Why the hiring of Jessie Minter isn’t like Mike MacDonald

Why Jesse Minter can’t be expected to do the same things Mike Macdonald did in his first season as Michigan football defensive coordinator.

Prior to Michigan football hiring Jesse Minter as defensive coordinator, there was a lot of speculation and candidates being thrown as potential fits for the Wolverines.

Names like Larry Foote, Steve Clinkscale, Vic Fangio, Derek Mason, Anthony Weaver,  Jim Leonhard, and Jimmy Lake were all floated as possible “fits” for Michigan’s vacant defensive coordinator position.

Instead, Jim Harbaugh opted for continuity with the defensive scheme, as Jesse Minter comes from the Baltimore Ravens coaching tree (just like Mike MacDonald) and employs pretty much the same hybrid 4-3 defense that Mike used.

Continuity makes sense because if Michigan football had hired someone outside of the Ravens scheme, the growing pains of transitioning to another new defense would be hard to watch for Michigan’s players.

With all of that being said, although Jesse Minter does comes from former Ravens defensive coordinator “Wink” Martindale’s 4-3 scheme, and Mike MacDonald did too, there are a few concerns with regards to Jesse.

Areas of concern for Jesse Minter

When some Michigan football fans saw this hire, they probably rolled their eyes, as Jesse’s Vanderbilt defensive numbers were absolutely atrocious. When rival fans saw who Michigan hired, they laughed.

Last year, Vanderbilt’s defense really struggled. They ranked 106th in SP+ defense, 118th in total defense, gave up 30ppg, and were 120th in defensive yards per play. A lot of that can be attributed to the fact that Vandy is in the SEC, and they also really lack talent, as their recruiting classes are nowhere near even top-20.

Also, Jesse Minter was only in his first year as defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt, but still. No matter what opponent Vanderbilt played, tons of points were given up, as even supremely inferior teams like ETSU and UConn were able to score 23 and 28 points, Stanford scored 41, and Florida scored 42. Those were the worst teams on Vanderbilt’s schedule, and all of those opponents dropped at least three touchdowns on Vandy.

As a defensive coordinator, growth is supposed to be shown. Again, I get that Minter was in his first year at Vandy, coaching with barely any talent, but to lose to ETSU and almost lose to UConn is inexcusable. And to give up that many points to those teams is also embarrassing.

Growth is supposed to be displayed at places like Vandy. They take the moral victories. Unfortunately, their defensive numbers stayed consistently bad for the entire season. That isn’t encouraging if you are a skeptical Michigan fan.

Another thing that is concerning is how Jesse will find replacements for the lost production of all of the NFL draft enrollees on the defense: Aidan Hutchinson, Brad Hawkins, Dax Hill, David Ojabo, Vincent Gray, Josh Ross, and Chris Hinton. That is a ton of production lost to the NFL, as when Mike MacDonald took over last year, even though he was new, he had a lot of seniority to work with, so the growing pains and transition weren’t as bad.

Michigan did just recruit its best defensive backs class in ages, but all of those players are freshman. Just replacing Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo will be the biggest task of the offseason for Jesse Minter.

The last concern is that Jesse has never coached at a big-time school like Michigan. He’s been defensive coordinator for Georgia State and Indiana State in the past, but let’s be honest, those schools aren’t households like Michigan.

Also, can he recruit? Because, as I mentioned earlier, Vanderbilt’s recruiting classes weren’t that great, and Mike MacDonald wasn’t really a fan of recruiting when he was at Michigan. Steve Clinkscale, George Helow, Jay Harbaugh, and Mike Elston can recruit very well, but how well can Minter recruit at Michigan?

Despite saying all of this, I trust Jim Harbaugh with his hires. He hasn’t missed on anyone yet (knock on wood) and he probably talked to Mike MacDonald and his brother John before getting Jesse because you always have to be sure about who you are hiring.

Jesse does come from the Ravens coaching tree, and he did work with Mike MacDonald as he was the secondary coach and Mike was the linebackers coach. Jesse has been a defensive coordinator before, so there’s that.

But the 2022 Michigan football roster will be a lot different than last year’s. A lot of production is draft-bound. Fans and media already expect a step back in defensive numbers to compensate for that lost production. Just how good can Jesse coach up Michigan’s defense? Only time will tell.