Josh Dooley
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TTUN: Wink Martindale has boom or bust potential in Ann Arbor
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images
TTUN’s new defensive coordinator is known for bringing the heat. But will the Wolverines’ secondary be able to hold up?
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about Ohio State’s rival. Michigan is the defending national champions, but there has been a lot of change in Ann Arbor. What does that mean for the season, the Big Ten, and the Buckeyes? You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”That Team Up North” articles here.
When Sherrone Moore hired longtime NFL position coach and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale as TTUN’s (new) DC in February, many were left scratching their heads. Not because the latter is a bad football coach or problematic person, but rather because he was 60 years old at the time and hadn’t coached in college since Moore was a teenager. Martindale had also been fired twice in 24 months prior to taking the U of M job, meaning he wasn’t exactly a hot commodity.
That being said, Moore’s former colleague Mike Macdonald is/was a Martindale disciple, so there was some logic to the move. Plus, as we all know, TTUN can only hire coaches from the John Harbaugh coaching tree. So in hindsight, I guess the hiring of Martindale made a ton of sense. To Moore, at least.
Regardless of how or why Martindale ended up in Ann Arbor, he is there now — along with several other coaches who are either new to the school or new to their role(s). Jim Harbaugh poached several of the program’s former assistants for his Los Angeles Chargers staff, leaving Moore and Martindale the somewhat unenviable task of kinda, sorta, maybe starting over on defense.
The good news for the Wolverines is that they’ve still got Will Johnson, Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant and others on the roster. The trio I just referenced is inarguably one of the best and most talented three-headed (defensive) monsters in college football, giving TTUN a strong foundation from which to (re?)build.
On the other hand, Kris Jenkins, Junior Colson, and Mike Sainristil are among those who moved on to the NFL, so there is and will be no running it back for U of M’s defense. Also gone from the Wolverines’ 2023 defense is safety Rod Moore, who suffered a very unfortunate injury in April. But all in all, Martindale has plenty with which to work.
The million dollar question is, will Martindale push the right buttons and/or cater to the strengths of (all) his players? Or will the “gameshow host up north” stubbornly stick to his f@$% it, let’s blitz mantra?
For those who don’t know, Martindale’s goal as a DC is or has been to create chaos on every play by (at least attempting to) confusing opponents, experimenting with unique fronts, and blitzing aggressively. And while that mindset/system has led to plenty of success, it has also led to plenty of failure... Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Martindale has been known to overload the LOS with five or six on one side, put eight defenders in the box and have most of the line drop back while linebackers blitz, bring the house on third and medium-to-long, you name it. The man is a mad scientist.
But his blitz-heavy scheme is reliant upon near-perfect communication and execution to be (highly) successful. It also tends to put significant pressure on defensive backs. So if communication breaks down, execution is lacking, and/or those DBs are not up to the challenge, then you end up with an defense like that of the New York Giants last year, which finished as a bottom-5 unit in most metrics.
Martindale’s defenses can also be susceptible to screens and RPOs designed to combat, neutralize, or take advantage of hyper-aggression. And the DC’s core tenet – essentially blitzing all the time, no matter what – tends to be much less effective if/when the offense is able to avoid obvious passing downs. So in other words, Martindale’s scheme is or can be very boom-or-bust.
The interesting thing about TTUN’s defense this year is that it appears to be very top or even front-heavy, with the presumed weakness being the team’s secondary (sans Johnson, below). Which seems less than ideal for a Martindale defense. His best units in the past were led or at least elevated by guys like Eric Weddle, Marlon Humphrey, Chuck Clark, and Marcus Peters, all insanely talented and/or experienced DBs.
But when Weddle and Peters were no longer around and Humphrey missed games in 2021, the Baltimore Ravens finished last in the NFL in passing defense, something that significantly contributed to Martindale’s firing.
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Photo by David Berding/Getty Images
So is any of this relevant to the upcoming 2024 season? Maybe, maybe not. But outside of Johnson and maybe Makari Paige (1 INT and 4 PBU in four reasons), it seems to me at least that TTUN has issues in or with its secondary. Returning DBs such as Jyaire Hill, Quentin Johnson, and Ja’Den McBurrows boast little production, and the DB transfers the Wolverines brought in will never be confused with the Seattle Seahawks’ Legion of Boom.
For all the reasons above, I see Martindale’s hiring as having serious boom or bust potential up north. I predict that the Maize and Blue will either: Create consistent chaos on defense and hold opponents to 10, 12, 15 points per game... Or struggle with communication, execution, and man coverage, leading to big play after play for the opposing offense(s). And I think I speak for all of Buckeye Nation when I say that I would much prefer the latter.
Continue reading...
Josh Dooley via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images
TTUN’s new defensive coordinator is known for bringing the heat. But will the Wolverines’ secondary be able to hold up?
From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about Ohio State’s rival. Michigan is the defending national champions, but there has been a lot of change in Ann Arbor. What does that mean for the season, the Big Ten, and the Buckeyes? You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our ”That Team Up North” articles here.
When Sherrone Moore hired longtime NFL position coach and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale as TTUN’s (new) DC in February, many were left scratching their heads. Not because the latter is a bad football coach or problematic person, but rather because he was 60 years old at the time and hadn’t coached in college since Moore was a teenager. Martindale had also been fired twice in 24 months prior to taking the U of M job, meaning he wasn’t exactly a hot commodity.
That being said, Moore’s former colleague Mike Macdonald is/was a Martindale disciple, so there was some logic to the move. Plus, as we all know, TTUN can only hire coaches from the John Harbaugh coaching tree. So in hindsight, I guess the hiring of Martindale made a ton of sense. To Moore, at least.
Regardless of how or why Martindale ended up in Ann Arbor, he is there now — along with several other coaches who are either new to the school or new to their role(s). Jim Harbaugh poached several of the program’s former assistants for his Los Angeles Chargers staff, leaving Moore and Martindale the somewhat unenviable task of kinda, sorta, maybe starting over on defense.
The good news for the Wolverines is that they’ve still got Will Johnson, Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant and others on the roster. The trio I just referenced is inarguably one of the best and most talented three-headed (defensive) monsters in college football, giving TTUN a strong foundation from which to (re?)build.
On the other hand, Kris Jenkins, Junior Colson, and Mike Sainristil are among those who moved on to the NFL, so there is and will be no running it back for U of M’s defense. Also gone from the Wolverines’ 2023 defense is safety Rod Moore, who suffered a very unfortunate injury in April. But all in all, Martindale has plenty with which to work.
The million dollar question is, will Martindale push the right buttons and/or cater to the strengths of (all) his players? Or will the “gameshow host up north” stubbornly stick to his f@$% it, let’s blitz mantra?
For those who don’t know, Martindale’s goal as a DC is or has been to create chaos on every play by (at least attempting to) confusing opponents, experimenting with unique fronts, and blitzing aggressively. And while that mindset/system has led to plenty of success, it has also led to plenty of failure... Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Martindale has been known to overload the LOS with five or six on one side, put eight defenders in the box and have most of the line drop back while linebackers blitz, bring the house on third and medium-to-long, you name it. The man is a mad scientist.
But his blitz-heavy scheme is reliant upon near-perfect communication and execution to be (highly) successful. It also tends to put significant pressure on defensive backs. So if communication breaks down, execution is lacking, and/or those DBs are not up to the challenge, then you end up with an defense like that of the New York Giants last year, which finished as a bottom-5 unit in most metrics.
Martindale’s defenses can also be susceptible to screens and RPOs designed to combat, neutralize, or take advantage of hyper-aggression. And the DC’s core tenet – essentially blitzing all the time, no matter what – tends to be much less effective if/when the offense is able to avoid obvious passing downs. So in other words, Martindale’s scheme is or can be very boom-or-bust.
The interesting thing about TTUN’s defense this year is that it appears to be very top or even front-heavy, with the presumed weakness being the team’s secondary (sans Johnson, below). Which seems less than ideal for a Martindale defense. His best units in the past were led or at least elevated by guys like Eric Weddle, Marlon Humphrey, Chuck Clark, and Marcus Peters, all insanely talented and/or experienced DBs.
But when Weddle and Peters were no longer around and Humphrey missed games in 2021, the Baltimore Ravens finished last in the NFL in passing defense, something that significantly contributed to Martindale’s firing.
So is any of this relevant to the upcoming 2024 season? Maybe, maybe not. But outside of Johnson and maybe Makari Paige (1 INT and 4 PBU in four reasons), it seems to me at least that TTUN has issues in or with its secondary. Returning DBs such as Jyaire Hill, Quentin Johnson, and Ja’Den McBurrows boast little production, and the DB transfers the Wolverines brought in will never be confused with the Seattle Seahawks’ Legion of Boom.
For all the reasons above, I see Martindale’s hiring as having serious boom or bust potential up north. I predict that the Maize and Blue will either: Create consistent chaos on defense and hold opponents to 10, 12, 15 points per game... Or struggle with communication, execution, and man coverage, leading to big play after play for the opposing offense(s). And I think I speak for all of Buckeye Nation when I say that I would much prefer the latter.
Continue reading...