Michigan’s new defensive coordinator, Wink Martindale, has acknowledged that he likes to blitz more than predecessors Jesse Minter or Mike Macdonald. But the Wolverines’ DC is also quick to dismiss similarities between his scheme and the one run under Don Brown, whose “Dr. Blitz” nickname reflected his desire to pair pressure with press-man and a single safety. 

Appearing on an episode of The L.A.B., a podcast hosted by Jake Butt and Champions Circle, Martindale detailed the origins of the defensive scheme he helped popularize with the Baltimore Ravens: 

It all started, really, with John Harbaugh, which no one understands unless you’re in that room. The Harbaugh family I have so much respect for, and all they do is win — whoever they’re coaching, wherever they’re coaching. And John, when he hired me as the defensive coordinator, he charged me with, ‘Hey, I want to be more flexible with what we do.’ 

What it was, from names of the past going back Dean Pees, Greg Mattison, Chuck Pagano, Rex Ryan, it had just become tangled kite string of a defense where everybody couldn’t play as fast as what we wanted them to play. And John said: Let’s simplify this thing and yet also make it flexible enough that you can call whatever front you want and easy ways to close the front. We went from that to pressures, from pressures to coverage. It’s a bunch of concepts that we can play to the personnel that we have.

It helped that I was an educator when I first started this thing as a teacher, and the way we did it, it was about a six-month project of designing this defense. And then everybody else, they put their own mix on it. Even this year with the staff that we have — and Sherrone hired a great defensive staff. I have one of my guys with me, Kevin Wilkins, who is an analyst. Hopefully they pass that where the analyst can coach ’cause he’s a great coach.

We have LaMar, Lou and BJ as the main guys who all have coordinating experience. Of course, I’m gonna lean on them heavily, going back from pro to college and it’ll be our mix.

This is gonna be our defense. This is Michigan’s defense. This is Sherrone’s defense.

And if you take one of those elements out next year, it’s still the same system, but there’s still be another little personality thing to it. And it comes down to who’s calling the game as well, which I’ll be calling the games.

The defense has so much flexibility, and we haven’t even talked about the players yet, but it has so much flexibility. It shows the personality of who’s coaching the defense. And we’re all coaching it. This is a “we” thing. This isn’t an “I” thing. We’re all coaching it.

And I’m looking forward to this month being over with all the official visits. All right, I’ll tell you, I’m looking forward to vacation a couple of weeks away, but also I’ll be continually thinking about different ways, different looks, different things that we can do.

There’s a narrative out there right now. I’m telling all the listeners: I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t read articles or anything else, but there’s a narrative now that some people are afraid it’s going back to the old-school Don Brown system. That’s not the case whatsoever. To me, that’s profiling. Just ’cause I’m old and Don Brown’s old, you can’t put us together.

I’m proud of the coaches that have come out from underneath this defensive tree that’s worked with me and have gone on. D’Anton Lynn at USC. He was with me. Anthony Weaver is the defensive coordinator at Miami. He was with me. Of course, Mike went to Seattle. Jesse’s with the Chargers. We had Brian Duker down in Miami. We were all together there. Drew Wilkins, who’s at New England now.

There’s a bunch of guys that have been through this tree and they understand the flexibility of the defense and the success you can have. It’s a fun defense to coach. And I think listening to the kids, it’s a fun defense to play in. 

Watch the full episode of The L.A.B. with Wink Martindale in the video embedded below: