SPRING BALL INTEL: Kirk Campbell, Wink Martindale Talk Michigan Football

we talked to wink marale and Kirk Campbell on Friday um both got to be inside the AL Glick Fieldhouse at least for me that was my first time which just cool to see the banners hung up in there some of the new hardware you saw the video board in there that said what are you doing to beat Ohio State today so all of these things that we kind of see on social media to finally get a glimpse at that was cool to see but we talked to kurk Campbell talked to wink marale and since we were just talking defense I mean a defensive coach I mean we'll start with marale who to me my early takeaway I would love to talk to this guy every single week because that is an experienced guy that knows ball and has like a dry wit about him that I think is really gonna kind of as long as he's at Michigan and dear himself to fans yeah he is and it's he's kind of got that personality it's kind of funny like I've pushed back a little bit on like the Don Brown comparisons between wink and Don Brown uh ever since he got hired but like the in terms of Aura and like personality and their different personalities it is kind of simil like he's got his own style he's wearing the uh the cut off sweatshirt with the uh the white shirt underneath you know he's got his his style of hat on and everything else so he's he's a character um and he's very confident in their defense the defensive system that they're going to run he said he likes the talent that's on the roster he said if if he didn't like the talent you can always go get more through the transfer portal so it sounds like he's starting to understand that and you know one of the bigger things I was excited to hear uh from him about was the way he's relating to the players the way he's going to recruit and he said you know you're recruiting on a daily basis and he said that when you you know when they got Kavon Tibido in to the New York Giants a couple years ago he was 20 years old and it's not all that different than relating to high schoolers and college players so he's embracing that he said uh you know last week that this was a dream job for him um and it is funny when he had the opportunity to come he said that he told his wife I think I want to do this and she said are you sure he said yeah I think I want to do this and here they are back in college 20 years later but um yeah I I thought it was uh you know it was fun to listen to him talk defense and you know he's one of those guys where when he's talking everyone's kind of leaning in a little bit you know hanging on every word you have to because he is uh for as Gruff as he looks he is kind of soft spoken so you do have to lean in a little bit to hear what he's saying um you know something I took away from him and I know the narratives from some I don't know if this is a narrative or not but I could see where NFL people might if oh well you know he was on the outs with Brian dable and it was the only job he could have taken um I don't know if that's necessarily true or not but I get the sense that similar to um you know similar to again he's a Harbaugh guy you know he coached for Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky obviously coached for John Harbaugh with the Baltimore Ravens uh a guy who respects the history of the the game and is kind of a historian of the game in that respect uh so to be able to come and coach at Michigan a place that uh is one of the iconic brands in college football it's the biggest stadium in the country I think that that's something that uh you know for him as you're thinking about what your next step is I think that was something that um you know certainly rang is exciting to him he talked about being at the 1995 and this is something we had talked about in last week's pod where it was at the 95 Michigan Ohio State game at the big house and uh you you just you just get a sense like he's very like firm in his convictions and also um know respectful of of history and what good football is so uh a couple other things that I took away uh comparing Rod Moore to Eric wed which I think you know I'm a big ER you know I was a big Eric wed guy when he was in the NFL I mean as one of in terms of IQ and smarts yeah IQ and smarts but yeah you know that's high praise for a guy that you know has coached on defenses with Elite Talent Rod more certainly we think the world of him wasn't really himself until late last year then had some of his best games of the Season down the stretch now he gonna be looked on to be one of those I wouldn't be surprised if he's a captain and obviously a leader on that Michigan defense so uh no nothing but good things to say about him uh still cracks me up that he calls Ernest howman Ernie 's Ernie yeah a lot of good things to say about will Johnson as well so uh wink I think in the Here and Now super confident guy you know says you know I know know that we're going to play good defense um so really what we what we heard from him Friday was more of a continuation of what he you know talked about with John Jansen uh the other day but nice to be able to get to know him uh Kurt Campbell on the offensive side of the ball obviously the biggest item on the agenda for him is the starting quarterback battle which has five contenders it's gonna be Jack Tuttle Alex orgy Jaden denal Davis Warren and Jaden Davis uh Kirk Campbell says for now they're going to start uh the way that you'd start if you were settling or settling something within a family you know you go oldest to youngest and then you evaluate from there so sounds like those older guys will get that first crack early on in Camp uh but five contenders that are going to be judged by you know similarly to the way that they were judged uh when K MCM and JJ McCarthy had their battle in 2022 you know being a field general you know leading scoring drives extending plays with your legs uh being able to make all the throws in the play so you know to me I think um it might have been coach speak at at at the same time you know he talks about how you know he's confident that you know they might dat that they could have a guy on the roster that is capable of leading this team in 20124 but uh a lot of time to evaluate now before the spring portal opens on April 15 yeah we'll see how Jack to how healthy Jack Tuttle and his shoulder are this spring as well in terms of who takes the first snap because he's clearly the the oldest by what how many years probably four uh which is insane at 24 years old but yeah I mean that comment was interesting about the quarterbacks where I think you said it pretty much word for word there I don't have it in front of me but it was you know he's confident that there's going there's somebody on the roster that could lead Michigan next season but he didn't say that you know that's going to be you know somebody could lead Michigan but that doesn't mean that there's not somebody else in the transfer portal this April that could be even better and he did mention that you know they look at the portal all the time that that's something that they're going to constantly evaluate as you have to across college football and it wouldn't expect him to say anything differently I did think there was probably some coach speak there for good reason um Kurt Campbell extremely smart guy and I thought did a great job and and always has with the media um but there's still kind of that lingering thing out there that I think they're probably going to go to the transfer portal in April depends on who's available you know depends on who has interest of course uh but that's priority number one is developing those quarterbacks this spring see what you have there and uh and go from there but there's a lot to replace on the offense for sure you know up and down basically that roster yeah it's all you could do right is with these Five Guys because obviously Michigan played longer than everyone else a lot of those top quarterback options in the portal dried up before the national title game and then you know that the portal was sort of Drive certainly by the time JJ McCarthy made his decision to go so really like you're left with no choice to rock with what you have right now uh which I don't think is the worst thing you you have some I mean guys like I know people sort of roll their eyes when you suggest Jack Tuttle could be the guy people a lot more people excited about Alex orgy um jayen denal is a guy that I like I think he could maybe be like a Wilton Spate type of guy uh I know Kurt Campbell likes him as well said he made a lot of improvements behind the scenes last year but uh quarterbacks is just going to be you know I think I'll put it this way I think if they're not producing the way that the staff would like them to see in Camp I think we're probably going to hear about that well in advance of the portal opening up because I think part of the plan there too is you know if you do have a need somewhere it's gonna kind of have to be out there there's an opportunity so the fact that you know you have a GM on staff and Shan McGee now that can sort of help you coordinate that plan in terms of what the roster looks like um and now you get an opportunity to eval atate what you have which I think is a good thing obviously a lot of new to this roster any other takeaways from what Campbell had to say you Donovan Edwards has stepped up as a leader uh he said kalal mulling has shed some weight gotten a little bit quicker uh which is nice and he pointed out hey he he already was fast I remember Mike Hart saying that to me when I interviewed him at the Rose Bowl he's like you you know people just haven't seen how fast he is like he's going to be a complete back for us and it sounds like he's you know doing that with his body maybe to make sure that that he can do that uh the the comment that that really popped was you know miles Hinton could be a first round pick they're playing him at left tackle right now to me it's it's still wait and see with him because he's got the frame and probably the athleticism to to get to that point but it's his fifth year in college football so you know it's time for him to show that at this point I know I've been you know on the Greg krippin bandwagon for a couple weeks now talking about that but to me it just feels like that inside that interior of the offensive line is really solid I don't know who's going to be at Right Guard who's going to be at left guard between Josh prie uh which is apparently how you say it um according to Carson barnhard who played against him in high school uh or giovan alotti but you have krippin at Center they said preb uh cross training a little bit he's snapping uh so maybe more likely to play center than he is tackle like barnhard alluded to potentially moving him outside and then right tackle is the most wide open spot on the offensive line he said they don't have starters penciled in but um you know just a lot of praise for Miles Hinton and you know I don't know what he's done the last couple months but now this is his chance to really show it like that room is is cleared out quite a bit a bunch of guys that that went to the pros are at least going to be you know drafted or picked up this spring so it's a good opportunity for him didn't you know get to the tight ends or wide receivers with Kurt Campbell but those are the you know a couple of the more interesting position groups to me just with all they have to replace at at receiver and then kind of how you're going to piece together the rest of the tight end room because they went with multiple tight ends on 58% of their snaps last year you lose AJ Barner so other guys are gonna have to step up along with coulston lovelin but he didn't cover you know that type of ground that was you know on the questioning of course I will blame us in the media for it um but yeah those are just kind of a you know a few of things few of the things that you know I found interesting from Kirk we love our QB battle clicks that's why um the other thing too um I guess sort of pertaining to quarterbacks but I think the way that they want to handle Personnel in general is the idea that they will tailor the offense to the strength of who's on the roster and even you know um Tinker with it based on who's a quarterback you they're not you know you're not looking for one guy to necessarily fit everything you want in your system you're looking for the best guy and the best way to accentuate the things that you that he does well or what the team does well so that's going to be the case at quarterback be the case at running back tight end wide receiver offensive line uh really just applied everything on this roster