Blue In NC

February 8th, 2022 at 3:48 PM ^

Just putting this here for easy reference from Seth's post of yesterday about DC candidates:

CURRENT JOB: Defensive Coordinator and Safeties, Vanderbilt

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.

HISTORY: If the name Minter rings a bell you probably read some old X’s and O’s articles about the 4-3 Under defense, when Lou Holtz’s defensive coordinator Rick Minter disguised a bunch of blitzes to hold 12-0 Texas A&M to just 3 points in the 1993 Cotton Bowl. That’s Jesse’s dad, who went on to coach at Cincinnati so long he holds the program record for both wins and losses.

The younger Minter played receiver at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, of an age with Steve Breaston/Jason Avant/David Harris. He got his coaching start at Cincy as a grad assistant in 2007 and 2008 under Brian Kelly, an entire Dantonio era since the elder Minter had moved on. Michigan DL coach Mike Elston was coaching tight ends and special teams, and handling recruiting, those years so they would know each other.

Jesse Minter moved on to Indiana State to coach linebackers under Brian Kelly associate Trent Miles for 2009 and 2010, and rose to defensive coordinator for 2011 and 2012. Minter followed Miles in the same role to Georgia State, a new program that won one FCS game in three years before they arrived. In three more years Miles and Minter led them to an FBS bowl game, with Minter a Broyles Award finalist in 2015. Minter also brought in his dad to coach the defensive line.

Led by the Minters’ defense, in 2016 Georgia State nearly upset #9 Wisconsin, which replaced starting QB Bart Houston with Alex Hornibrook in the second half. Injuries piled up over that season, and Miles was fired (yes, GSU’s admin is that dumb) ten games in. WRs coach Tim Lappano took over as interim HC and got credited for the rivalry win over Georgia Southern the following week, but everybody moved out when the season ended.

Minter landed with the Baltimore Ravens through his dad’s former player, secondary coach Chris Hewitt. The son rose to assistant DBs coach in 2019 and DBs coach (with Hewitt the pass defense coordinator) in 2020. Minter was on Michigan’s radar in 2021 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.

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.

CAN HE RECRUIT? Probably can. Nothing at Georgia State or Indiana State will tell you much except about where his connections are, but Minter nabbed a 4-star safety out of Louisiana all on his own, and Vandy has been recruiting above their normal punching weight of late, though it’s hard to tell if that’s because of the new DC or because they hired 247’s director of scouting as their recruiting director at the same time.

CONNECTIONS: GA on the same staff as Mike Elston at Cincy for 2 years. Is Ravens family; worked with Matt Weiss in analytics before both were promoted to assistants.

SYSTEM FIT? Exact. Worked alongside Macdonald in Baltimore, installed something similar in Nashville last year. Vandy is the one SEC school where I’d believe he’s worked with academic limitations before.

PROS: Came up with Macdonald at the Ravens so it’s an exact system fit. Eight years as a college DC before he turned 40, probably looked like a better DC candidate last year than Macdonald if we’re going on resume. Young. Multiple ties to disparate members of staff plus experience in new recruiting grounds.

CONS: One year of recruiting in the Power 5, and that at Vanderbilt. Presence of dad at GSU and all the other Ravens defensive minds, including Macdonald’s, means you can’t exactly credit Minter for all of the success he’s been around. Multi-year projects abound. Safeties coach means moving Bellamy, probably receivers/recruiting coordinator.

WOULD HE TAKE THE JOB? 50-50. On one hand he’s already a defensive coordinator in the SEC, so why become a co-defensive coordinator in the Big Ten? On the other hand, Vanderbilt isn’t exactly SEC. Might not want the optics of leaving a job after just one year, though his dad’s vagabond ways makes that less of a concern.

OUTLOOK: Probably Michigan’s #2 candidate if they can’t lure Larry Foote.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 8598

BooKooBlue

February 8th, 2022 at 3:49 PM ^

Minter also coached the Ravens & Vanderbilt’s safeties so he will probably takeover for Bellamy.

He was named the Sun Belt Conference's top recruiter by Scout.com in 2016. He got Trudell Berry to commit to Vandy. He was ranked #228 overall on the 247 rankings. Maybe he can be a good recruiter at Michigan. 

Edit: Also got 4-star S Jadais Richard to commit to Vandy

Joined: 12/19/2014

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GeneFunk

February 8th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^

The defense is going to likely take a step back next year due to inexperience and a lack of 3 projected 1st round picks. That said, it’s nice to at least have some continuity so that guys now being counted on to consistently contribute are familiar with the scheme and can just play fast. 

Joined: 11/30/2021

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LabattsBleu

February 8th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^

System continuity is a great thing.

Minter was my hope, presuming Foote would stay in the NFL...I am guessing Clink will be the co-DC... 

Glad things were sorted out reasonably quickly following Harbaugh's return and Gattis' recent departure

Joined: 10/06/2012

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JonnyHintz

February 8th, 2022 at 4:28 PM ^

Helow is still linebackers coach. If he leaves, Michigan would obviously have another open position so there’s a lot they could do with it. 

As it stands, I would assume Jay either gets a position coaching EDGE if they’re giving Minter safeties. Or they give Jay safeties and you have Minter to handhold Jay as he learns on the job. 

Joined: 01/11/2015

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93Grad

February 8th, 2022 at 6:31 PM ^

It just amazes me how the goalposts continue to shift regarding Harbaugh.  

Priot to Harbaugh being hired Not a single fan would have been happy with:

3-4 against Sparty

1-5 against OSU 

1-5 in post season games. 
 

Not a single fan would have signed up for that.   But because it is Harbaugh, all fans can talk about is how we have it better than we did.  As if improving on the worst decade of Michigan football was somehow an amazing accomplishment.  SMH. 

Joined: 07/26/2011

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BlueTimesTwo

February 9th, 2022 at 10:49 AM ^

  1. Losses to MSU continue to be annoying and often fluky, but around .500 is way better than before he got here.
  2. I don't think anybody anticipated OSU becoming the machine that they have, and we got hosed in 2016.  Don Brown was let go to address the defensive issue, and that has seemed to work out well.
  3. Context matters here, too.  Even Bama took two tries to beat Georgia this year.  We had key injuries for FSU.  Another loss was to Bama.  Not all bowl games are equal.  Also, Iowa was a "postseason game" and we did pretty alright in that one.

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

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MJ14

February 8th, 2022 at 7:32 PM ^

When Jim got here every single decent analyst said it would be 4 years before he had a chance at the playoffs. In his second season, he was a play away from making the playoffs. He had another season where his QBs had a number of injuries and in 2018 he was favored over OSU. 

Unlucky for Michigan, OSU made the perfect hire to destroy Browns defense as he knew all of Browns tendencies and knew Brown was stubborn. So OSU steamrolled Michigan in 2018. But Harbaugh will end his career with probably the best winning percentage of any Michigan coach. Jim has down a good job at Michigan. Anyone who thinks otherwise thinks every Michigan coach after Crisler sucked or is delusional. 

Joined: 01/09/2011

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stephenrjking

February 8th, 2022 at 4:07 PM ^

Continuity is what I’m hearing. There’s some good reasoning behind that. Still, you have to be good at it, and… who knows?

What would really help continuity is if he could bring a couple of first round-caliber edge rushers with him. 

Joined: 03/15/2012

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Boomer519

February 8th, 2022 at 4:16 PM ^

Just one season at Vandy and coached Ravens D before that. Last ravens coach worked out pretty good if I remember correctly. I imagine this gives a lot of continuity in scheme and terminology. Plus he's a DB coach which let's him move Bellamy to WRs.

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