love the weight
room," Dave said. "That's where I make my money. That's
where my football career lives: strength and speed. I knew
that my size wouldn't matter if I got to the defender before
he got to me."
Dave Molk has always had a mean streak.
He and his brother will stand up to anybody and stare
them down. It's seen both on the football field and at home.
Tom gave his sons boxing gloves at the ages of six and
seven. But Tom readily admits that losing their mother like-
ly played a part in the boys' aggression.
"Steve expelled his anger in a place that was considered
unauthorized," Tom said. "Dave had another place to expel
his anger, and that was on the football field."
Seated on a workout bench in the Lemont weight room,
Tom pauses, shifts his gaze and laughs.
"When he put the helmet on, it flips a switch for him and
he becomes somebody that nobody can like," he continued.
That switch was first flipped in elementary school, when
Dave started playing football. He was too delicate. He was
getting picked on by the team bully.
"Dave, you have to stop being nice," Tom told him at the
time. "When you put that helmet on, you're a gladiator. Play
like it."
Dave did just that. The next time the bully spit in his face-
mask, Dave took him down, faster than any pancake block
he's ever thrown.
Everyone learned a lesson that day. The bully never
came back to Dave. Tom realized his son's raw power. Dave
learned that he loved to hit.
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By TIM ROHAN ning room, racking up 167 rushing
Daily Sports Editor yards. Both used quick-hitting
screen passes, matchingup defend-
secret's out. Northwest- ers one-on-one.
d Michigan State exposed "I don't think we tackled worth
derbelly of Greg Mattison's a darn," Hoke said Oct.17, the Mon-
minded defense. day after the Michigan State loss.
run "I don't think we played the
the four purdue at perimeter of our defense worth a
lassmen darn."
line, away Miigan Mattison told CBSSports.com
1e physical Matchup: that he wants his defense to have
Demens Purdue 4-3; "eight or less" missed tackles per
e athletic Michigan 6-1 game. According to the report,
Ryan and When: Satur- Michigan has averaged six missed
n Haw- day 12 P.M. tackles per game and has reached
Just run Where: Michi- Mattison's goal in all but two
from Jor- gan Stadium games this season - Notre Dame
vacs. (11) and Michigan State (18).
the ball ESPN2Radio: You could blame the defensive
perimeter line for being on the ground, watch-
vatch the ing Baker run by after it couldn't
an defense fall apart. chop block the offensive line. Or
ould attack our perimeter," you could blame the poor tackling
ichigan coach Brady Hoke. of the cornerbacks - senior defen-
where I would start." sive tackle Mike Martin said the
hwestern used the speed Spartans were "aware that they
to get outside with two (were) capable of missing tackles."
oted quarterbacks in Dan What about the linebackers' hesi-
nd Kain Colter. The Spar- tancy? Or the unnaggressive play
ed a stretch running play of the entire defense? But particu-
Edwin Baker to the perim- larly, as Hoke said, the linebackers
here he found plenty of run- need to read the play quicker and
react faster.
Mattison and Hoke used the
bye week to fix these problems,
because Hoke expects Michigan's
perimeter to be attacked again this
week against Purdue.
The same stretch play that
Michigan State ran with Baker and
similar bubble and quick-hitting
screen passes that both teams ran
could come back to haunt the Wol-
verines, Hoke said, because Purdue
runs the same plays.
"I think their backs are fast,"
Mattison said, referring to junior
running backs Ralph Bolden and
Akeem Shavers. "They seem very,
very quick. They have a lot of ways
that they try to get to the perimeter
with the ball."
Added Martin: "They do a good.
job of getting the ball in a lot of
guys hands. ... They have a lot of
weapons. We've just got to make
sure we execute on defense and we
run to the ball and get guys down."
The problems that have plagued
the whole defense - a lack of
aggressiveness getting off blocks,
everyone running to the ball,
missed tackles - are worrisome
because they are all fundamental
basics of Mattison's defense and
trademarks of the unit during the
Wolverines' first five games.
In practice this week, the defen-
sive players worked on wrapping
up, running through offensive
players and finishing tackles. If
they did it wrong, the coaches
ripped them and forced them to
stay after practice to hit the sleds.
Running to the ball is a combi-
nation of aggressiveness to get off
the initial block and awareness to
contain, meaning that Michigan
instructs every player to funnel the
ball back to the middle of the field
to another defender.
"We've seen what's happened on
film," said fifth-year senior defen-
sive tackle Will Heininger. "We
just have to turn the ball in. Every
coordinator I've ever had in high
school, it was, 'Turn the ball inside
to your guys, and then have every-
one pursue.
"And we're not good enough -
we don't have all 11 NFL players
where everyone can make the play
- we've got to get everybody to the
ball and everyone do their assign-
ment. (Then) it doesn't matter if
they run inside or outside."
Purdue junior quarterback
Caleb TerBush has been the facili-
tator of the equal-opportunity
Boilermaker offense, which fea-
tures two 300-yard rushers and
three 200-yard receivers. During
the bye week, many Michigan play-
ers watched TerBush play one of
his best games of the season, as he
completed 64 percent of his passes
and spread the ball to eight dif-
ferent receivers. Purdue upset No.
23 Illinois, thanks in large part to
TerBush.
But Michigan practiced all
week with the mindset of fixing its
defensive problems.
"This game is about Michigan,"
Martin said. "Coach has really
been talking about that. Because it
doesn't really matter what Purdue
does.... It boils down to what we do
and how we execute."
Hoke said his team practiced
faster and more downhill this
week, as the defense returned to its
fundamentals.
"If you're hesitant at all, that
half a step that you're behind can
cost you as a defense," Hoke said.
"I think we played a little bit ten-
tative, and you can't play tentative.
If you're going to make mistakes,
make them aggressive. I can han-
dle that."
enter Dave Molk picked Michigan over Wisconsin and lowa.
That passion is what has kept him in the game of football
from the youth leagues to Michigan and beyond. His Lem-
ont teammates joke that, if it weren't for the sideways smile
he cracks after every big hit, sometimes no one can tell if
Dave enjoys the game of football.
"Dave was never aggressive off the football field," said
former Lemont cornerback Ryan Buttney. "But he's on a
mission on the field."
Dave is always searching for a chance to showcase his
strength. He loves nothing more than hearing that he's fac-
ing a nose guard on Saturday touted as one of the best in the
nation.
"He loves that, because he just wants to smatter him,"
Tom said. "He wanted to knock him on his ass, 'Welcome to
college football."'
Before every game at Michigan, Dave welcomes one of
his teammates to college football by head-butting another
offensive lineman - hard. He claims he gave redshirt junior
lineman Ricky Barnum a concussion last season.
True freshman lineman Jack Miller has been the victim
this season.
"I like Jack," Dave said. "He doesn't like it. He always says
it's OK if he knows it's coming. Usually, when I come back
from the coin toss, I'll just kind of run up to him and grab
him, and slam my head into him."
That tenacity, before games and at the line of scrimmage,
is why Dave was already on his third helmet of the season by
the Big Ten opener.
"Dave told me he compresses his facemask so much that
it pulls out of the sides and cracks the back of his helmet,"
former Lemont offensive lineman Nick Palermo said. "I just
looked at him. 'You just told me you crack helmets.'''
Tom Molk flung the door open, entered the Lemont
STAFF PICKS
The Daily football writers pick
against the spread to predictS J
scores in the 2011 football season. Michael NeStephen I
Florek Nesbitt
No.17Michigan -5) vs. Purdue
No. 3 Oklahoma State-8) vs. Baylor
No. 4 Stanfordl(-8.5) atNo.20 USC
No.6Clemson(-4.5)atGeorgia Tech
No.7 Oregon (-32.5)vs. WashingtonState
No. 8 Arkansas -2.5) at Vanderbilt
No.9MSU at No.13Nebraska(-5.5)
No.10 KSU.vs. No.110klahoma (-13.5)
No.12 Wisconsin (-8.5) at Ohio State
No.14South Carolna (-6.5)atTennessee
No.15Virginia Tech (-14) at Duke
No.16 Texas A&M(-11)vs. Missouri
No.18 Houston (-26.5)vs. Rice
No.19 TexasTech-7.5) vs. Iowa State
No.21 PennState (-6) atIltlinois
No. 22 Georgia (-3)vs. Florida
No. 23 Arizona State (-30.5) vs. Colorado
No. 25 West Virginia (-7) at Rutgers
Northwestern (-9.5)at Indiana
lowa-t7.5)at Minnesota
LastWeek-
Overall
Michigan
Oklahoma State
Stanford
Georgia Tech
Oregon
Arkansas
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Wisconsin
Tennessee
Virginia Tech
Texas A&M
Houston
Texas Tech
Illinois
Georgia
Arizona State
West Virginia
Northwestern
Iowa
8-11
106-83-3
Michigan
Baylor
Stanford
Clemson
Oregon
A rkasas
Michigan State
Oklahoma
Wisonsin
South Carolina
Virginia Tech
Texas A&M
Houston
Texas Tech
Penn State
Georgia
Arizona State
West Virginia
Northwestern
Iowa
9-14.
113-76-3
Kevin
Raftery
Purdue
Oklahoma State
Stanford
Clemson
Washington State
'A rkansas
Nebraska
Kansas State
Ohio State
South Carolina
Virginia Tech
Texas A&M
Houston
Texas Tech
Illinois
Florida
Arizona State
Rutgers
Northwestern
Minnesota
10-9
106-83-3
T.m
Rohan
Michigan
Baylor
Stanford
Clemson
Oregon
Arkansas
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Wisconsin
South Carolina
Virginia Tech
Texas A&M
Houston
Texas Tech
Illinois
Georgia
Arizona State
West Virginia
Northwestern
Iowa
8-11
116-73-3
Sam Sedlecky,
Maize Rage
j President b
Michigan
Oklahoma State
Stanford
Clemson
Oregon
Arkansas
Nebraska
Kansas State
Wisconsin
South Carolina
Virginia Tech
Texas A&M
Houston
Iowa State
Penn State
Georgia
Arizona State
West Virginia
Northwestern
Iowa
11-8
77-47-1
Dave Molk handed his mother, Gail Molk, the football after the first
and only touchdown of his career.
6 1 FootballSaturday - October 29, 2011
.,........ j .__ - - .. 1_
To apply to be a guest picker, e-mail trohan@umich.edu. If you're chosen and can beat at least two of us, you'll stay on for another week. The longest-tenured guest picker will get a prize at the end of the season.
TheMichiganDaily - www.michigandaily.com .3