Jesse Minter discusses interest from NFL teams, what he learned

Jim Harbaugh was not the only Michigan coach who could’ve made a jump to the NFL this offseason. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter had a chance to make a professional jump — similar to his predecessor Mike McDaniel — after just one season in Ann Arbor.

It would’ve been perfectly logical as a career choice for Minter, the son of longtime NFL coach Rick Minter. But unlike McDaniel, Minter didn’t come to Michigan from the pros and if anything, the interviews with pro teams showed him how much he wanted to stay where he was.

“I also think you learn how much you appreciate this place. So when you go visit another place or go do an interview, yeah it’s interesting and you learn a lot about the process and that type of stuff. But No. 1, it’s like, ‘Wow,’ how much you appreciate coach Harbaugh and sort of how he operates our program. How much you appreciate the players here,” Minter said on the “In The Trenches” podcast produced be Michigan athletics.

Minter also learned that NFL coaches take note of Michigan alongside other top-shelf college programs.

Not just in terms of the players being produced via the draft, but NFL teams have an eye on the Wolverines for potential coaching staff hires and to crib schematic tweaks and ideas.

“The biggest thing I learned is the respect for Michigan football out there is real, and kind of what’s been done here the last couple years,” Minter said. “I think both sides of the ball, we are schematically doing a lot of good stuff. And I think all of our coaches have probably been approached by people.”

But at the end of the day, the second-year defensive coordinator wanted to be just that and not move on to a third job in as many seasons.

“And so just, really couldn’t be happier to be here with these guys for hopefully a lot of years. But there’s really something special about the culture here, the people in place. And I think anytime you look at other things, you just appreciate that even more,” Minter said.

Minter shared where Michigan defense must improve in 2023

Minter isn’t specifically concerned with one statistical area to improve, but wants to get even better at the “pillars” of the Michigan defense: Pursuit, blowing up blocks, disrupting the ball, and communicating. And with a year-plus under his belt in Ann Arbor, Minter can see the Michigan defense really getting comfortable in the scheme.

“Whereas in the first year, for me specifically, it was so much scheme driven and this is what they’ve done, this is what I think we can do. Now, to be able to feel really, really comfortable with the scheme and the system to really hone in on the technical pieces of the game that we can control. That’s been fun to see. Fun to see the players really buy in to that. Our assistant coaches have done a tremendous job in those regards,” Minter said.