WATCH: Wink Martindale rails against 'narrative' about Michigan defense, discusses USC win, standout defenders
Michigan Wolverines football defensive coordinator Wink Martindale met with the media Wednesday afternoon ahead of his team’s game against USC. Watch video of his press conference in the embed below.
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Martindale opened up the press conference showing how proud he was of his Michigan defense for its performance in a 27-24 win over USC last week.
“I’m really proud of the kids,” Martindale said. “I thought that they played really well. Happy for the kids and the coaches on the staff. They executed the game plan, and I was really pleased for the outcome. I thought we played some great complementary football to win that game, and we’re really looking forward to this week.”
Martindale, who spent the last 20 years in the NFL, was asked if anything has surprised him returning to the college game at Michigan through four games, particularly facing good offensive minds in Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian and USC head man Lincoln Riley.
“I think every game is different,” Martindale said. “We’ve already talked about the strength of schedule that we’ve had to start out with, and everybody is fitting into their own role and you saw some players really excel in the last game.
“I kinda enjoy listening to everybody’s comments on how many times you pressure and everything else, because a lot of them are wrong.”
Continued the Michigan coordinator: “But I think that we played really well in situational football against ‘SC. You saw it at the end of the half, and you saw it at the end of the game, but people don’t understand that, that there are actual calls that you call in those situations so you can get a sack before halftime or you can stop the passing game from going right down the field on you when you’re in there in the fourth quarter.
“I’ve been doing this for 40 years. And yeah, Sark is a really good offensive coordinator, and he’s got a really good quarterback. And yeah, Lincoln Riley has got another really good quarterback. Those are just the challenges of college football, and it’s the challenges of pro football, period.
“I think we’ve adapted and played what we thought was best to win the game, because at the end of the week, we just want to be 1-0. We want to be 1-0. We’re not going to get too high, and we’re not going to get too low, because it’s a constant grind of the season and it’s a constant climb. … I’m really excited with where we’re at and where we’re going.”
