Manuel Excel is deeply skeptical about Wink
https://x.com/colintj/status/1755609482053537930?s=61
For those who don’t know Excel is a much respected football guy on the Twitters. Brian among others follow him.He has been critical of the potential Wink hire from the beginning. So has Spacecoyote another respected football guy.
I remain deeply skeptical of Wink due primarily to opinions of knowledgeable folks like the above.
February 8th, 2024 at 2:16 PM ^
What are the Harbaughs' opinions on Wink? This would be post-worthy, imo. I don't think Sherrone is going into this uninformed, and I'd bet that he is getting his recommendations from at least one of the coaches Harbaugh.
February 8th, 2024 at 3:20 PM ^
because no member of the Harbaugh family has ever made a bad hire... Greg Roman is an incredible OC, Pep Hamilton worked out perfectly here, etc.
Coaches know ball, sure. Plenty of other people do, too, and pro coaches fuck up hires all the damn time.
February 8th, 2024 at 6:14 PM ^
Let's just panic and assume the worst case until further notice
February 8th, 2024 at 2:27 PM ^
This here board is gonna fight about this hire no matter what, aren’t we?
February 8th, 2024 at 2:34 PM ^
It's what we do.
February 8th, 2024 at 2:33 PM ^
Think for yourself, Man.
February 8th, 2024 at 2:36 PM ^
To be fair he was also skeptical of Minter when we hired him
see for instance
https://x.com/colintj/status/1490784796703969281?s=46&t=QbxrWtEaCS2wqoC…
February 8th, 2024 at 2:45 PM ^
Nice work!
The relevant portion:
There's good reason to doubt Jesse Minter can run Mac's D. There's nothing on his resume that suggests he's ever coached any of the Cover 7 stuff that Mac made such a huge part of the defense and, crucially, used to slow down the OSU passing game.
Yeah, that Minter guy. Glad JH didn't pay attention. We have our old OC as the HC. I have no idea how he can scheme against a defense when he doesn't even follow all the bloggers advice.
February 8th, 2024 at 2:37 PM ^
does he have it on a spreadsheet?
February 8th, 2024 at 2:39 PM ^
Insider information! We know from a lot of recent experience we can trust all the opinions!
February 8th, 2024 at 2:43 PM ^
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the potential hire. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the potential hire. Both have been argued previously so I won't rehash them. The only thing I'll add is what Sam Webb said on the radio this morning: it moves the needle with the current players and increases their chances of staying.
We have no way of knowing what the outcome of this hire will be, but I'll opt to believe it'll work until I have evidence to the contrary. If people opt to believe it won't work until they have evidence to the contrary, c'est la vie.
February 8th, 2024 at 2:51 PM ^
I guess my question is, because a guy runs a different scheme on D, means he isn't a good hire?
^^This isn't a smart a$$ reply, it is an honest question to ensure I understand the thinking behind the opinion.
The clock is ticking to hire a DC. With our main DC and D line coach gone, SM needs to get something. If not, it could start really impacting somethings (recruiting and portal entries from our guys). I'm not saying hire Joe Schmo from the streets, but the guy has NFL experience, so he is definitely better than most, right?
February 8th, 2024 at 3:10 PM ^
I think we have such PTSD from Don Brown that when someone finds schematic similarities between the new DC and Don Brown, people get the shakes.
February 8th, 2024 at 3:14 PM ^
Who is Manuel Excel? His name appeared for the first time ever (as far as I know) a day or two ago and here he is again.
February 8th, 2024 at 3:24 PM ^
He's a big Xs and Os chart guy whose analysis often appears in UFRs and Brian's more analytical post.
February 8th, 2024 at 4:42 PM ^
At first I thought it was a derogatory nickname for Warde Manuel. Like he's such a nerd.
February 8th, 2024 at 3:30 PM ^
Our only NFL option seems to be the KC DLINE coach but if Warde is not willing to pay the $ for his services for one year, then may be we should try to poach a DC of a top 20 team that has a good to great defense.
February 8th, 2024 at 3:41 PM ^
I think the reason we are looking at the NFL is we want to run the same scheme we've been running. The only college defensive coordinator who qualifies is D'Anton Lynn, but he just moved from UCLA to USC and doesn't appear to be gettable.
So our choices are Cullen, Martindale, and other current or former Ravens assistants whose names have not been linked with the job (like Chris Hewitt).
The other problem is that a defensive coordinator job opened in Baltimore, which Zach Orr took. There's also an open one in Seattle which there's a good chance Cullen will take. Meanwhile the defensive line coach from the Ravens took the Dolphins defensive coordinator job, and Dennard Wilson their DB coach took the Titans defensive coordinator job. So their are not a ton of Ravens scheme people out there who are ready to step up and be DC.
The upside with Martindale is that the players are very much on board with him and it helps keep guys out of the portal. And he's likely only going to be around for a year or two and we have enough talent next year that the defense should be pretty good.
February 8th, 2024 at 3:41 PM ^
do you guys seriously believe that the only thing that prevents us from hiring people is Warde not spending money
like it's impossible to imagine a guy would rather interview with the Seahawks before taking our job and it has nothing to do with Warde at all
February 8th, 2024 at 4:40 PM ^
Cullen already effectively passed by telling us he's waiting until after the Super Bowl. If KC wins I'm guessing he's gonna have some NFL DC opportunities.
February 8th, 2024 at 3:50 PM ^
As a lifelong Giants fan and football aficionado, Wink would be a decent hire imo. I liked him in NY, but the offense was so bad that his effectiveness was watered way down. It got to the point where the defense eas on the field too much, guys were getting banged up, and the levee kind of broke, so to speak.
We don't need a miracle worker. We have one of the most talented defenses in the nation. Imo, it stacks up nicely for an old guy like Wink, who likely will only stay a year or two. Then by the time we need a stalwart at DC, Clink steps in.
Hopefully...
February 8th, 2024 at 4:11 PM ^
In 2021, coming off the worst football year in many of our lifetimes, Michigan fired their longtime OLine coach - who had been successful every stop of the way - and promoted a brand new guy with little OL experience. Many, including the propieter of this here blog, deemed the decision foolish - to put it nicely
Also, that same winter Mo Linguist was hired - then left abruptly. Many screamed that the program was in disarray and our upcoming season was doomed before it even started. A new coach was evantually hired and M moved on.
Of course, if we listened to bloggers and fans - those coaches would never have been given a chance in 2021. Now one is the HC of the team and the other is the fans appointed choice for DC - but at the time this was a MAJOR crises and indicative of dying program.
In other words, can we give it a rest and see how it plays out? We just won the National Championship for crissakes, I think the folks who got us there - and still remain - deserve the benefit of the doubt.
February 8th, 2024 at 4:17 PM ^
This may be shocking. But I'm not sure there's a strong correlation between being "I understand coverage schemes and analytics" guy and having an equally masterful understanding of individual thought processes and dynamic 1-1 interactions.
February 8th, 2024 at 4:49 PM ^
Thanks, we all really need to make an informed choice about whether to feel good or bad about this hire.
Once I make my decision, I’ll be sure to carry out a consistent campaign of well-placed comments either praising or criticizing the hire.
I promise that once I make my choice I won’t ever consider that the reality of the situation might be nuanced and that we might not know whether it was a good hire for years.
February 8th, 2024 at 5:01 PM ^
Most everyone was dead wrong about MacDonald and maybe more on Minter. A NFL DC would be a slam dunk hire.
February 8th, 2024 at 5:27 PM ^
I have never heard of this guy and spacecoyote is a mgoblog poster so essentially he's a nobody like you and I.
I did see Michael Lombardi who was on Dallas radio station 105.3 and they asked him, "who should Dall hire as their new DC?" He said Martindale would be his number 1 choice because he was excellent with the Giants who has no talent.. according to Lombardi.
Wink is the main guy of this Ravens D we been running. It's the best D available at manufacturing pressure...period.
I say surround him with young position coaches that can recruit and learn on the job in case he goes back to NFL next yr.
February 8th, 2024 at 5:33 PM ^
I don't know what you guys are so worried about. Didn't Stalions' dastardly Bletchley Park code-breaking plot result in our getting all of OSU's signs for all time?
It's not like we don't know exactly what they're going to do on every play, right? We probably don't even need a defensive coordinator.
February 8th, 2024 at 5:46 PM ^
I wish there was a way to see who started a post before opening it. I’d avoid all of your posts.
Also good job continually lifting information from the VB.
February 8th, 2024 at 5:56 PM ^
Random thought - is SQ really Mike V from 97.1 The Ticket?
February 8th, 2024 at 5:59 PM ^
Where do you get “deeply skeptical” from that tweet!?!?
Should have gone for “hates the idea” as long as you’re making shit up!
February 8th, 2024 at 6:04 PM ^
Same time though Space Unicorn is all about it.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=17o1OlroNSE.
Need to have Zoltan the Emperor of Space break this tie
February 8th, 2024 at 6:48 PM ^
I'm sorry, but I don't trust anyone on Twitter that doesn't use their name, rank, and serial number in their profile.
February 8th, 2024 at 7:00 PM ^
Saw the title, knew the poster before I even read the post, logged in to neg. Have a good one, fellas!
February 8th, 2024 at 7:25 PM ^
Wink is a 60 year old DC clown.
He has no interest in recruiting. He didnt invent the Ravens D. Last time he coached in college, most of the people reading this sentence were still in grade school.
Why would he listen to a first-year, 38 year old HC?
It's Don Brown 2.0. He will run his D. Moore wont have enough control over Wink to get him to run the Ravens D, and Wink likely cant run the Ravens D anyhow.
A 60 year DC wont relate to HS defensive players on the recruiting trail, if Wink even bothers with the recruiting trail.
Wink is a nightmare hire. Moore can do better. UM has the $$$. Keep looking.
#GoBlue
February 8th, 2024 at 9:28 PM ^
I’m genuinely curious who your alternative candidates are?
February 8th, 2024 at 7:55 PM ^
Ill trust the guy thats coached defenses for 30 straight years .over a guy that gets a ton of his info from other "twitter accounts,podcasts etc"
February 8th, 2024 at 8:32 PM ^
#FireManuelExcel