Pete Thamel had it first, it’s already posted on the premium sites, and I’ve got a few people who DM me who’ve said the same thing, so I guess we can report it: Michigan has hired Vanderbilt defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to the same role at Michigan, replacing one-year Ravens rental Mike Macdonald.

Sources: Michigan is expected to hire Vanderbilt’s Jesse Minter as the school’s new defensive coordinator. He’s a former Ravens assistant who brings experience in defensive system.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 8, 2022

Minter is more or less Macdonald, IE a longtime Baltimore Ravens assistant who relies on modern analytics, except instead of no coordinating experience, Minter has more of it than almost anyone his age, and was in charge of an SEC defense last year.

I just wrote up a summary of him as a candidate so I’ll repost that with some notes.

SUMMARY: Age 38. Longtime Ravens assistant/analytics dude with one year of Power 5 coordinating at Vandy and seven years of being an FCS or Sun Belt DC. Son of former two-time Notre Dame DC and longtime Cincy HC Rick Minter. Was a CB coach candidate last year before they hired Linguist.

YOU MAY REMEMBER HIS DAD.

Rick Minter was the head coach at Cincy from 1994 to 2003.

That’s Jesse’s dad, who went on to coach at Cincinnati so long he holds the program record for both wins and losses.

Before and after that he was the DC at Notre Dame. The more impressive stint was 1992-‘93 under Lou Holtz, when Minter’s 4-3 Under defense held 12-0 Texas A&M to 3 points in the Cotton Bowl.

WAS A COORDINATOR FROM A VERY YOUNG AGE

It’s rare you find a 38-year-old who’s already got 8 years of experience as a college coordinator, let alone one who found four years to come up through the Baltimore Ravens in there. Jesse Minter got his start at Cincy, but long after his dad was there. He was living in Cincy then and Brian Kelly made him a grad assistant in 2007. Yes, Mike Elston (TEs, Special Teams, Recruiting Coordinator) was there at the time so they’re reuniting. Kelly’s friend Trent Miles took over at Indiana State in 2009, and hired Minter as his linebackers coach. In two years, Minter, then 26 years old, was named defensive coordinator.

In 2013, Miles took the head job at Georgia State, and brought Minter along. GSU was an almost brand new program and looking to move up quickly to FBS. In its three years of existence prior, GSU had won just a single game. Minter took over that defense and in three years (with his father Rick coaching the DL) built it into one of the best in the Sun Belt. He was a Broyles finalist in 2015, and in 2016 that defense nearly upset #9 Wisconsin. The Badgers had to bench QB Bart Houston in the 2nd half, and Alex Hornibrook led them to a tight comeback.

But the rest of GSU’s season was injured and sad, and they all got broomed.

ANOTHER RAVEN

After GSU, Minter landed with the Baltimore Ravens under secondary coach Chris Hewitt, who played for Rick at Cincinnati. Jesse rose to assistant DBs coach in 2019 and DBs coach in 2020 when Hewitt was promoted to pass defense coordinator. Michigan looked a Minter for their secondary opening last year, but Maurice Linguist popped open. By the time Linguist took the Buffalo job, Minter had accepted the Vanderbilt defensive coordinator role. Vandy went 2-10 last year with a pretty bad defense.

Rankings from my last post:

RELEVANT RANKINGS: The NCAA’s stats for FCS go back to 2012 so…

• 2012 (Indiana State): 3rd/FCS in scoring defense, 6th/FCS total defense
• 2013 (Georgia State): 117th (last, Sun Belt) in SP+, 128th in DFEI
• 2014 (Georgia State): 127th (last, Sun Belt) in SP+, 119th in DFEI
• 2015 (Georgia State): 88th (4th, Sun Belt) in SP+, 57th in FEI
• 2016 (Georgia State): 49th (4th , Sun Belt) in SP+, 52nd in FEI
• 2017 (Ravens def analyst): 2nd in Pass DVOA
• 2018 (Ravens asst safeties): 4th in Pass DVOA
• 2019 (Ravens asst safeties): 5th in Pass DVOA
• 2020 (Ravens DBs): 8th in Pass DVOA
• 2021 (Vanderbilt): 115th (last, SEC) in def SP+

A lot of noise in there. The Ravens loaded up on secondary talent in this era but fell off a cliff in passing DVOA last year, firing Wink Martindale and bringing back Mike Macdonald, so you can read into that as you may. He took over terrible defenses at Indiana State, Georgia State, and Vanderbilt, then ran them out against much better competition. GSU’s progression from 2013-‘16 is the most impressive part of his resume. They fell off a cliff after Minter left.

RUNS A RAVENS DEFENSE

Rather than go through another defensive transition after three (Brown shifted to spills and zone in 2020) different defenses in three years, Minter is certainly coming in to continue the job that Macdonald started. Their years together in Baltimore mean there should be almost no transition costs. I say “almost” because they had different roles on that defense, though they were both secondary assistants together at times. Minter has a lot more experience to draw on, while Macdonald’s whole thing was football theory and game-planning. Co-Offensive Coordinator Matt Weiss was with the Ravens at that time as well.

The base concept of the defense will be a continuation, but there’s no guarantee here that Minter will repeat Macdonald’s particular acumen for adapting to the team they were playing. Then again, they didn’t really get a chance to dive very far in the Ravens playbook, since Hutchinson and Ojabo needed to be on the field, and they also had to work with a very raw Junior Colson and Vincent Gray’s talent limitations. Losing Hutchinson and Ojabo and Dax will have more to do with 2022’s challenges than replicating Macdonald’s blitzes.

CAN HE RECRUIT?

Probably better than Macdonald, who famously hated it, and maybe ran back to the NFL because of it. Minter recruited a 4-star safety out of Louisiana and a 247-approved speedy cornerback from Texas for Vanderbilt this year, and the rest of his secondary recruits appear beyond the normal level Vandy recruits at. And you'll like this: The thing about all of those recruits is they have a lot of speed, an attribute that Minter has vocally prioritized.

Getting players to Georgia State or Indiana State is a different challenge than getting them to Michigan, but Minter has had success recruiting in Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, and the Indiana-adjacent parts of Ohio. Vanderbilt also functions under higher academic standards than the rest of the SEC, so it’s not going to be a shock for Minter when the first question when he meets with a kid is about transcripts.

WHAT ABOUT CLINKSCALE AND THE REST OF THE DEFENSIVE STAFF?

I was hoping we would get an official announcement before this broke. Clinkscale remains likely to be promoted to co-DC. Since Minter is a safeties guy, Michigan can ease Jay Harbaugh into safeties coaching under a guy who’s coached Marlon Humphrey, Tony Jefferson and Earl Thomas III, while leaving Clinkscale with the corners and Helow at linebackers.

PROGNOSIS?

Perfect hire. Even if they scored a moon shot like Larry Foote, it would have meant transition costs this year, and a step back in momentum from last year’s turnaround. Michigan actually didn’t get the opportunity to install most of the crazy “Amoeba” stuff that I was so looking forward to, because that was predicated on having a hyper-talented secondary who can take on different roles any given play. Last year’s success was more “We have Aidan Hutchinson and if you run away from him, Ojabo.” The Ravens themselves were able to start doing the really interesting stuff because they poured money and draft picks into their secondary. Michigan has cleared the first step in that transition with their magnificent six-man recruiting class, and scored some hits with young guys like RJ Moten, Rod Moore, and DJ Turner II. A talented secondary can be a boon to any team, but Michigan has to replace a TON of pass rush, and one the best ways to do that if you don’t have the same kind of talent coming up is the disguised blitzes and coverages that Baltimore used to trounce young QBs in the NFL from 2018-2020.

Hopefully he sticks around more than a year.