ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan football defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has a lot on his plate going into Week 1.
Not only does he have to field a defense with some positions not exactly settled, while having to sub in players who weren’t anticipated to start, but will given some injuries, but he’ll also have to oversee the whole team with head coach Jim Harbaugh suspended. Taking over the reins for the season opener as the interim head coach, Minter will be balancing the game-day operations with ensuring that his unit is in peak form right out of the gates.
But Minter is calm, cool, and collected, regardless of everything being thrown at him.
Part of the reason is that it’s his second year at the defensive helm, and the third year of the defense overall, but it’s also because he has familiarity with what his players can do, and he’s more focused on fitting the defense with their skills, and not conforming the players to the scheme.
Still, there’s a lot to learn when the live bullets start flying, but given his own comfortability in his role, he’s confident that the season will get out to a great start.
“There’s a comfort level with myself and just a lot of the returning players that was a little bit more unknown going into the season,” Minter said. “I tell the guys this: you build up equity with each other when you go through battles and big games and all that. So there’s a lot of guys back that have a pretty good idea how they’ll respond in certain situations. There’s another plethora of faces that maybe have been around, but haven’t been in those moments that I’m excited to see how they respond.
“Just to compare, I just think as a staff, we’ve done a better job of emphasizing the things that we think are really important to playing good defense that maybe aren’t scheme related, and things like that, that our guys can control. We’ve really, really pushed the envelope on those. And I’m confident that it’ll pay off and we’ll come out of the gates ready to play.”
Minter is working through the 30,000-foot view while also not exactly knowing through the week who his starters will be at a handful of positions.
There are rumors that Will Johnson may not play at cornerback due to injury, all while there’s been uncertainty as to who will start opposite him. There are myriad options for the starting edge rusher role, but no clear-cut starters, outside of incumbent Jaylen Harrell.
Minter threw out a lot of names of those who could end up seeing major playing time on Saturday against East Carolina, confident that any number of them are up for the task.
“Those will be finalized this week,” Minter said. “The great thing is, especially on the edge, I really do feel like we got multiple starters at positions. We’ll let that shake out through this week and maybe even through the first couple of games.
“I think Josh Wallace has done a great job at corner but I also think, you know, (Ja’Den) McBurrows, Jyaire Hill, a lot of these guys, Keshaun Harris — that is still ongoing as we get ready for this game. But really look forward to seeing all those guys get a chance to play early and normally like all these guys will get game reps, I think over time somebody will rise and really, really put their stamp on that position and will be excited to see who it is.”