Key to Michigan Football success falls on defense and Minter

Michigan football has an excellent chance of winning the Big Ten but the key will be Jesse Minter and the Wolverines’ defense.

After Mike MacDonald went back to the place where he became a household name in the Baltimore Ravens this off-season, Michigan football had a huge hole to fill at defensive coordinator.

A bunch of candidates were interviewed, and Harbaugh took his time with the process, but in the end, Harbaugh’s familiarity with the Ravens and their defensive schemes, led him to pluck Jesse Minter from Vanderbilt.

Jesse Minter and Mike MacDonald overlapped in Baltimore, under the watchful eye of Jim Harbaugh’s older brother, John Harbaugh.

While Mike was a linebackers coach in Baltimore, Jessie was a defensive assistant, so the two know each other at least a little bit, as various defensive groups tend to mix and coach together during practices and training camps, etc.

But just because Jesse has familiarity with Mike MacDonald’s schemes doesn’t mean the job will be easy to recreate what Mike did last season.

Jesse’s transition will be key to Michigan football’s success this year

At this point we all know what to expect at least on one side of the ball, and that’s that we can see Michigan football’s offense being the dominant unit this fall.

Michigan is loaded at offensive line and especially at wide receiver, so the potential for a breakout year for the offense is more likely than not.

What we don’t know is how good the defense can be, as it will take Minter some time to get acclimated to being a new defensive coordinator at a big-time program like Michigan football, and what to expect in live-game action.

What we should all pay attention to the most is Jesse’s ability to counter and play chess with the opposing team. Mike MacDonald was very good at doing that last season, and he rarely got caught making the same mistakes over and over again.

Constantly adjusting and going back to the drawing board to improve are all things coordinators have to be able to do.

After the loss to MSU last year, in which Michigan kept getting caught not lined up properly over and over and over again, and in turn got torched for it, Mike MacDonald noticed these things and corrected them, and Michigan reaped the benefits, as they were able to play better defense in their following games.

Things like this example is what we need to see from Jesse. I don’t particularly care how much positive success he has this year.

We should all pay more attention to how he calls plays or the adjustments he makes when stuff isn’t working, and the defense is giving up big plays.

The good coordinators adjust and correct themselves, and also stay two steps ahead, and the bad ones react to what the opposing team does (instead of attack), struggle to adjust, panic, and let the opponent dictate the game.

A lot is riding on how quickly Jesse can get comfortable with the defense and have them dominating. I don’t expect Jesse to be as good as Mike.

Mike had much more talented veterans at key spots on defense, but what I want to see is growth from Jesse as the season goes on.

I don’t want to see him making the same mistakes, not thinking ahead. Ohio State game Jesse should not be the same as Colorado State game Jesse.

There should be noticeable improvements from Game 1 to Game 12. As long as this happens, Michigan football should be a playoff contender.

Anything less, and the Wolverines could struggle in their toughest games.

A lot is riding on Jesse’s adaptability, and for Michigan’s sake, let’s hope Jesse is as good as advertised.