Three years ago, it was something of a coup for Michigan football to get a rising NFL assistant, Mike Macdonald, to leave the pros for the college level (although many Wolverines fans weren’t sure about the hire at the time). Under no circumstances would anyone have believed at that time that the man who stood above Macdonald and leading the Baltimore Ravens defense would end up coming to Ann Arbor to replace Macdonald and his other protégé, Jesse Minter.
After Jim Harbaugh left Ann Arbor for the NFL, Sherrone Moore somehow managed to lure longtime pro-level defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, ‘the OG’ of the defense, back to college. So how did this happen? Sure, Martindale was a hot commodity, but the Michigan job was attractive enough that he didn’t entertain any other possibilities.
It all started with a notable ESPN personality who called Martindale, gauging his interest in the position. Martindale shared more with Jake Butt in a podcast for Champions Circle subscribers.
“This all happened through Adam Schefter,” Martindale said. “And I talked to other people – Steven Eisenberg, who I’ve known for 12 years. And when I was in Sarasota, in my head, Jake – and you know, being on the show – I was going to take this year off and then come back. And I got a call from Adam Schefter. He said, ‘Hey, would you be interested?’ And I say, ‘Of course. I’d be interested, I want to talk to (Sherrone Moore).’
“And I talked to the guy, his passion — not for Michigan — his passion for kids. I’m like, ‘That’s my guy.’ He wants to do everything right for the players. And what’s the best way to do this for players?
“And he had questions for me, and I had questions for him. And we talked, I want to say, twice, for about an hour, each time I was in Sarasota. And he said, ‘Why don’t you come here?’ And we talked for another two hours. Warde came and I didn’t notice, and Sherrone told me later, when I got here, I already had the job, I didn’t even notice. And you know, we need to be close to some of the players.
“And we watched the Ohio State game and it was like I said before, I wish I had come up with something even smarter. But if you love football, you love Michigan football because it represents what is right.”
That was the how, but what about the why? Why leave the NFL to take the same position in college, certainly a step up in terms of prestige.
Martindale says it was the players and the way they operate that coerced him more than anything. Because the work ethic in Ann Arbor is at an even higher level, as well as personal responsibility, than the NFL, from what he’s seen.
“These guys want to win. That was the first thing that attracted me to this job,” Martindale said. “Which surprised me because I didn’t really know what it was – it’s been 20 years, I didn’t know what I was going back to.
“With the players themselves, these guys love football. And I said this the other day, I was talking about Will Johnson, who is a very humble kid who has so many things going for him that he doesn’t even know yet. And that’s a good thing. Because the way he works, and as much as we do football-related things within the program, I will see Will for a while out there with 10 or 12 teammates, they are there working on their own. And I don’t care what they say, I don’t think you see that anywhere.”
