Michigan football: Jesse Minter is new, but it's 'year two' of the defensive system
Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh spoke to and interviewed plenty of bright defensive minds after Mike Macdonald left for the Baltimore Ravens after one season and the Wolverines’ defensive coordinator position came open. But he settled on Jesse Minter, who spent last season coordinating the Vanderbilt defense, with one of the main reasons being that he’ll bring continuity.
Minter has done just that so far. He coached with Macdonald in Baltimore from 2017-20, and both learned from John Harbaugh, Don Martindale and the Ravens’ scheme. While Minter will bring some new ideas and a fresh perspective, it’s ‘year two’ of the current Michigan defensive system, he said.
“One of my goals with the players was for those guys that feel like it was year two, and that’s probably one of the reasons I’m here,” the new Michigan coordinator said. “There’s a lot of continuity in the system. You want the guys to feel comfortable. Any time you go from year one to two — whether Mike was still here, or I’m here — there are steps you can take. There are tweaks that you make, but definitely, definitely year two of the system.”
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To allow for a seamless transition to Michigan, Minter has had a lot of conversations with Macdonald, and the two keep in touch anyway.
“Mike’s a friend of mine,” Minter said. “We had a lot of conversation throughout the [2021] season, just being friends and having worked together for the previous four seasons. We’ve talked a lot. He sort of kept me in the loop of what was happening with him, and then all of a sudden it sort of steamrolled into what was happening with me. So we definitely have had some conversations.”
Continuity and keeping things the same are great, Minter said, but he’s also trying to improve the Michigan defense from the high level it’s already at. That means some changes have been and will be made, but overall it’s been a smooth process.
“You always look at things you can do better, maybe look at tweaks you can make to the system,” Minter said. “And so there’s ideas that things that I’ve done, things that other coaches that we have on staff have done in previous places.
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“We’ll always look to find a better way to do things. I think that’s what a good coach, what a good staff does is always try to take that next step. So, there’ll be some things that may look different, but I think a lot of them look the same.”
Jesse Minter building trust with Michigan players, fellow coaches
Michigan players and coaches have said Minter is similar to Macdonald, but they’re obviously not the same. Macdonald was big on building relationships with his players after he was hired last offseason, a process Minter is now in the middle of.
“Trust is just built over time,” Minter said. “I think it’s built on relationships, it’s built on honest feedback. “A strength of mine in my career has been the ability to build relationships with players. It’s not something that happens overnight. So you can’t just walk in the first day and expect them all to trust you or, especially when you’re replacing the guy that did a really good job. But I think he’s just built over time — relationships, and I enjoy that aspect of it.
“It started with the [Michigan assistant] coaches. I was here maybe two and a half weeks before spring ball started. These guys were all looking at me, I’m new to them, too, and so I had to build relationships with the staff. Then to start building relationships with the players.
Continued the Michigan coordinator: “I think in a post-spring world after seeing all these guys practice and being around them, we’ll be able to dive even deeper into that and be ready to go in August.”
