:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68688330/1137246599.0.jpg)
A bit of early news on Tuesday morning, via Pete Thamel:
Sources: Vanderbilt expected to hire Baltimore Ravens DBs coach Jesse Minter as the school’s new defensive coordinator. Minter is the former DC at Georgia State and Indiana State. He’s the son of former Cincinnati head coach Rick Minter.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 19, 2021
Jesse Minter has been the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive backs coach for the last year, and previously worked as a defensive analyst. He does have some experience as a defensive coordinator: prior to his tenure with the Ravens, he worked as Georgia State’s defensive coordinator from 2013-16, and he was Indiana State’s defensive coordinator in 2011-12.
While his defenses at Georgia State weren’t great, that comes with the huge caveat that the Panthers were a brand new FBS program when he took over the defense in 2013. That year, the team went 0-12 and gave up 36.7 ppg; things actually regressed to 43.3 ppg in 2014 before improving to 28.3 ppg in 2015 and 26.6 in 2016. His defenses at Indiana State were excellent, surrendering just 157 points over an 11-game schedule in 2012.
And of course there’s a connection to Brian Kelly here: Minter worked as a graduate assistant under Kelly at Cincinnati (where his dad was previously the head coach) in 2007-08. My guess is that Clark Lea will personally have an imprint on the defense as well, but this seems like a good hire if a bit of a risk.