Michigan coordinator Wink Martindale 'not going to hide' from goal of defense being 'the best in the country'

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Wearing a blue cut-off Michigan sweatshirt with a white long sleeve underneath, Michigan Wolverines football defensive coordinator Wink Martindale strutted confidently across the field at Glick Fieldhouse to meet with the media in the south end zone (the temporary home of U-M’s press conferences with the Towsley Family Museum under construction).

Martindale doesn’t talk like most college football assistant coaches, because he’s not like the rest of them. He spent the last 20 years in the NFL, including seven as a defensive coordinator, and enjoyed immense success, most notably with the Ravens. In three of his four seasons as Baltimore’s coordinator, Martindale’s groups ranked top three in the NFL in scoring defense.

The 60-year-old steps into an interesting spot at Michigan, which finished last season with the top-ranked defense in both points and yards allowed per game. He takes over for one of his protégés, Jesse Minter, who ran the U-M defense from 2022-23 after working under Martindale earlier in his career in Baltimore.

As Michigan defends its national title, Martindale and other new coaches in the building will aim to uphold the standard that was set. But that bar — to be the best — is just as high as the one Martindale strives to meet anyway.

“You’re not worth a grain of salt if you don’t feel pressure as a coach every year, no matter where you’re at,” the Michigan coordinator said. “Do you want to be better than that? Sure, you do. But sometimes what you want is not always what you get. There are different opponents, different offenses than what they’ve had. And everything fits just right when you end up being No. 1.

“I’ve been around No. 1 defenses, and everything just fits right that season. But I think that there’s no doubt where the bar is set. There’s no doubt where I’ll set the bar, and that’s for us to be the best in the country. I’m not going to hide from that, I’m not going to run from that and neither are we as a defense.”

Michigan’s defense faced the fewest plays per game in the Power Five last season (60.1), contributing to the defense’s success. The Wolverines played complementary football and will look to once again in 2024, but there are question marks on offense with only one returning starter.

“It’s the team, the team, the team,” Martindale said. “And I guarantee you this: If not the best, I’m one of the best defensive coordinators when the defense is on the sideline, when the offense is going on a 17-play drive.

“It comes down to the team, the team, the team, and it all works together.”

Martindale appears confident his unit will do its part, and the identity he hopes the defense has is to be “smart, humble and hungry.” Simple as that.

It may not look the same as it has in past years, though, in terms of how exactly the defense is run, due to a number of factors, including different personnel and a new play-caller in Martindale.

“We’ve had the confidence in what we do and how we do it,” Martindale said. “I just personally know the two guys who were here previously here in this system. And it’s a great challenge. I know because they did a great job, but we plan on doing a great job, too.

“The players are resilient. They’ll adjust however we attack it, and I think the coaches are resilient, so we’ll just do it all together. I have no problem with a kid coming up to me and saying, ‘I don’t understand this,’ or ‘I don’t feel good about this.’ And we make adjustments. [Head coach] Sherrone [Moore] said it best the other day: We’re gonna have some bouts with adversity until we become adversity.

“I heard [graduate safety] Makari [Paige] say this at the Big Ten [Media Days], ‘We’re never the hunted, we’re always the hunters.’ And it’s true. I understand exactly what he’s saying, because there’s a level of expectation of being at this great university. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Sherrone hired the staff that he hired and we have the players that we have, and we’re just gonna go attack, it doesn’t matter what anybody else says. We’re going to get better. We’re going to try to get better each and every day — the whole one percent better and you like where you’re at.”

Martindale was asked how Michigan players will adjust to playing more man-to-man coverage after being a zone-heavy team last season, to which he replied, “There’s no truth to any of that. That’s all speculation.”

The coach went on to explain how, yes, the Wolverines will practice man, and that they’ll be able to play both concepts of coverage. They’ll also be able to blitz and sit back, as well as run simulated pressures.

Martindale also pushed back on the narrative that he blitzes “too much.”

“We’ll control the narrative of it,” Martindale explained. “Am I an aggressive playcaller? Yes. I’m an aggressive playcaller. We’ve won a lot of football games calling games aggressively, OK? When it doesn’t work, that’s when everybody says, ‘He’s blitzing too much.’ You don’t hear that at all when you win, you hear but how ‘creative’ you are. You just don’t listen to any of that.

“We’ll find that right mix of pressure, simulated, all the other stuff. We’ll find the right mix, and that’s what training camp is for.”

There’s also been a notion that Martindale will be similar to former Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown (2016-20), who’s nicknamed ‘Dr. Blitz,’ for his propensity to man up and bring pressure.

“I mean, it’s ridiculous, as I see it,” Martindale said. “It’s ridiculous. You have defenses that have ranked No. 1 in the NFL and in the top five three years in a row, and then you come into a new system in New York [with the Giants] and you go into the playoffs, but what do they want to talk about? They want to talk about last year, the last year.

“It’s just the way life is, where we’re at today’s society — and that’s fine with me. I know where I stand. I stand where I’m excited about starting training camp, and finding out who we’re going to be, because it’s up to all of us.”

The hunt begins with Michigan’s first practice on Wednesday.