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Michigan football's Jesse Minter named coordinator 'facing pressure immediately'

Anthony Broomeby: Anthony Broome05/11/22anthonytbroome
Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter
(Courtesy of Michigan Athletics)

Michigan football has its work cut out defensively in replacing coordinator Mike Macdonald and a pass rush that loses 25 sacks. New hire Jesse Minter seeks to do both of those in his first season working under head coach Jim Harbaugh in Ann Arbor.

Minter, who came from the same Baltimore Ravens background as Macdonald, coordinated Vanderbilt’s defense in 2021. Harbaugh sought to add someone who could bring some scheme continuity to Ann Arbor. That is where Minter came in.

On3’s Mike Huguenin named him among the ten coordinators in college football facing the most pressure this season. Michigan has been inside the top-20 nationally in yard-per-play defense in seven of the last eight years. Minter looks to continue that.

Here is what Huguenin said about Michigan’s new defensive coordinator:

Minter, whose dad, Rick, is the former coach at Cincinnati, was FCS member Indiana State’s coordinator at age 29 in 2012. He moved on to Georgia State, the Baltimore Ravens and Vanderbilt (for one year) before being hired to replace Mike Macdonald. Minter worked for John Harbaugh with the Ravens; now he’ll work for Jim. (Rick Minter once upon a time hired John as an assistant at Cincy.) Michigan’s defense has been stout for a while and helped the Wolverines get to the College Football Playoff last season. The Wolverines lost some key players off that unit, including three players drafted in the first two rounds, so a handful of guys need to step up. But it’s still a talented group, which adds to the pressure on Minter to get them to play well.

How Jesse Minter is fitting in at Michigan

Minter’s familiarity with the system that Michigan ran under Macdonald should help in the transition this season. During the spring, he spoke about continuing the progress while adding his own spin.

“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. And so we’ll always look to find a better way to do things. I think that’s what a good coach does, 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.”

Minter is looking forward to continuing to build trust and continuity. It does not seem like a deterrent for him.

“I think trust is just built over time. I think it’s built on relationships. It’s built on honest feedback. And so I think 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.”

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