Jesse Minter secures his place as a U-M great – ‘We took it personal'

HOUSTON — Michigan hadn’t seen a passing game like Washington’s all year with the type of receivers, offensive line, and outstanding quarterback the Huskies boasted. U-M defensive coordinator Jesse Minter heard that for a solid hour at National Championship Game media day Saturday, and to his credit, he handled all of the questions about them with grace. 

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Inside, though, he couldn’t help but bristle a bit. After all, his defense had been pretty special all year, too, one of the nation’s best. It proved to be the best with another stifling performance in a 34-13 victory over the Huskies, his brilliant game plan confusing Penix and locking up the Huskies’ receivers. It was near perfect complementary football again between the men up front and the back end, all of whom said they knew what they were going to do Monday night.

“Those guys played with no fear,” Minter said. “Honestly, it was another week of hearing all about the other team’s offense and how good they were. You know what? Nobody really talked about how good our defense was. 

“We took that personal; the players took it personal. We were at media day, and all we got asked about was how good their quarterback was, how good their receivers were, how good their offensive line was …”

In the end, though, the Michigan defenders owned Penix and Co., taking away the deep ball (for the most part) and holding the Huskies to 13 points and 301 yards of total offense. Minter gave the players their credit, of course, and they deserved it. They were outstanding all year and at their best in the title game. 

But he proved again why he’s one of the top coordinators in the game at any level, and why he’ll be a hot commodity for an NFL team. That will likely be where he ends up — maybe even on his way to being a head coach — but he wasn’t talking about that in the postgame locker room. “I love Michigan,” he said, noting he just wanted to be a resource for his guys with their own NFL decisions to make. 

And what’s not to love? While the media ripped the Wolverines as “cheaters” and essentially discredited everything he did, Minter designed defenses that absolutely stifled the last half of the schedule to the point that they looked hapless. He didn’t blitz much Monday, but he put his guys in perfect position to succeed.

“We sent six a couple times just to just kind of really rush [quarterback Michael Penix], which was effective,” he said. “Then we sent some simulated pressures at the end, on which we got some body blow hits on him. But super big shoutout out to him … he looked like he was hurting after the first hit of the second half. I think he’s got a really bright future.”

That play, forced by sophomore defensive tackle Mason Graham, ended in a highlight reel interception for sophomore corner Will Johnson, the game’s defensive MVP.

“That was such a tone setting play for how the half went,” Minter said. “We talked at halftime about we needed two turnovers, I thought, to control the second half. Lo and behold, the first play, Will makes a great play. Similar to last week, ball disruption wasn’t there in the first half, then it showed up in key moments. Just a credit to our guys and the amount of work they put in on those things offseason and in the season.

“He took a big hit right there. We saw the whole time between that drive, he was limping, gimping around. From then on, we thought he was going to be sitting back there maybe not moving as much. We thought we could keep the rush rolling, keep being relentless. It was going to pay off. Even though we had only one sack, I thought our pass rush in crunch time helped win the game.”

And Minter put them in position — 15 up, 15 down with defense rivaling the 1997 National Champs (who said defense can’t still win championships?]. He may well be in the NFL next year, but he might never have more fun than he did this season … a long one, at that. 

“It’s funny ‘cause some of my friends in the NFL, their season is over,” he said. “Wow … we played longer than them, which is crazy.”

He let them know about it, too … good-naturedly, of course. Many in the league could probably learn from him now — that’s how good he is. But no matter where he goes from here, he’ll leave as one of the best to have done it in maize and blue.