Wink Martindale talks Michigan standout defenders, including one who has 'completely changed his body'

Michigan Wolverines football defensive coordinator Wink Martindale took some time away from Ann Arbor this offseason, like most coaches do before the season ramps up, and he made some observations upon returning. The players were hard at work during the summer training cycle, and the transformation of one rising sophomore — linebacker Cole Sullivan — caught his eye.

“Really, the biggest jump you see is when you go on vacation — and I took my vacation — and you come back and see them,” Martindale said. “A guy like Cole Sullivan has completely changed his body, just walking around. And you can see it going through drills and doing all of those things.

“And there are a lot of guys. I don’t want to stand here and list them off. I just use him as an example. When I first came here, he was a 17-year-old kid that was supposed to go to prom and graduation, but he was here playing in spring ball. You’ve seen him develop since.”

Sullivan is up to 230 pounds, standing 6-foot-3, and was among the group of Wolverines that worked out with Green Berets (an elite branch of the U.S. Army) at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, according to TheWolverine.com sources.

Sullivan is slated to earn time as a two-deep player at linebacker, where senior Ernest Hausmann is the leader and a potential defensive captain. Hausmann will once again wear the green dot sticker on his helmet, indicating that he receives the play call from Martindale through radio. The trust level between the coordinator and middle linebacker is extremely high.

“Well, I think it’s of utmost importance. I can’t describe how big it is,” Martindale said of Hausmann being back on the Michigan defense.

“You develop relationships with players, and as a defensive coordinator, it’s like an offensive coordinator does with his quarterback. I think that he understands what I’m calling, why I’m calling it — because we have those conversations.”

Martindale raved about Hausmann, who traveled back to his home country of Uganda this offseason. The 6-foot-2, 235-pounder was adopted and grew up in Columbus, Neb.

“If you ever just want to do a story on somebody, do it on Ernie,” Martindale said. “He’s a fascinating, fascinating young man that’s seen and done a lot outside of football. I tell him wait until it gets boring in training camp and I want to talk about his trips, the different trips he did this summer, because it’s crazy some of the stuff he told me from the last time he was over there.”

No ‘BS’ answer on Rod Moore

Michigan graduate safety Rod Moore missed all of last season with a knee injury that required two surgeries, and he told TheWolverine.com July 21 that he was around 80-85 percent healthy. Martindale was asked about his status in Saturday’s press conference.

“I could give you the BS answer that he’s right on schedule — ’he’s right on schedule.’ What’s the schedule? I don’t know,” Martindale said.

“No, but he’s looking like he should, because of the way he’s been working. He’s been working his tail off, and when he’s ready …

“I talked to him the other day [and said], ‘I don’t want to do it too soon. I want to make sure you’re ready.’ Whether it’s put him in bits and pieces whenever he’s ready to go or you just don’t know. We’ll see.”

Derrick Moore doesn’t ‘get enough credit’

Michigan senior EDGE Derrick Moore had only 4 sacks last season, 2 of them coming in the 19-13 ReliaQuest Bowl victory over Alabama, but tied atop the team with 37 pressures. His impact goes beyond what the stat sheet shows, but he’s also more than capable of exploding for a big season. He had 5 sacks as a backup in 2023, for instance. Since then, he’s become more of a leader and taken more ownership in the Michigan defensive line’s success.

“I don’t think he gets enough credit for what he does and the work that he puts in and the value to the team [that he brings],” Martindale said. “He does a lot of the hard stuff. He and [junior EDGE] Cam[eron Brandt] both do the dirty work, if you will. He’s healthy, and he looks good. Hopefully, we’ll keep him that way.”