ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan DC Jesse Minter met with reporters on Wednesday afternoon to offer his insight into the Ohio State game and to preview the Big Ten Championship.
Below are takeaways from our conversation:
What Michigan’s defense has learned from Iowa
Minter says the Wolverines studied Iowa’s success in interception returns ahead of the 2023 season. The Hawkeyes are “very well-coached” in how to block after a turnover, and that was a team goal for Michigan this fall.
When it comes to Saturday in the Big Ten Championship Game, Michigan wants to be “the best defense on the field.”
“They play — I wouldn’t say a vanilla scheme; I think that’s maybe what people think is that they’re really vanilla. But I think this year in particular they actually do a little bit more on defense than they’ve done in the years past,” Minter said. “We’ve had some games — Penn State game, Ohio State game, this game — where I do think we’re playing against their defense. And so a goal of ours in those types of games is to be the best defense on the field. That’s definitely a goal of ours this week.”
How Michigan will attack the Transfer Portal
The fall transfer period begins Dec. 4, 2023.
“You’re always thinking about roster construction and what’s the best way to build your team,” Minter said. “Obviously, we have what we have now and we know what we’re going to have until, hopefully, January 8th.
“After that, you have to really have eyes toward what you want the roster to look like next year. As the Portal opens up, similar to last year, you’ve gotta keep your eyes on guys. We certainly have a few — maybe some positions where we’re really looking, knowing we may or may not have some guys back, things like that. That’s part of it in college football is that the timing of it is different than the NFL where you play the season and then free agency opens down the road. With the Portal, it’s an ongoing deal. Particularly, as it opens up officially, that’ll take some of our time over the first couple of weeks of December to see if there’s something out there for us.”
Chris Partridge’s departure and its impact on recruiting
Jesse Minter says one of his first responses to Chris Partridge being fired was to contact recruits.
“The first thing I did was try to reach out to the players that I knew he had a good relationship with and was able to sort of ease their concerns or ease their mind a little bit,” Minter said. “Certainly had relationships with them all just from recruiting. I think any time that happens, it’s everybody trying to raise up a little bit. But certainly feel good about us moving forward in that regard.”
Will Johnson injury update: He’ll be on a snap count at best
Even if Will Johnson can play against Iowa, he will be on a snap count.
“Hopefully, he gets close to being able to do that — to give us some snaps,” Minter said. “What a credit to the other guys. He didn’t play from about the eight- or nine-minute mark of the third quarter [against Ohio State], and for us to still to be able to maintain what we were able to do, make some plays there at the end with Ja’Den McBurrows hugely stepping up and sliding in and playing nickel. Mike having the ability to go from inside to outside.
“We’ll do the same thing this week. If Will’s ready, we play him and we’ll try to keep him at a snap count that we can manage for his situation.”
Minter also suggested the Wolverines will work on building their secondary depth against the Hawkeyes.
“We have a lot of confidence in the other guys to get the job done, and then there’s some more— that’s really, in my opinion, the one position we’re still trying to get that next guy or two really, really game-ready,” he said. “The guys continue to work really hard in practice. And so hopefully, this is a game where maybe we can throw some more guys in there, even.”
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