Sherrone Moore is reportedly interested in Kansas City Chiefs defensive line coach Joe Cullen to take over as the Michigan football defensive coordinator, but the Wolverines will need to fend off a few other NFL teams if they hope to land Cullen.
But what if Michigan can’t land the Chiefs’ defensive line coach? The Wolverines just lost their own defensive line coach Mike Elston on Tuesday. But as of now, Steve Clinkscale is still on staff and he is an interesting name to possibly promote to defensive coordinator.
If Moore wants to look elsewhere, a new name has surfaced as a possiblity for Michigan. According to 247Sports Matt Zenitz, Don ‘Wink’ Martindale is a name to watch.
Martindale, 60 years old, has been a mastermind defensive coach in the NFL for years now. In fact, when Jim Harbaugh hired Mike Macdonald from Baltimore, he was brought in to run a similar scheme to what Martindale ran with the Ravens. Then after Macdonald left Michigan after one season, Jesse Minter came along to continue to run the similar system.
While Martindale might now be a young coach any longer, he would come to Ann Arbor to run that same scheme that has made the Wolverines’ defense so tough and scary. But it’s been quite awhile since Martindale coached in college. He was a defensive coordinator with Western Kentucky from 2000-2003.
Since he left WKU, he has coached in the NFL since. He was most recently the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants from 2022-2023. He worked alongside John Harbaugh from 2018-2021 as the Ravens’ DC.
It’s apparent Sherrone Moore wants to finalize his coaching staff sooner than later. We will continue to update when more information is available.
