Three Up/Three Down: Breaking Down The Wink Martindale Hire

It hasn't been officially announced yet but Wink Martindale is fully expected to be Michigan's defensive coordinator next fall.

Any time a head coach hires an assistant there are pros and cons. When Jim Harbaugh hired both Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter, there were a lot of unknowns, but both turned out to be home run hires. Sherrone Moore has tabbed Wink Martindale as his new DC and there are some positives and negatives that come along with the veteran coach.

Three Up

1. Experience

Martindale is a seasoned vet when it comes to coaching. He's been in the game since 1986 at various levels and has been coordinating defenses and coaching linebackers at the collegiate level or higher since 1999. He's been a defensive coordinator for three different NFL teams and is considered one of the more aggressive defensive coaches in recent years in the league. He has a solid reputation around the NFL and brings a ton of expertise to a staff that looks like it's going to be quite inexperienced overall.

2. Scheme Continuity

Martindale spent four seasons from 2018-2021 as the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, which means he was the guy who "taught" both Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter how to run a defense. Macdonald coached linebackers for three years under Martindale, while Minter coached defensive backs for two seasons during the same timeframe. Macdonald and Minter obviously crushed it at Michigan and they learned from Martindale. If the two young, and up and coming coaches can succeed at U-M, Martindale should be able to as well.

3. Heavy Blitzer

This is a personal preference, but I love aggressive defensive coordinators who blitz a lot. During his four years in Baltimore, Martindale and the Ravens led the NFL in blitz percentage three times. During his two years as New York's defensive coordinator, Wink blitzed almost half of the time. In college, inexperienced quarterbacks who don't prepare all week long can really be thrown off by blitzes. I see Martindale's approach being very effective with U-M's defensive personnel. 

Three Down

1. Age

Head coach Sherrone Moore is 38 years old. Steve Casula, JB Brown, Mike Hart and Kirk Campbell are all in their 30's. Grant Newsome isn't even 30 yet. Wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy is the elder statesman at 42 years old. Wink will be 61 in a couple of months. That's not necessarily a cause for concern, but it seems like chemistry is easier to achieve if everyone is a little closer in age, especially when the first-year head coach is also quite young compared to the DC. We all know that coaching, especially in college, is a young man's game, particularly when you consider recruiting, and Martindale simply isn't young by any stretch.

2. Recruiting Rustiness

Martindale has not been on a college staff in 25 years. That is a LONG time, especially considering how much the landscape has changed over the past five years alone. Is an NFL lifer really going to buy in and attack recruiting, roster management, transfer portal responsibilities and NIL ups and downs? Granted, those things, aside from recruiting, aren't a huge part of what the defensive coordinator does on a day-in, day-out basis, but they are present. It's ideal when the DC and OC are some of the best recruiters on staff and I'm just not sure Wink will be that.

3. Staff Shakeup 

Martindale is billed as a very outspoken, opinionated and somewhat stubborn veteran coach. He's a no frills kind of guy and he's seen and done it all. It makes you wonder if he'll mesh well with younger, more inexperienced coaches already on staff at Michigan. There is some belief that Martindale's approach wouldn't have worked well with guys like Mike Elston and Steve Clinkscale, which is at least part of the reason why they both decided to move on.