Michigan football defensive coordinator Wink Martindale isn’t big into secrets.
It’s pretty to easy to know what he’s thinking about a certain player or group based on his actions. How does he express it? He’s not going to hoop and holler or get on somebody’s case, he’s just going to show them.
“He keeps his cool, he don’t do too much yelling,” senior edge and captain Derrick Moore said earlier this week. “He pretty much leaves it to the leaders to lead the defense. … he kind of remind us every day, he gonna treat us like we’re pro guys.”
Whether it’s college or pro, Martindale has a simple philosophy: the best players will play. Point blank, period, end of discussion. The hope is that doesn’t leave much room for feelings to get hurt because the same goes for everybody.
Speaking with media on Wednesday, Oct. 1, he referenced a legendary speech by Indiana basketball Hall of Fame coach Bobby Knight who explained the best way he knew to get the most out of his players.
“You can talk about all the motivational speeches and phrases and devices in the world, but the greatest motivator of all is your ass on the bench,” Knight said. “There is no better motivator. Ass meets bench, bench retains ass. Ass transmits signal to brain, brain transmits signal to body, body gets ass off bench and plays better.
“I mean it’s a hell of a sequence of things that takes place.”
Martindale suggested everybody look it up and he said while it clearly has an entertaining factor to it, “it’s the truth.” The reason it came up? There have been some U-M players on the edge who’ve lost playing time as a result of some recent shakeups.
When Jaishawn Barham made the move from predominantly inside linebacker to majority edge rusher, there were a few reasons for it. First, it made the front better. But it also got more productive players on the field.
By putting Barham on the edge, it created room in the linebacker corps for both Cole Sullivan and Jimmy Rolder to rotate in alongside Ernest Hausmann. Through four games, Sullivan has 19 tackles (12 solo) to go with two sacks, two interceptions and a fumble recovery.
“How can you not play (Sullivan with) how productive he is?” Martindale said. “How about Jimmy Rolder? I mean, he is smashing people out there and playing really well.”
Martindale has multiple defensive looks. It’s all an effort to do what he has promised every coach, player and team assistant he would do with his unit since the moment he stepped in Ann Arbor in the winter of 2024.
“When you move people around, we said it before: It’s about getting the best 11 on the field,” Martindale said. “Facts are facts, and you’re just honest with everybody. If you want to play more, practice better. That’s the way life works, perform better.”
If some are playing more, inherently, it means others will play less. Two of the players who’ve drawn the short end of the stick? Graduate edge TJ Guy and sophomore pass rusher Dom Nichols.
Guy didn’t play a single snap in U-M’s Week 3 63-3 victory over Central Michigan. While coaches assured that was more gameplan oriented than anything else, the trend continued in Week 4 against Nebraska.
According to Pro Football Focus, Hausmann (63) and Rolder (52) led the linebacker, while the edge players were led by Barham (41), Cam Brandt (40) and Derrick Moore (38).
Guy, a starting edge rusher to begin the campaign, came in at 34. Nichols was at 13, just a few weeks after playing a career-high 29 in the opener vs. New Mexico.
“The only thing you know that you have is playing time,” Martindale said. “So practice better, play better. That’s not just with TJ, Dom, whoever. It’s at each position group.”
There will continue to be ebbs and flows in the snap counts the unfortunate truth is injuries will likely also play a factor into the equation for someone moving forward. But there’s little doubt Barham on the edge is a move that will stick, while the linebackers have been the best group on the entire unit.
That means the defensive tackles and edges will all need to eat or be eaten.
“I like where we’re at, but we’re still not where we want to be, you know, as far as every day practice,” Martindale said. “You got to get better, play better and execute and stay locked in.”
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wink Martindale isn’t big into secrets and it shows on the field for Michigan football
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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