A well-known NFL coach will be hired by the Michigan Wolverines to serve as defensive coordinator.
Jim Harbaugh looted the Michigan Wolverines coaching staff of the 2023 season, taking several of his best assistants with him to the NFL. Sherrone Moore, the first-year coach at Michigan, is now using the same strategy—stealing players from the NFL—that made Harbaugh successful.
After Harbaugh left, Moore was elevated from offensive coordinator to head coach and has added a significant new member to his coaching team. Moore has managed to retain one of the top defensive-minded coaches in football, even though the Wolverines are losing a great deal of skill and coaching to the NFL.
Wink Martindale will take over as Michigan’s defensive coordinator, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. It will be Don “Wink” Martindale’s first time playing collegiate football since 2003.
Martindale, who turns 61 in May, started his coaching career with Defiance College (1986–1987) as a defensive coordinator. As he advanced through the coaching ranks, he was hired as an assistant at Notre Dame in 1994–1995. He then went on to work as an assistant at Cincinnati in 1996–1998; Western Illinois in 1999; and Western Kentucky in 2000–2003.
But since moving to Oakland to teach the linebackers for the Raiders in 2004 from Western Kentucky, Martindale hasn’t been a college football coach. He was hired as an NFL defensive coordinator by the Denver Broncos in 2010 and has been with the Baltimore Ravens (2018–2021) and New York Giants (2022–2023) since 2018. He will now work as a coach on a team not far from his home state of Ohio.
During his time as a defensive coordinator in Baltimore and New York, Martindale was well-liked by the players on defense. Being an aggressive coach, he will mostly rely on his cornerbacks to play man coverage and apply intense pressure to the opposing quarterback by blitzing.
Moore’s choice to employ the same strategy could benefit the Wolverines, especially in light of Harbaugh’s prior success in selecting Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter, two NFL coaches, to serve as his defensive coordinators. Martindale’s defenses, which emphasize blitzing, ought to do especially well against freshmen college quarterbacks.
