ExtremeRavens Posted 15 hours ago Posted 15 hours ago The Ravens got their guy. Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, 42, is trading coasts to succeed the 18-year tenure of coach John Harbaugh. Here are five things to know about Minter: Minter has close ties to the Harbaugh family (and Mike Tomlin) First, a bit of background: Minter got his start in coaching as a defensive intern at Notre Dame in 2006. His father, Rick Minter, was on then-head coach Charlie Weis’ staff and Weis was willing to give the younger Minter a shot. After one season, Weis fired Rick and so went his son. They went their separate coaching ways. Minter went to Cincinnati, then climbed the coaching ladder at Indiana State before going to Georgia State from 2013 to 2016. Rick had a relationship with John Harbaugh from their time coaching together at Cincinnati in the 1990s. Rick was the Bearcats’ head coach for a decade. Harbaugh was his special teams coordinator for three seasons. When Harbaugh had an opening in Baltimore two decades later, Rick made a phone call (every coaching hire starts with a phone call). Harbaugh interviewed Jesse and hired him the same day. There, Jesse worked under then defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale and current Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald. Minter’s defensive philosophies are largely believed to be a byproduct of those two. By 2020, Jim needed a defensive coordinator in Michigan. He hired Macdonald, while Minter took a promotion at Vanderbilt. Then Macdonald was hired as Baltimore’s defensive coordinator in 2023. So Minter backfilled his job in Ann Arbor. Then Minter followed Jim to be a defensive coordinator in Los Angeles. And now, for his first head coaching job, he’ll succeed the other Harbaugh. Oh, and he also used to take notes from former Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. During a Steelers versus Chargers game this past fall, NBC’s Mike Tirico pointed out how Tomlin briefly coached under Rick at Cincinnati. His broadcast partner, Cris Collinsworth chimed in, “it was Jesse who would sit and just stare as a 16-year-old at what Mike Tomlin was doing coaching defensive backs and wide receivers. He just loved it, and so much of his style is modeled after Mike Tomlin.” He’s a defensive-minded coach. A successful one at that. Minter is widely regarded as one of the top defensive minds in the NFL. His past four years as a defensive coordinator at two stops are proof. In 2023, he won a national championship under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan leading the nation’s best defense by several metrics. The Wolverines went 15-0 with Minter as the defensive coordinator. Then with the Chargers in 2024, he turned a bottom-third defense into the league leader in fewest points and seventh-fewest passing yards per game. That was his first year as an NFL DC; his group became the sixth team in a half-century to give up 20 or fewer points in eight road games over one season. He followed that up with another top-five defense that forced more takeaways than 30 other teams. Credit Minter’s ability to get the most out of his roster. Minter was once described as a ‘humble warrior’ In 2024, during an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show,” Jim called his defensive coordinator a “humble warrior” and a “jackhammer.” “I’m about to go into a meeting with Jesse,” Jim said at the time, “and it’s gonna be ‘we played this’, and he’s gonna want ‘we can get better at this.’ ‘We had this many missed tackles, and we had the two defensive offsides penalties back to back.’ He’s always … more is more for Jesse. He’s just intuitive. He knows offensive football almost as well as defensive football. He knows how an offense is going to try to attack.” That came in handy the couple times Minter has plugged into the main headset. When Michigan levied a suspension against Jim in 2023, Minter handled the first of a three-man rotation of interim coaching duties. He led the Wolverines to a 30-3 win over East Carolina. A year later in Los Angeles, Jim left the sideline early for an arrythmia, briefly leaving Minter in charge for what was a smooth transition. Jim later said that he believes Minter “checks every box” to be a future head coach. Minter’s employer isn’t the only one with rave reviews. “The thing that makes him great is, just like coach [Jim] Harbaugh, he’s not OK with just doing what he did to get there,” Chargers defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale told The Athletic last year. “What are we doing to make it better? And this is not like a seasonal thing. It’s a daily thing.” One painful loss rewired his coaching philosophy Michigan started the 2022 season 13-0, earning a bid to the College Football Playoff and a semifinal matchup with TCU. The Wolverines lost 51-45 on a night Minter’s defense allowed 488 yards. According to reporting from The Athletic, Minter spent his entire flight home questioning where they went wrong. Minter formulated what would become the pillars – later renamed separators – of his defensive success: block destruction, shocking effort, ball disruption and obnoxious communication. Mike Elston, who coached at Michigan then the Chargers, told The Athletic that Minter’s impact was “immediate.” A year later, Michigan won a national championship and Minter earned his way into an NFL coordinator job. Minter is a fan of Lamar Jackson, of course When the Ravens and Chargers matched up in November 2024, the dominant storyline of the week was yet another “Harbowl.” The two brothers had a chance to duke it out for the first time since the Super Bowl in 2013. But in the week leading up to the rematch, Minter was asked about his first shot to game plan against Lamar Jackson, who was enjoying what would be his second season as the league’s Most Valuable Player. Minter called Jackson “the most electric quarterback in the history of the National Football League.” Now, he’ll have the chance to coach him. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.x.com. View the full article Quote
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