LOS ANGELES — On the flight home from Michigan‘s
LOS ANGELES — On the flight home from Michigan‘s stomach-churning loss to TCU in last year’s College Football Playoff semifinals, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter subjected himself to an immediate re-watch of the carnage. He saw 51 points allowed and 488 yards surrendered, four red zone touchdowns conceded and a 50% failure rate on third down. With the pain of a fractured season still fresh, Minter put pen to paper and made a list of the places he’d fallen short.
“Not looking at the players,” Minter said in a news conference on Wednesday morning, “but looking at myself of, ‘How did we prepare? Did we take the right angles to the ball? Are we playing with our hair on fire? Were we doing too much? Were we not doing enough? Were we going after the football at times when it was there? Were we communicating at a level we needed to?’ So really just [a] self-reflection of things I didn’t think we did great towards the latter part of the season.”
Minter’s rush of aerial introspection was later distilled into a set of principles that would shape the unit’s identity in 2023, a season in which the Wolverines led the country in scoring defense (9.5 points per game), finished second in total defense (239.7 yards per game) and tied with Penn State for the most takeaways (24) in the Big Ten.
Beginning with winter workouts, Minter and his staff leaned into the idea that branding their points of emphasis as the “Four Pillars” would be an effective teaching tool for a group hellbent on winning the national championship after back-to-back semifinal stumbles against Georgia and TCU.
stomach-churning loss to TCU in last year’s College Football Playoff semifinals, defensive coordinator Jesse Minter subjected himself to an immediate re-watch of the carnage. He saw 51 points allowed and 488 yards surrendered, four red zone touchdowns conceded and a 50% failure rate on third down. With the pain of a fractured season still fresh, Minter put pen to paper and made a list of the places he’d fallen short.
“Not looking at the players,” Minter said in a news conference on Wednesday morning, “but looking at myself of, ‘How did we prepare? Did we take the right angles to the ball? Are we playing with our hair on fire? Were we doing too much? Were we not doing enough? Were we going after the football at times when it was there? Were we communicating at a level we needed to?’ So really just [a] self-reflection of things I didn’t think we did great towards the latter part of the season.”
Minter’s rush of aerial introspection was later distilled into a set of principles that would shape the unit’s identity in 2023, a season in which the Wolverines led the country in scoring defense (9.5 points per game), finished second in total defense (239.7 yards per game) and tied with Penn State for the most takeaways (24) in the Big Ten.
Beginning with winter workouts, Minter and his staff leaned into the idea that branding their points of emphasis as the “Four Pillars” would be an effective teaching tool for a group hellbent on winning the national championship after back-to-back semifinal stumbles against Georgia and TCU.
But never has Minter’s mnemonic been invoked more frequently than during the month-long buildup to a Rose Bowl showdown with Alabama, the dynastic winners of six national titles in 14 years. What was originally an educational device has morphed into the Wolverines’ stock response for inquiries about how they’ll defend the hegemonic Crimson Tide, which, in 2023, laid claim to the strongest roster in the country for a seventh time in nine seasons since the 247Sports Team Talent Composite was created.
All the Wolverines can do against an opponent that some believe will be too big, too strong and too fast for head coach Jim Harbaugh’s bunch is trust the principles that got them here.
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