Wink Martindale speaks on potential defensive changes: 'I'm not going to tell Ryan Day or Sark what we're gonna do'

The Michigan Wolverines kick off spring football on Monday, which begins the first camp under head coach Sherrone Moore. Defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale will be tasked with installing a defense that should look a lot like the one that was run under Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter.

However, he is his own guy, and there will be some of his own touches that he adds or subtracts. Martindale says that each team and year comes with different types of strengths or weaknesses. He is not going to dish them out with a loaded schedule in 2024, which features Texas, Oregon, USC and Ohio State, among others.

“I think every year is different,” Martindale told the media on Friday from Al Glick Fieldhouse, Michigan’s indoor practice facility. “I’m not going to tell Ryan Day or [Texas coach Steve Sarkisian] what we’re gonna do. I have confidence in these players that they’re going to execute at a high level. I am more aggressive than Jesse [but] the proof is in the pudding with Jesse and Mike. If we can get to the quarterback rushing three, we’ll rush three. That’s the way football is, you just gotta see how it changes because people are adjusting to us, too, as well.”

He continued: “It’s all relative. I think you change every year when you go back and look at what you’ve done and it all depends on the personnel you’ve had. In New York, for example, they talked about I blitzed so much, there’s a lot of games where we had to blitz. Whatever that situation was. I think it changes every year.”

Martindale has not coached at the college level since he was Jack Harbaugh’s defensive coordinator at Western Kentucky from 2000-03, which has led to some questions about how he will relate to players on the recruiting trail. He does not see it as a big adjustment.

“I think that recruiting, as a coach, I think you do that every day,” Martindale said. “The players you have on the roster, now you’re tied to the portal and the pros it’s free agency. High school kids are transferring now and everything else. I think that part of recruiting is just coaching. As far as going out on the road, we did the same thing at the NFL level. You’ll see us out here at Pro Day, all the guys that are out. You talk to as many people as you can as well as on-campus about these players. Same thing with high school, when you go to a high school, you’re going to talk to more people at the high school than you are actually the kid to find out about the kid.

“I love the challenge of recruiting, I’m excited about recruiting. I think we have an advantage in winning a national championship. I already mentioned that the coaches that were brought here, they’re all excellent recruiters. Sherrone and Sean, they have a plan in recruiting and it’s going to be fun to execute.”

Meetings have been underway for Michigan coaches ahead of spring ball, but the focus is not as much on getting the staff up to speed as much as it is on making sure players are comfortable and acclimated to what’s coming next.

“The coaches, they got it,” Martindale said. “Most of us have been together for about a month. We were just in there and going over tape with the walkthrough. It’s a continual conversation, it’s all part of coaching. This system is really so easy to learn once you understand the concepts of it. We’re just at the baby steps of it right now. The players already know the system so there are times that they’ll say something. We’ve had defensive staff meetings up there and Kevin Wilkins, who came with me from the Giants, he’s having a blast.

“I want them to do this, I want them to feel like they can come walk into a defensive staff meeting and they’ll sit and watch tape with us. Different times, different kids, they’ll come in and sit down. They don’t sit for the whole meeting but they’ll sit in there. They’ll say things like, ‘We called it this last year. Most of them I’m like, ‘Alright, let’s just keep calling it that.’ There’s going to be times where I can’t do that. I’m old and stuck in my ways that way. My brain doesn’t work that way, I’m not as smart as you guys.”

Martindale and the Michigan defensive staff under Moore will practice Monday for the first time, kicking off a run of practices that concludes with the spring game on April 20 in Ann Arbor.