HOUSTON — Jesse Minter once was the defensive coordinator at Georgia State.
Minter two years ago became the defensive coordinator at Michigan.
On Monday, Minter will coach the biggest game of his still-young career when the Wolverines take on Washington in the College Football Playoff Championship game at NRG Stadium.
Minter, now 40 years old, still looks mostly the same – thin and boyish with large brown eyes but with a few gray streaks in his black hair – as he did in his final year on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. His development as a play-caller and manager have changed a great deal. But he still applies lessons he learned while with Trent Miles and the Panthers in Atlanta from 2013-16 to what he’s doing under Jim Harbaugh and the No. 1 Wolverines in Ann Arbor.
“It’s still really about the players,” Minter said. “Coming (to Georgia State) from Indiana State where we had a really good defense, you go there, you learn quickly that it’s about accumulating talent and teaching and developing something. I feel good about what we were able to do there. But it’s about trying to try to acquire talent and then develop players. And I think that’s the success now that we have at Michigan is a direct reflection.”
Minter’s players and the coaches he manages were effusive in their praise and tried not to be hyperbolic in their descriptions of his ability to anticipate what an opponent will do and have the right play called to stop it.
Still, he was described as a “wizard.” A “boss.” A “play-caller, not just someone who calls plays.”
Watch the final play of the Rose Bowl. Minter told his staff he was going to bring pressure against Alabama. Cornerback Rod Moore said Minter called an all-out blitz on fourth-and-goal from the 3-yard line.
“Boss,” Moore said.
Quarterback Jalen Milroe was stopped short of the goal line. The Wolverines improved to 14-0.
“If that call would have been fourth-and-1 on the 1, they wouldn’t have made it right?” said Rick Minter, Jesse’s dad, who recently was promoted to Michigan’s linebackers coach.
Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh gave Minter a game ball.
“The rest of their lives they can go back and go, man, I did it. I did it in some of the most high-pressure moments,” Harbaugh said.
Miles said he was watching the Rose Bowl on various devices and saw the play that sealed the win.
“There’s guys that call plays,” Miles said. “They’ve got the coordinator title, and they call plays. And then there’s real play-callers. They really get it. They understand exactly what they have to do and what hurts somebody.”
Michigan has hurt a lot of teams this season.
The Wolverines were second in FBS in total defense (239.2 yards per game), scoring defense (9.5 points per game), second in passing yards allowed (152.6 yards per game) and turnover margin (1.31) and fifth in rush defense (86.6 yards per game).
The Wolverines sacked Milroe six times and stopped Alabama on 10 of their 13 third-down attempts.
Minter’s path from Indiana State to Georgia State to Ann Arbor shaped the play-caller he is today and is in part why the Wolverines made their third consecutive playoff.
Miles gave Minter his first full-time job at Indiana State in 2009. The only opening that Miles had on his coaching staff was a job as a position coach on offense. He knew as soon as he could, he was going to move Minter to defense. Minter coached linebackers in 2009 and ‘10. Miles promoted Minter to defensive coordinator in 2011.
Miles took over Georgia State ahead of the 2013 season. Minter was among the coaches who came with him.
“Trent really gave Jesse the ability to define what he wanted at each position,” said P.J. Volker, Georgia State’s linebackers coach and who is coaching at Navy. “He also really gave Jesse free reins on schematically what we were doing defensively. So being a young guy and having all that responsibility and being able to recruit to it being able to call those games, big situations.
“We played Alabama at Alabama. We played Oregon at Oregon, Washington at Washington. It’s sort of wild when you think back to two of those games that we played that obviously are teams that he’s coaching against in the playoffs.”
Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Chandon Sullivan, who played for Minter at Georgia State, said he listened to his young coordinator use words like “advantageous” and didn’t know what to think. He bought into Minter in the Panthers’ 28-0 loss at Clemson in November 2014. It was Sullivan’s first game at safety. On the Tigers’ second series, Minter called a play that resulted in Sullivan intercepting Cole Stoudt.
“I’m a young guy, and I’m playing against Clemson, and originally I’m from South Carolina, so that was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Sullivan said. “He was like, ‘Just trust your instincts. Don’t try to force anything.”
Miles and his staff led the Panthers to their first bowl game in 2015. Minter’s defense was ranked No. 8 in passing defense in FBS that season. Sullivan said the game plans were consistently sharp, and they always worked on specific situations.
Miles was fired by Georgia State after the 2016 season in which the team went 2-8.
Minter was hired by John Harbaugh in Baltimore to become a defensive assistant with the Ravens. Minter, who grew up watching film with his dad, who has coached all over the country, began learning another side of football under coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale. He was promoted to defensive backs coach in 2020.
Minter became Vanderbilt’s defensive coordinator in 2021. It didn’t go well. The Commodores allowed an average of 35.8 points per game. But Minter’s concepts and leadership were strong enough that Jim Harbaugh hired him as the Wolverines’ defensive coordinator in 2022.
His dad, Rick, joined him.
“I saw a real transformation,” Rick Minter said. “We’re doing the same stuff we did last year, but we’re doing a much improved, much more detailed. And it all starts with him.”
The defense that Minter uses at Michigan isn’t the same one he used at Indiana State, Georgia State or Vanderbilt. The plays are different because the players are different and the opponents are different.
Volker said the one constant is the aggressiveness and the attention to detail.
“I watch him week in and week out, and I just feel like they’re so well coached across the board,” Volker said. “They play extremely hard and physical and no matter what the scheme is, anything like that. That’s the most important thing defensively, these guys going out there together and playing, playing really physical, violent football, and that’s what you see from his defenses.”
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