Michigan's defensive coordinator Jesse Minter is another branch off the John Harbaugh coaching tree that has found its way to Ann Arbor. Much like last year, Mike Macdonald branched off from Baltimore to get a year of seasoning as a defensive coordinator before the Ravens brought him back to the NFL game.

For Minter, he is walking into a situation where he considers the Wolverines' current system to be in year two. There's comfortability and familiarity not just with the players, but with Minter himself.

With his stop at Vanderbilt included, Minter has shown the ability to adapt and work a defensive scheme to the wants and needs of the head coach.

Ann Arbor is no different.

"Coach Lea and I at Vandy had kind of built it together," Minter told reporters this week. "I said, ‘Hey, paint me a picture of what you want the defense to look like.’ So then we were able to put it together. Here (at Michigan), it was the same conversation. Coach Harbaugh, ‘Paint me a picture of what you want the defense to look like from your perspective as the head coach.’ OK, now let’s get our paint brushes out so we can make it happen."

There won't be much space that needs a fresh coat of paint, perhaps a few touchups here and there.

With a sense of familiarity, Minter still understands that this is a new situation with a new set of pros and cons that need to be worked with.

"I think every situation is its own," Minter said. "The system we ran at Vanderbilt was built for Vanderbilt. We had a defensive head coach, we kind of put some stuff together based on most of both of our pasts, both of our histories. Honestly, not a lot of terminology carryover. Certainly, there are only so many structures of defense you can play. So there were some things we did that probably looked the same.

"But now it’s kind of back into the system we had built in Baltimore, from a terminology standpoint. So, there’s carryover in how you play defense and what’s important to play good defense, but, definitely, probably two different systems."

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