HOUSTON — In Monday’s national championship game, the biggest stage in college football, no one shined brighter than the Michigan football team’s defense.
The Wolverine defense, excellent all season, played arguably their best opponent-adjusted game of the season. Facing a Washington offense ranked first nationally in passing yards per game,
Michigan held Washington to just 301 total yards, one play of 20 yards or more, one touchdown that came on a fourth-and-goal play and three drives inside the Wolverines’ 40-yard line on 13 attempts. Michigan forced two turnovers, and flexed as the nation’s top defense in a 34-13 win.
Orchestrating it all was defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who is now 28-1 as Michigan’s defensive coordinator, and led the Wolverines to the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense and No. 1 total defense this season.
Speaking in the locker room after the game, Minter spoke to reporters about the Wolverines’ win, the key plays the defense made in the title game, a season of success, his NFL aspirations, winning a title with his dad on staff and more.
See what he had to say below.
On the defense being able to use a lot of the Ohio State scheme against Washington
Yeah definitely. We work all year to beat the particular teams on our schedule. And going into the season, it was Ohio State’s offense, Penn State’s offense. Going into the year, those were the matchup-type games. So they really prepare you for these deals. And I think practicing against our offense, particularly the shifts and motions pre-snap, the amount of work we get on that going against our guys is critical.
It kind of eased our mind a little bit, because it’s like, ‘hey, they’re gonna do this every play.’ Well, we see that every play in training camp, every Tuesday in good-on-good period, so we were able to kind of keep our composure and not let the shifts and motions cause panic as they do to some teams, and play really well.
On Will Johnson’s interception to open the second half
That was such a tone-setting play for how the half went. We talked at halftime at how we needed two turnovers, I felt like, with how the game was going, to control the second half. And lo and behold, the first play, Will makes a great play. And similar to last week, the ball disruption wasn’t there in the first half, and we talked (at halftime) about how like, ‘hey, we gotta get going,’ and then it showed up in key moments. So just a credit to our guys and the amount of work they put in on those things in the offseason. Just to see that all season, I’m really proud of them
On Mason Graham’s pressure on the interception
He took a big hit right there. I don’t know if it was lower-body, but we saw the whole time with that drive, he was limping and kind of gimping around. So from then on, we kind of felt like he’s going to be sitting back there, not moving as much. So if we can just keep the rush rolling, keep being relentless, we knew it was going to pay off. So even though it was one sack, I really felt like once again, our pass-rush in crunch time helped win the game.
On Mike Sainristil getting the interception at the end
That’s just what Mike does. No one would expect (anything different), he’s done it all year, going back to the second drive of the season, when he set the tone for how we were going to play this year with an interception. Confidence (grew), when he got the pick-six, the Michigan State game, the Ohio State game, just every game, the Big Ten championship. That’s what he does. He really felt like — he made a lot of key plays last week, but in his mind, he didn’t have his best game against Alabama. I certainly didn’t think that, but whatever you’re motivated by.
So he had a great week of prep, and he really took it upon himself to study those guys and so to see him make a big play was no surprise at all.
On Mason Graham’s season
Yeah he’s a monster. Felt from when I first saw him in spring practice in 2022 and I saw how much potential he had. He’s such an elite combination of a great pass-rusher and a really dominant run-stopper for his size. He and KG have a chance to be the best — I mean, I think we had the best d-tackle room in the country this year, and then to have two of the top three dogs back, Rayshaun back, those guys have a chance to be even more legendary next year.
On his future either at Michigan, the NFL or elsewhere
Yeah this is (about the players and the team). I love Michigan, I love coach Harbaugh, this group is so, so special. And to be even thinking about anything else right now would be disrespectful. But yeah, a lot of our players are going to have those choices and decisions to make about their futures, and I just want to be a resource for them and help make a decision for them. And I love it here, so hopefully we can win another one next year.
On playing a 15-game season
Yeah it’s fun, because some of our friends in the NFL whose seasons are over, like wow, we played longer than them, which is crazy. So just unbelievable, and the type of group and the type of team, the type of year where, truthfully, you wish you could play 10 more games.
This group is so special, so enjoyable to be around. Just the camaraderie, the love for each other is so real. Like people talk about that, but in this day and age in college football, that’s really hard. It’s real here, it’s been real with coach Harbaugh, and the guys have such a care and love for each other. They put the team first, put the team success over their everything else. In this day and age, there’s a lot of things they could be more worried about. But hopefully as it continues to go, they get theirs and continue to get that. At the same time, they sacrifice for each other and, I mean, national champs. So what a great feeling.
On celebrating with his dad
Yeah it’s a dream. I remember being a 10-year old kid, and he was the DC at Notre Dame, and he was there when they beat Florida State in 1993 in the game of the century. So they’re number one, and potentially one game away from clinching a national title, they lost the next week, and then ended up potentially where it could have been a split deal, but they voted Florida State, so that’s as close as he had gotten. So as we came here in 2022, I don’t think I ever told him, but that was a goal of mine. Like I’d love to be able to get him a national championship ring, so mission accomplished.
On how the defense was able to be best in the country all season
It’s just the trust and care and love that these guys have for each other. We obviously have a bunch of really talented players, we have some really good coaches that care about each other, sacrifice for each other. They never once look past a team or an opportunity to get better, and they never once looked past a practice as a moment where we could get better. And that was the difference for our team this year on defense, was we just attacked every single day and tried to get better at the things we said were important to playing winning defense.
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