Michigan DC Wink Martindale named 'first-year assistant to watch' by ESPN
The Michigan Wolverines are still finalizing what Sherrone Moore’s first staff will look like in Ann Arbor, but his biggest coup of the hiring cycle could be defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale. After spending 20 seasons in the NFL, U-M will lean on him to shape a defense that has the potential to remain elite in 2024.
Adam Rittenberg of ESPN says that he is one of the new assistant coaching hires to watch nationwide this fall, citing the continuity schematically in the system and the talent that he has to work with this fall.
“Michigan’s entire defensive staff is NFL-bound, and Moore is turning to longtime NFL assistant Wink Martindale to lead the unit as coordinator,” he writes. “Martindale served as Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator under coach John Harbaugh and had Michigan’s past two defensive coordinators, Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter, working under him. The Wolverines’ Ravens-based defensive structure probably won’t change much.
“The 60-year-old has not coached in college since 2003, when he was Western Kentucky’s defensive coordinator, and the personnel landscape has changed dramatically. Michigan will need to make smart position coach hires around Martindale, but is set to benefit from the return of players such as cornerback Will Johnson, safety Rod Moore and linemen Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant.”
The good news for Michigan is that it appears to have hired a defensive staff of up-and-comers to fill out Martindale’s staff. Greg Scruggs will coach the defensive line, Brian Jean-Mary will handle linebackers and LaMar Morgan will coach the defensive backs.
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Scruggs coached one year at Wisconsin after spending four seasons at Cincinnati under Luke Fickell from 2018-21, getting his feet wet as the director of player personnel and then defensive line coach. He also was an assistant defensive line coach with the New York Jets in 2022.
Jean-Mary is back with the Wolverines, where he coached the linebackers for one season in 2020 under Jim Harbaugh and defensive coordinator Don Brown. Jean-Mary comes from Tennessee, where he spent the last three seasons with Tennessee.
Morgan, 38, who just finished his second season coordinating the Louisiana defense. His defensive backs have a knack for turning over other teams with the Ragin’ Cajuns grabbing 15 interceptions last year, ranking 14th in the country.
Morgan played safety at Louisiana from 2003-07 and was a grad assistant at Vanderbilt (2012-13), DBs coach at Western Carolina (2014-15), safeties coach at Louisana Monroe (2016-17), safeties coach at Houston (2018) and DBs coach at Louisiana (2019-20). He coached for one season as a defensive backs coach at Vanderbilt in 2021 under Jesse Minter.
