Yorktown alumnus Jesse Minter named head coach of Baltimore Ravens

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The newest head coach in the National Football League is a product of Yorktown High School.

On Thursday, Jan. 22, the Baltimore Ravens announced that they had agreed to terms with Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter to become the fourth head coach in Ravens' franchise history. Minter is a 2002 graduate of Yorktown High School and played wide receiver and defensive back for the Tigers.

According to Minter's Wikipedia page, he was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, but his family moved several times due to the college football coaching career of his father, Rick Minter. The elder Minter served as Ball State's defensive coordinator from 1985-91 and was the head coach at Cincinnati by the time Jesse graduated from Yorktown.

Upon graduating from Yorktown, Minter continued his playing career as a wide receiver at Mount St. Joseph University in Ohio. The Lions won consecutive Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference crowns in 2004 and 2005 and made back-to-back NCAA Division III playoff appearances during Minter's junior and senior seasons.

Minter graduated from Mount St. Joseph in 2005 and began his coaching career as a football intern at Notre Dame for the 2006 season, where his dad was now the defensive coordinator. He then went to Cincinnati as a graduate assistant for two years in 2007-08. From there, Minter went to Indiana State as a linebackers coach and eventually worked his way up to defensive coordinator.

In 2013, Minter was hired by Georgia State to be their defensive coordinator. In 2016, Minter's father joined him as the Panthers' defensive line coach, and Minter earned a nomination for the Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in college football as the Panthers finished eighth in the FBS in pass defense.

Minter had his first stint with the Ravens from 2017-20. He initially joined John Harbaugh's staff as a defensive assistant and was promoted to defensive backs coach in 2020. In 2021, he returned to the college ranks as the defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt.

After one season at Vandy, Minter was once again hired by a Harbaugh, as John's younger brother and then-Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh hired him as the Wolverines' defensive coordinator. Minter helped Michigan win the 2023 national championship before returning to the NFL as Harbaugh's defensive coordinator when he took the Chargers head coaching job.

After two years in LA, Minter is now set to replace John Harbaugh as the head coach of the Ravens after the elder Harbaugh brother was fired by the franchise on Jan. 6.

"I am truly honored to serve as the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens," Minter said in a statement posted by the team. "This is an organization whose values, culture and tradition of excellence reflect everything I believe about the game of football and how it should be played. My family and I are thrilled to join the Ravens Flock, and we can't wait to make the fans, the great city of Baltimore and Maryland proud."

If Minter succeeds in making Baltimore proud, he will certainly have made Yorktown proud as well.

Contact Cade Hampton via email at cbhampton@muncie.gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CadeHamp10.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Yorktown alumnus Jesse Minter hired as Baltimore Ravens head coach

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