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| Freep |
I don't know Don "Wink" Martindale. Never met him or anyone close to him. He could be a very nice man. Don Brown is a very nice man from many that know him well. Wink Martindale is 100% the wrong DC for the Michigan Wolverines. It was a terrible decision to bring him on and I mentioned this when he was hired. Pretty sure Michigan can't hire anymore "Don's" to run the defense.
These are the type of mistakes that could cost Sherrone his job. Wink was not wanted in the NFL, he had worn out his welcome at a number of organizations. If your resume has, "John Harbaugh fired me", hard pass. His reputation is that he is stuck in his ways and believes he is the smartest defensive mind on the field or in the coaches room, when there is proof he isn't. I'll tell you one thing, Jim Harbaugh would have never made that hire at Michigan or for the Chargers.
Bob, he had a really nice run late in the season last year. He sure did. The story behind that is the Michigan defenders begged Wink to simplify the defense. He listened and did it and stopped Ohio State with a beat up defense and beat Alabama with mostly back ups.
So let's keep that going this year right? Nope, Wink believes his original concept was the right one. That is what washed up NFL coaches do (because they are the smartest NFL minds around). How has Belichick done without Brady? How is UNC working out?
Sherrone needed a Mike MacDonald or a Jesse Minter. A young DC that knows college football and can relate to the young players. Also that can simplify a defense so those young players can understand it. Did you see players understanding the defensive concepts against USC? I saw players out of position and USC's walk-on running backs running in wide open holes. I understand that we have maxed out our quota on Raven DC candidates but I don't believe for one second there are not other programs with young great defensive minds.
I laughed when Day hired Matt Patricia as he failed as the Lions head coach and pretty much everywhere he didn't have a Brady or Belichick. So far I was dead wrong on that one. Patricia is running a match-up zone that has one side playing man to man and the other side of the defense running zone. It's confusing the hell out of QB's. They have also been near impossible to score on in the Red Zone this year.
To top off this narrative, USC had a 66% success rate on offense against Michigan's defense. That is a stat you would see against an FCS defense. Wink, it's time to go and go now.
Fine Bob, who would be our DC for the rest of the season?
My first thought was let Biff do it. His background is not defense. He was an offensive lineman and a head coach. So probably not the best fit.
So that leaves really 3 coaches to choose from:
- Brian Jean-Mary: The guy has been around and worked at a number of programs. He learned from Charlie Strong and is just waiting for an opportunity to be a DC.
- LaMar Morgan - was the DC at Louisiana before coming to Ann Arbor, he was recommend for the job by Jesse Minter.
- Lou Esposito - was the former DC at Memphis and WMU.
I don't think there is a bad choice out of those 3. I would lean towards Morgan or Esposito as they have DC experience. Washington is coming to town with a former Michigan OC as their head coach and a very slippery QB that loves to run. If Wink has another huge miss and loses this game, he should be let go on Sunday. BTW, his son is also on staff, he can stay.
Sherrone really has 3 choices no matter what happens on Saturday.
1. Keep Wink and risk losing his job.
2. Fire Wink and try to save the season as the offense continues to learn
3. Send Wink home like Harbaugh did for the defensive coach during COVID.
I feel bad for Sherrone, no coordinator without head coaching experience is ready for the Michigan job and he hired Wink because he wanted to keep the same defensive system in place. He can't wait to fix this problem in the off season, because the off season could be very long. Penn State has been dealing with the same BS for 12 years and this weekend had enough. Don't wait to make the right decision.
9 comments:
Nice article, but I could have said it much more succinctly > "Wink is a Big Dink!"
Nobody was saying anything bad about Wink after the Ohio State game and after the bowl game against Alabama
The interior of the defensive line just isn't as good this year as it was last year.. and I think the same could be said about the secondary
If Sherrone fired his D.C., it would be his own death sentence. Things would only get worse, not better. Maybe thats what we need to insure Moore gets fired.
Add the offensive line play, too. Everything is regressing.
Ron stop, please for the love of God! STOP! Look beyond the results, beyond the talent or lack there of. Its the effing scheme. When Minter or MacDonald were the DCs they did a great job of disguising what they were doing. Wink just walks up a LB or safety and just brings them. No eye candy, no disguising the looks. That might work against What's-a-matter U, but against real competition, they'll figuratively pull Wink's pants down at the 50 yard line. Lincoln Riley did just that. How many effing screens do you have to run before Wink catches on? Apparently a whole lot of them. I had Don Brown PTSD on Saturday night. Wink brought the blitz, and USC hit a big play from where the blitz came from. That's football 101. Attack the blitz. The key to blitzing is to keep the opposition guessing. when they know when its coming and from where its pretty easy to counter. Wink blitzes almost every play and he shows you where its come from.
I'm good either way. He fires Wink and gets fired, or he keeps him and we lose more games and gets fired. Actually you're scenario is win-win for me. gets rid of both Wink and Sherrone
There's more to this season misfortunes other than hiring Wink.
No head coach without head coaching experience is ready for the Michigan job.
Wink was Sherrone 2nd choice for DC the year Harbaugh took the entire defensive coaching staff with him in mid January when pickings where thin, with the icing on the cake on taking Ben Herbert with him with an offer he couldn't refuse, and we have yet to recover.
With the first half of this season now behind us, the offensive line still still sucks, looking as though Fall camp has just started, looking lost with continued mistakes after mistakes.
Offense scores 13 points against UNC & Oklahoma so let's fire Wink, while were at it let's also fire Sherrone, J.B. Brown, and Grant Newsome.
If we lose to Washington this Saturday names other than Wink will no doubt also be surfacing ... as they should.
Yep, I concur. We need new coaching staff. Do not wait 12 years like Penn State to see the light. Sherrone puts all of Detroit's streetwalkers to shame .... Moore sucks BIGTIME!
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