ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan football kicks off fall camp on Wednesday and fans are curious to see the differences between new defensive coordinator Wink Martindale and his predecessors.
Of course, Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter were both Martindale’s proteges with the Baltimore Ravens, and the system installed in Ann Arbor is based on Martindale’s scheme. But there are certainly some differences.
One of the main narratives is that Martindale is more aggressive than Minter or Macdonald, going for broke more often, which can cause some breakdowns. But Martindale insists that it’s all about creativity, finding ways to break the spirit of any given play, but it’s about doing it in a smart fashion.
“We’ll control the narrative of it. Am I an aggressive playcaller? Yes. I’m an aggressive playcaller,” Martindale said. “We’ve won a lot of football games calling games aggressively. OK? When it doesn’t work, that’s when everybody comes down to he’s always blitzing too much. Don’t hear that at all when you win, you hear but how creative you are. Right? So you just don’t listen to any of that. We’ll find that right mix of pressure simulated, all the other stuff. We’ll find the right mix and that’s what training camp’s for.”
On a podcast last month, Martindale bristled at the idea that he was another version of Don Brown, married to the blitz as well as man coverage. Brown’s scheme was exemplary until it wasn’t, and his stodginess led to the defense going from being the best in the nation in 2016 to one of the worst in 2020. Hence the move from Brown to Martindale’s system under Mike Macdonald.
Martindale points to his track record. And though his final year with the Giants didn’t go as planned, he has a resume that suggests he’s a much different defensive coordinator.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s ridiculous, as I see it,” Martindale said. “It’s ridiculous. You have defenses that have ranked No. 1 in the NFL and in the…
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