Ravens head coach Jesse Minter’s father Rick, who has been coaching in some capacity since 1977, was the head coach at the University of Cincinnati from 1994-2003.
Rick Minter’s first game as the head coach of the Bearcats came at Indiana on Sept. 3, 1994. It was then that he first noticed that his son, 11 years old at the time, started to look a little bit like a coach. Allow Minter to explain.
“I remember back in those days when you had your headsets on the sideline, they were all corded,” Minter said on Glenn Clark Radio Jan. 26. “Now, of course, they’re cordless and they’re remote. But back in those days it was corded and every coach on the sideline — be it five, six, seven, eight guys — had what you’d call a cord person just following you like a shadow keeping your cord untangled with all the other people on the sideline.
“[Jesse] was anxious to do that, while his older brother [Josh] was not into it. And then I turn around one time during that very first game and find out that the older brother had taken over that duty of the cord and I find Jesse down the way a little bit just staring at the field just watching the game.”
Minter went 53-63-1 and put together five winning seasons in 10 years at Cincinnati, but what he’s most known for is his roster of assistants. Former Ravens and current Giants head coach John Harbaugh was Minter’s special teams coordinator from 1994-1996. Former Jets and Bills head coach Rex Ryan was Minter’s defensive coordinator from 1996-1997. Former Ravens and Giants defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale was Minter’s special teams coordinator and linebackers coach from 1996-1998.
And oh yeah, former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was Minter’s defensive backs coach from 1999-2000.
“Mike Tomlin really took [Jesse] under his wing the two years I had Mike,” Minter said. “He was more a junior, senior in high school at that time. They could legitimately talk ball a little bit, talk secondary play. That’s Mike’s passion and that was Jesse’s position initially in high school football.”
Jesse played wide receiver for Division III Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) from 2002-2005 before beginning his coaching career, first as a defensive intern at Notre Dame in 2006 while his dad was the defensive coordinator for the Irish. Jesse then worked for Cincinnati, Indiana State and Georgia State before reconnecting with his dad’s old assistants Harbaugh and Martindale in Baltimore. He was a defensive assistant for the Ravens from 2017-2020.
Jesse then served as the defensive coordinator for Vanderbilt (2021), Michigan (2022-2023) and the Los Angeles Chargers (2024-2025). His dad joined him on staff with Michigan and Los Angeles. It remains to be seen if Minter, now 71, will follow his son to Baltimore.
Jesse’s parents Rick and Ellen separated when Jesse was 6 years old, but Jesse and Rick remained connected even as Jesse was being raised in Indiana and Rick was coaching at Cincinnati. That connection remains today.
“We missed out a lot by being a separated family, but when I could go see him play I did and when he could come to all of our games he did,” Minter said. “You always knew he had this special attraction and love of the game. He tried other sports like a lot of kids. He dabbled in baseball, dabbled in basketball. Though genetically he’s not overly gifted … he was a real try-hard guy. Be it a try-hard high school football player [or] D-III college football player, he always exhibited the passion and the energy and the want-to that you would see in perhaps a futuristic coach.”
For more from Rick Minter, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Los Angeles Chargers