Jay Hill Put Three Numbers On Michigan's Defense. Last Season Nobody In College Football Hit Two Of Them.
Fewer than 85 rushing yards a game, a pass efficiency defense under 100, seven sacks and takeaways combined every Saturday. The first of those is a real line and Hill drew it in exactly the right place: four teams out of 134 were under it in 2025. The second was cleared by exactly one defense in the country and the third by none at all, and Hill's own BYU defense missed all three.
Jay Hill picked a good number.
Michigan's defensive coordinator, first year on the job, gave a press conference in Ann Arbor on Thursday afternoon, and one of the things he put on the record was a target for his rushing defense. Fewer than 85 yards a game. He also said where the number came from, which is the part coaches usually skip.
"If you want to be elite within the country in rush defense, that's where that 85 number comes from," Hill said, per Brandon Carr of WDIV ClickOnDetroit.
He is right. It is worth showing how right, because 85 is not a round figure somebody reached for on the way to the podium.
Of the 134 teams in the FBS last season, four held opponents under 85 rushing yards a game. Texas Tech at 68.1. Indiana at 77.2. Oklahoma at 77.3. Georgia at 81.5. The fifth team on that list is James Madison, at 85.1, and 85.1 is one carry and a tenth of a yard on the wrong side of elite.
So Hill drew the line where the line actually is. Four of 134.
Michigan was nineteenth, at 111.9. That is a good defense against the run. It is also 26.9 yards a game from the one he described, which is the whole gap between good and the top four.
The other two numbers#
Carr's write-up reports two further targets from the same availability: a pass efficiency defense mark below 100, and a combined seven turnovers and sacks per game. Neither figure appears inside quotation marks in his piece, and no other outlet that covered Thursday's session carried either one. Read them as reported rather than as spoken, which is a real distinction and not a hedge.
Reported, they are enormous.
Below 100#
Pass efficiency defense is the passer rating opposing quarterbacks post against you, and it moves slowly, because it takes completions, yards, touchdowns and interceptions and divides all of it by attempts. A defense does not shave ten points off it by trying harder on third down.
One team in the FBS finished under 100 last season. Arizona, at 97.20, on the back of 22 interceptions. Second place was San Diego State at 100.35, which is to say second place missed.
Michigan finished 45th at 124.87: 271 completions allowed on 426 attempts, 2,748 yards, 17 touchdowns, 13 interceptions.
One of 134.
Seven#
Michigan recorded 28 sacks and 19 takeaways in 13 games last season. Six fumble recoveries, 13 interceptions, and 28.0 sacks for 239 yards. That is 47 events in 13 games, or 3.62 a game.
No NCAA table publishes sacks and takeaways as one number, so this one is addition: every team's sacks plus its turnovers gained, divided by its games.
The best defense in the country at it was Texas Tech, which had 41 sacks and 32 takeaways in 14 games. That is 5.21 a game. Indiana was second at 4.93. Nobody reached six. Texas Tech got as close as it did by being near the top of both columns at once, second nationally in sacks and first in takeaways, and the best anyone managed that way was still 1.79 events a game short of Hill's number.
Michigan was 52nd at 3.62.
Add it up#
Five teams out of 134 cleared one of Hill's three thresholds last season. Texas Tech, Indiana, Oklahoma and Georgia cleared the rushing number. Arizona cleared the passing number while allowing 143.2 rushing yards a game, which was 78th, because that is the trade Arizona was making.
Zero teams cleared two of the three. Zero cleared all three. Michigan cleared none.
The fair part, and it is the interesting part#
Hill spent last season running BYU's defense, and BYU was good. Twenty-fifth nationally in pass efficiency defense and fourteenth in turnovers gained.
Against his own three numbers: 122.7 rushing yards a game, which was 30th. A pass efficiency defense of 116.97. Thirty sacks and 24 takeaways in 14 games, 3.86 a game.
Zero for three, by his own standard, with a defense that was his.
And on the number he says matters most, the defense he inherited in Ann Arbor was better than the one he left in Provo. Michigan 111.9 and 19th, BYU 122.7 and 30th, and Michigan did that with a staff that is no longer in the building.
None of which makes the targets stupid. A coordinator who tells his safeties the goal is to finish 45th in pass efficiency defense is a coordinator with a short career. Hill said the other thing out loud on Thursday too, and it is the version that will actually be graded: "We need to win the turnover margin." That one is a sentence about beating whoever is standing across from you, which is a goal a defense can hit on a Saturday in October rather than in a table published in January.
September#
Michigan opens on September 5 against Western Michigan, 7:30 at night in Ann Arbor, on NBC. Week two is Oklahoma at Michigan Stadium at noon.
Oklahoma held opponents to 77.3 rushing yards a game last season and led the country with 45 sacks.
So one of the four defenses that actually did the thing will be on the field on September 12, in the Big House, in front of a Maize Out. It will be wearing the other jerseys.
Sources. Brandon Carr, WDIV ClickOnDetroit, "DC Jay Hill reveals what Michigan football must do to become an elite defense in 2026," published August 21, 2026 at 5:00 a.m., for every Hill quotation and for the two reported targets that are not quoted. MGoBlue.com's video index, which lists "Football Press Conference: Jay Hill (Aug. 20)" under Thursday, August 20, for the date of the availability, and MGoBlue.com's staff directory page for Hill, read August 21, for his first year at Michigan and his tenure at BYU. Isaiah Hole, Wolverines Wire, published August 20 and read in Yahoo Sports' syndication of it, for corroboration that Hill spoke on Thursday and for his remarks on the linebacker and safety rooms. NCAA.com's official FBS team statistics for the completed 2025 season, read August 21, for rushing defense (Michigan 19th, 111.9, on 427 attempts for 1,455 yards in 13 games; Texas Tech 68.1, Indiana 77.2, Oklahoma 77.3, Georgia 81.5, James Madison 85.1, Arizona 143.2), cross-checked at the desk against cfbstats.com's 2025 national rushing-defense leaders, read August 21, which ties on all six, pass efficiency defense (Arizona 97.20, San Diego State 100.35, BYU 116.97, Michigan 124.87 on 271 of 426 for 2,748 yards, 17 touchdowns and 13 interceptions), team sacks (Oklahoma 45.0, Texas Tech 41.0, Michigan 28.0 for 239 yards, BYU 30.0) and turnovers gained (Texas Tech 32, Michigan 19 on six fumble recoveries and 13 interceptions, BYU 24). The 134-team denominator is the number of teams listed in those tables. The combined sacks-and-takeaways rate is addition across the two tables, computed for all 134 teams. Michigan's 2025 per-game defensive splits were cross-checked against Sports Reference's college football team page for Michigan's 2025 season, read August 21, which ties to the NCAA totals on attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, interceptions, fumble recoveries and sacks. MGoBlue.com's 2026 football schedule, read August 21, for the September 5 and September 12 dates, times, television and the Maize Out promotion.
