close
close

Latest Post

Once the new law comes into effect, the JSO will begin warning people who sleep outside “I am a different person now”

play

Michigan football defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is fighting back again.

Martindale spent the offseason appearing on “The LAB Podcast” in which he denied what he said were lazy comparisons between him and former UM defensive coordinator Don Brown.

Brown was known as “Dr. Blitz,” while Martindale came from the NFL and had a penchant for pressuring quarterbacks.

On Wednesday, Martindale's penchant for blitzing was discussed with reporters as the architect of the Michigan defense on Wednesday disagreed with what he described as an inappropriate “narrative” about his defensive philosophy and his blitz speed in general.

“WE KNOW WHICH TEAM THIS IS”: Michigan's football WRs can't get the ball. They agree to this on one condition.

Martindale is back in the NCAA for the first time in two decades; His last NFL defense, the 2023 New York Giants, was second in the NFL in blitz rate (45%) on all dropbacks. But he insists that the rates, according to those who track them (though he didn't name specific websites), don't match what he actually quotes.

“It's a narrative that people wanted to create with me personally, and that's fine because it keeps every offense up all night,” Martindale said. “Just because you send a nickel and drop a D-end, that’s still a four-man rush, you know? It's the same simulated rush.

“But all the great people and all the different ones – I don’t know what they are. There you will get all the information that contains all these percentages – they are wrong. Just keep writing, keep believing and keep reading. Keep doing everything you want to do. It's just completely wrong. But that's it. Like I said, it really helps us.”

According to Pro Football Focus, UM USC beat Miller Moss on 15 of 55 dropbacks – 27.3%, the lowest rate of the season. This came after he completed 17 of 36 passing attempts by Arkansas State – 47.2% – 17 of 38 (44.7%) in a loss against Texas and 23 of 39 (59.0%) against Fresno State in UM's opener had achieved.

Although Martindale did not directly quote any website, he generally expressed that those telling the story were inadequate and compared their standards to his lack of knowledge of the journalism profession.

FROM ANOTHER PLANET: Running back Kalel Mullings continues to be Superman for Michigan football

“The people who count your pressures don’t know the difference between a pressure, a simulated rush or a four-man rush,” Martindale said. “That’s exactly my point of view. It would be like me reading one of your articles and saying you use bad grammar. I'm not very good at English. Do you know what I'm saying? I don't know what the difference is between a good article and a bad article, or a report or a podcast or whatever. It’s the same thing.”

Blitz, pressure or whatever, no one is denying that the Wolverines absolutely went after Moss on Saturday.

Michigan's postgame stats indicate USC's first-year QB (making his first career road start) was pressured 10 times and hit eight times, while the team also recorded eight tackles for a loss, four Sacks, a forced fumble and finally a pick-six collected by cornerback Will Johnson.

Martindale said Wednesday – multiple times – that it was his unit's best performance across the board, from inside linebackers Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant to cornerbacks Johnson and Jyaire Hill to linebackers Ernest Hausmann and Jaishawn Barham, whom he described as ” “sound generator” called “.

However, of all the impressive performances, few were more impressive – even in the opinion of those annoying people at PFF – than frontrunners Josaiah Stewart and Derrick Moore.

Stewart, who was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, also received the Maxwell Club's Chuck Bednarik Award, given weekly to the nation's top defensive player. The former Coastal Carolina transfer, who finished second in the captain's vote, paced the Trojans with four tackles, four quarterback hurries, three tackles-for-loss and two sacks. As impressed as Martindale was with the defender, who he said “has no ceiling”, he doesn't want his performance to overshadow the performances of Graham, Grant and Moore.

“Everyone’s talking about J-Stew’s pass rush, which is well-deserved, that’s what they should be talking about,” Martindale said. “But D-Mo also had some great rushes that turned into rushes where he took tackles and threw them into the lap of the quarterback. And Mason and KG together, that’s the best I’ve ever seen play.”

“As long as we come every Saturday with that mentality, I think these four will experience a lot of good things.”

Johnson spoke earlier this week about how critical the pressure from the Wolverines' front four was. Whether on offense or defense, “the team runs through” its linemen.

Of course, UM doesn't just rely on those four, thanks to the blitzes, pressure, or whatever else Martindale likes to throw at teams.

It changes every week, he said. A pro passing team like USC is much different than what UM will see this week in Minnesota (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten), which, like Michigan, wants to establish the run early and eat up time.

So Martindale will have a new plan this week. Of course he's happy if everyone believes it will still be the same.

“I think we played some really good situational football against SC, which you saw at the end of the half and at the end of the game,” he said. “People don’t understand that there are real calls in situations like this that can get you a sack before halftime or stop the pass play in the fourth quarter.”

“I've been doing this for 40 years and yes, (Texas coach Steve Sarkisian) is a good offensive coordinator. He has a really good quarterback, and yes, Lincoln Riley has another good quarterback. … (But) we adjusted and played what we thought was best to win the game because at the end of the week we just want to be 1-0.”

On By John Fenwick

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post