Michigan football defensive coordinator Wink Martindale is pushing back once again.
During the offseason, Martindale spent an appearance on "The L.A.B Podcast" denying what he deemed lazy comparisons between him and former U-M defensive coordinator Don Brown .
Brown was known as "Dr. Blitz," while Martindale came from the NFL with a pedigree of putting pressure on quarterbacks.
On Wednesday, Martindale's propensity for blitzing brought some fact-checking with reporters, as the architect of Michigan's defense disagreed Wednesday with what he called an improper "narrative" surrounding his defensive philosophies and blitz rate in general.
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Martindale is back in the NCAA for the first time in two decades ; his most recent NFL defense, the 2023 New York Giants, was second in the NFL in blitz rate (45%) on all drop-backs. But he insists the rates, according to those who track them (though he didn't name any specific sites), do not line up with what he actually calls.
“It’s a narrative that people have wanted to create with myself, personally, and that’s fine, because it keeps every offense up all night,” Martindale said. “Just because you send a nickel and you drop a D-end, that’s still a four-man rush, you understand? It’s the same simulated rush.
“But all the great people and all the different ― I don’t know what they are. It’s where you get all the information from that have all these percentages ― they’re wrong. So just keep writing and believing, reading. Keep doing all that stuff you want to do. It’s just flat-out wrong. But that’s that. Like I said, it really helps us.”
According to Pro Football Focus, U-M blitzed USC Miller Moss on 15 of 55 dropbacks — 27.3%, the lowest rate of the season. That came after blitzing on 17 of Arkansas State's 36 pass attempts — 47.2% — on 17 of 38 (44.7%) in a loss to Texas, 23 of 39 (59.0%) against Fresno State in U-M's opener.
Though Martindale didn't cite any site directly, he spoke broadly that those who are setting the narrative are out of turn, comparing their measurements to his lack of knowledge of the journalism profession.
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“The people that are keeping count of your pressures don't know the difference between a pressure, a simulated or a four-man rush,” Martindale said. “That's just where I stand on it. It would be like me reading one of your articles and saying you use bad grammar. I'm not very good in English. You know what I'm saying? I don't know what's the difference between a good article and a bad article, or a report or a podcast or whatever. It's the same thing.”
Blitz, pressure or whatever, nobody disputes that the Wolverines absolutely got after Moss on Saturday.
Michigan's postgame stats indicated USC's first-year QB (making his first career road start) faced 10 pressures and was hit eight times, while the team also accumulated eight tackles for loss, four sacks, a forced fumble and, finally, a pick-six by cornerback Will Johnson.
Martindale said Wednesday — multiple times — that it was the best performance for his unit across the board, from interior linemen Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant, to cornerbacks Johnson and Jyaire Hill and linebackers Ernest Hausmann and Jaishawn Barham, whom he dubbed the "tone setter."
However of all the impressive performances, few were more impressive — even according to those pesky folks at PFF— than edges Josaiah Stewart and Derrick Moore.
Stewart, who was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Monday, also earned the Chuck Bednarik Award from the Maxwell Club, given weekly to the nation's top defender. The former Coastal Carolina transfer, who finished as runner-up in captain voting, finished off the Trojans with four tackles, four quarterback hurries, three tackles-for-loss and two sacks. As impressed as Martindale was with the defender whom he said "has no ceiling," he doesn't want his performance to overshadow the performances from Graham, Grant and Moore.
"Everybody's talking about J-Stew's pass rush, which is well deserved, they should talk about that," Martindale said. "But D-Mo had some great rushes too, which became hurries where he's taking tackles and throwing them in the quarterback's lap. And Mason and KG together, that's the best that I've seen them play.
"As long as we come every Saturday with that mentality, I think there's a lot of good things to come for those four."
Johnson spoke earlier in the week of how critical pressure from the Wolverines' front four is. Whether it's on offense or defense, "the team runs through" its linemen.
Of course, U-M isn't only relying on those four, thanks to the blitzes, pressures or whatevers Martindale likes to throw at teams.
It changes every week, he said. A pro-style passing team like USC is quite different than what U-M will see this week in Minnesota (2-2, 0-1 Big Ten), which, like Michigan, wants to establish the run early and chew up clock.
So, Martindale will have a new plan this week. Of course, he's happy with everybody believing it will be the same old thing.
“I think that we played really well in situational football against S.C. that you saw at the end of the half and you saw it at the end of the game,” he said. "People don’t understand there’s actual calls you call in those situations so you can get a sack before halftime, or you can stop the passing game going right down the field on you when you’re in there in the fourth quarter.
“I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and, yeah, (Texas coach Steve Sarkisian) is a good offensive coordinator. He’s got a really good quarterback, and, yeah, Lincoln Riley has another good quarterback. ... (But) we’ve adapted and played what we thought was best to win the game, because at the end of the week, we just want to be 1-0."
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football's Wink Martindale pushes back on 'flat-wrong' blitz-heavy narrative
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