ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan’s defense has had an interesting trajectory over the past few years. It started with hiring Wink Martindale acolyte Mike Macdonald, who was in Ann Arbor for one year (2021). When he departed, the Wolverines got another Martindale disciple in Jesse Minter, who perfected what Macdonald installed. Now, in a seismic twist, Martindale himself is leading the charge.

But what Michigan ran under Martindale’s predecessors wasn’t a facsimile of his system, but rather a version of it. Macdonald and Minter included their own thoughts and fit the personnel the best they could, and the result was legendary as the defense led the way to a national championship in 2023. Many believe that with Martindale at the helm, the Wolverines will become a blitz-heavy team, much like they were under Don Brown, but new secondary coach LaMar Morgan says that it won’t be that simple.

As Morgan explained on Wednesday, everything will be on the table. Everything from the past three years in Ann Arbor, and a lot more.

“I think we’re going to run whatever we gotta run to win the game,” Morgan said. “We got man, zone, coming after you, dropping eight, four-man rush, we’ve got everything up there. That’s kind of been the volume.

“I think spring ball is just a snapshot of what the tools are. I think each week we’re going to try and see what we need to do to try to win here. We also know what the guys do really well. The guys that they had last year, they might’ve been more of a whatever in the back end. We’ve got to see what this group does and that’s what we’re going to call. You are right, they did run a lot of the junk Tampa 2’s with Jesse, some teams they played man, some teams they didn’t. A lot of simulated pressures that he got. A lot the verbiage, some of the tools we use are the same, but a lot of the coverages, pressures and stuff, they’re different.”

While the past three years’ scheme is on the table, so, too, is that which Martindale ran with both the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Giants. Morgan says that part of the thought process behind adding to what’s already been installed is that players who go to the next level will likely have to learn a multitude of defenses — so might as well start them early.

“When we do install meeting, we might do some of it, it could be one call, it could be Michigan film, it could be the Giants and then it could be the Ravens film,” Morgan said. “Sometimes there’s a lot of stuff that we didn’t run here so it’s Giants film and Ravens film. We try to intertwine it a lot of try to get all the guys to see different stuff.

“These guys are going to be professional. The average in the NFL is two-to-three years as a defensive coordinator so just think about somebody who signs a five-year deal, Mike is gonna get drafted high and is going to do a great job, he might have two or three DCs by the time he finishes. That’s something where these kids come here for a pro system, we need to make sure they have all the tools and all the techniques they can learn. Hopefully, it looks a little different to y’all but hopefully we get the exact same results. That’s what we’re really excited about, what’s our spin on this defense.”