No first-year coach has won the Super Bowl in 37 years. Can Jesse Minter, steadfast and steady, change that?

For month after bleary-eyed month this offseason, Jesse Minter did everything he could to succeed as a first-year head coach. So as the final moments ticked away in the Ravens' 41-23 Week 1 win over the Colts -- Minter's first victory -- he could finally take a breath and celebrate.

>A hug from Lamar Jackson, the quarterback he won over with an in-home visit weeks after being hired. An embrace from his dad, longtime coach Rick Minter, now on Baltimore's staff. He knew he and his team had so far to go, but he could savor this.

>"It's surreal a little bit, honestly. I don't know if it has actually hit me yet," Minter said.

>Getting to where Jesse Minter is today, like any of the 32 NFL head coaches, required a lot of hard work, a lot of luck and a few good breaks.

>And for Minter, it required, quite literally, a bad break.

>After starting college at Cincinnati, where his father, Rick, was the coach, Jesse transferred to Division III Mount St. Joseph, where he could play football.

>"When he came in with his dad, it was so obvious that he was dying to play the game," former Mount St. Joseph coach Rob Huber told CBS Sports. "... It was a no-brainer."

>But Minter broke his leg in his first season. He had emergency surgery for Crohn's disease -- 18 inches of his colon removed, per The Athletic -- and missed the entire next season. He suffered another leg fracture in his third year.

>He could have slunk away. Plenty have; plenty will. Minter did the opposite.

>"There's a lot of guys that, when they get injured and things like that, they sort of detach themselves from the team," says Volker, who was a college teammate of Minter. "I feel like he got even more involved. He really embraced that role wholeheartedly."

>That meant the unglamorous work of being a de facto assistant coach at a D-III program. Minter drove for hours to pick up grainy VHS game film from opponents and broke that film down on a TV he had to roll onto wrestling mats; Mount St. Joseph's football and wrestling teams shared several common areas. He lugged himself around, boot or crutches be damned, into cramped coaching boxes, crowded sidelines and overflowing buses. He did it all while working tirelessly to get back onto the field, too.

>"As far as his mental, physical toughness, he's without a doubt the toughest person I've ever coached in 40 years," Huber said.

>The setbacks on the field proved a launching pad into coaching. Huber, with just two full-time assistants, was more than happy to have a player who had been around coaches his whole life join the extended staff.

>"What really was, I think, a big part of this is how serious our coaches took him," said Andy Wellendorf, a fellow wide receiver at Mount St. Joseph and a close friend ever since. "I think there were 120 guys on our roster. I think if 119 people were in his spot, nobody would have taken it seriously."

>When he lost the ability to play, Minter found his voice as a coach.

>"Talking to the big groups, the team, when we have 120 kids in the locker room, and he's the one communicating with the team, that was impressive to me," Wellendorf said. "It's hard to grab the attention of 120 college-age guys, right? But it's like, 'No, we're going to do it when Jesse's talking. He's got something to say, so we're going to listen to him.'"

>Mt. Saint Joseph was 0-10 in 2001, the year before Minter arrived. It went 10-0 in the regular season in 2004, Minter and Wellendorf's junior year.

>"He was a big part of the run, man," Huber said. "Everybody loved Jesse Minter."

>Upon graduating, Minter took a defensive intern role at Notre Dame -- Rick Minter was the defensive coordinator -- in 2006. Both got fired at season's end.

>Rick knew then-Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly and still had the number for the landline in the head coach's office -- Rick's old office -- as Minter told The Athletic last year. The cold call worked. Jesse got a job as a graduate assistant, specifically working with the linebackers. His role featured computer, data and film duties and helping with the scout team, but he impressed Kelly with his on-field, hands-on teaching technique, too.

>"I really enjoyed him being around us, because he is like he is today," Kelly said. "He has this approach that is disarming in so many ways, but yet he's detailed and organized, and I could see as a young coach, he was meant to be leading men."

>He'd get that opportunity soon enough: After 2008, his second year with the Bearcats, Indiana State head coach Trent Miles offered Minter the Sycamores' linebackers coach position.

>"He came in and said, 'Coach, what do you think?' Kelly recalls. "I said, 'You need to take the job.'"

>Minter would become defensive coordinator two years later and serve as the architect behind some of the program's biggest wins.

>Take Oct. 12, 2012, for example. The biggest thing Indiana State linebackers coach P.J. Volker notices is how calm the defense is.

>Indiana State -- a program that went 2-54 from 2005-09 and seemed, at times, on the brink of going under -- was a day away from facing FCS reigning champion and No. 1-ranked North Dakota State in the Fargodome. The Sycamores' defenders had every right to be nervous. They also had the coordinator to ensure they wouldn't be.

>Minter, all of 29 years old and in his second year as the Sycamores' defensive coordinator, had a plan and a belief it would work -- a belief he instilled in his players, too.

>"I really remember the night before the game how relaxed our guys were, because that's how Jesse was," Volker, now the Ravens' safeties coach, told CBS Sports. There was no doubt in my mind, and I think everybody's mind on our defense, that we were going to go out and play phenomenal football."

>The plan emphasized stopping the power run game to put North Dakota State in third and longs. On third downs, the Sycamores would bring pressure up front with complex, rotating coverages behind it.

>"What I remember from it is just going into the game with a lot of confidence in our game plan," Ben Obaseki, a defensive lineman on that team, told CBS Sports.

>It worked. Indiana State's defense was the offense, too ± two pick-sixes -- and had a third interception late to seal a 17-14 upset. It was the fewest points the Bison had scored at home in seven years. The Sycamores landed home in Terre Haute to fans celebrating the school's first win over a No. 1-ranked team.

>"It was a fun flight home," Miles told CBS Sports. "I can't remember too much about it. That was a long time ago, man, and I'm getting up there, but I tell you, we didn't go to sleep right away when we got home."

>It was one of several wins from Miles that caught the eye of Georgia State, which was entering its first year as an FBS program. When the school offered Miles the head coaching position, Miles brought Minter with him to Atlanta, and the Panthers went from winless in 2013 to a bowl team in 2015. The defense was even better -- top-10 passing yards per game allowed in 2016 -- but Miles got fired midseason, and Minter soon followed.

>Minter then jumped to the NFL in 2017 thanks to another connection -- John Harbaugh had been Rick Minter's special teams coach -- and became a defensive assistant for Baltimore. He got promoted to defensive backs coach in 2020. When COVID-19 put the world on pause and, months later, offenses exploded around the NFL, Minter did some of his finest work. The Ravens were second in the league in yards per pass attempt allowed.

>Then it was back to college, as Vanderbilt's defensive coordinator in 2021 and as Michigan's in 2022 and 2023, when the Wolverines won a national championship and led FBS in total defense. Jim Harbaugh brought him along to the Chargers, and after two terrific years, he landed the top job in Baltimore, where he's trying to do something that hasn't been done since 1990.

>Jobs like the Ravens' don't open often: a team still very much in its Super Bowl window looking for a coach who can get it there. Baltimore played in an AFC Championship Game three years ago and in an AFC Divisional Round game two years ago. But after an 8-9, postseason-less 2025, it fired John Harbaugh.

>Since 2019, Lamar Jackson's first season as starter, the Ravens are 77-42, the third-best regular-season record in the league. But they're just 3-5 in the playoffs with only one AFC Championship Game appearance.

>Only two coaches have won a Super Bowl in their debut, and both were simply keeping the ball rolling. In 1989, George Seifert went from offensive coordinator to coach of the reigning champion 49ers after Bill Walsh resigned. A year later, San Francisco won it all again. Nearly 20 years earlier, Baltimore Colts coordinator Don McCafferty took over for Don Shula and led the team to its first Super Bowl victory.

>Minter, on the other hand, was brought in to make major changes, not keep the status quo. He's the defensive play caller, and he hired Declan Doyle, then 29, as the offensive coordinator. It's Doyle's first time calling plays. Everything is about as different as it gets, especially for an organization known for its stability. Harbaugh had been the second-longest-tenured coach at the time of his firing.

>Minter made sure to cover as many bases as possible ASAP. That included visiting Jackson in South Florida in late February alongside Doyle.

>"When you have an MVP-caliber quarterback, it's a partnership with the head coach," Minter said, per The Athletic. "I needed him to feel that. I needed him to feel how important it was that the relationship side between myself and 'Dec' was going to be really important, that both of us wanted the job because of what he's capable of."

>Head coaches face far more demands than coordinators, from meeting more with the media to scheduling the entire week to clock management to building a team-wide identity. Minter has all the proverbial "coach's son" advantages and has had two Harbaughs as mentors, but he also put his own spin on things with earlier, quicker practices. To learn another aspect of coaching that isn't present with coordinating, he hired game management coordinator Charlie Gelman and met with him and the coordinators throughout the offseason, creating game scenarios both lived and hypothetical.

>Perhaps most importantly, he knows how to delegate, something Kelly called the most difficult thing to do as a coach. Minter prides himself on defensive "pillars." They were his and his alone at first, but as he took on more responsibilities, he learned how to let others in. That's led to six different pillars -- one for each position coach -- this season, expanded from his original four.

>"Jesse identifies people and their strengths," Miles says. "... He utilizes his players' strengths to fit within his system. So he does that same thing with coaches. If you are in charge of something or he delegates for you to coach the team ... then you're going to take a lot more pride, and you're going to put a lot of detail in your work. So not only is he developing his defense, he's developing his defensive coaches."

>It's one thing to have the pillars. It's another to instill them in every defender. Several Ravens have been impressed with Minter's emphasis on communication. In August, cornerback Marlon Humphrey told CBS Sports the defensive backs will even pause film sessions and meet with the linebackers to discuss certain plays.

>"I just think there's a method behind the madness, and there is clear, clean communication on what's expected in each and every thing," said linebacker Roquan Smith.

>It's permeated the entire team. In August, offensive lineman Ronnie Stanley and wide receiver Rashod Bateman pointed to the "finer details" emphasized more than ever before.

>Minter's communication style is about as far from the stereotype as it gets. He listens deeply to his players and coaches and values their feedback. He rarely raises his voice.

>"Jesse is as personable and as normal a head coach as I have ever been around," said defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver.

>The thing is, though: He's not just a normal guy. He's a defensive whiz -- a "brilliant football mind" according to defensive lineman Calais Campbell -- and he's been that way from the start.

>"I just remember that it was a completely different level of football at that point in regards to what he was drawing up," Obaseki said. "We were very versatile on the field. We surprised a lot of teams with our tactics and how we were able to execute them, a lot of times with inferior physical talent."

>Minter's been getting the best out of his personnel at every level since, an ability he holds close to his core.

>"Coaching is trying to take a player, have a vision for them of what they can be," Minter said. "So, it's sometimes even seeing things that they might not even see in themselves and trying to pull that out of them."

>That was especially true with the Chargers. Los Angeles was 28th in yards per attempt allowed in 2023, the year before Minter arrived. In 2024, they jumped all the way to second, a stunning improvement, despite relying mostly on very young journeymen cornerbacks. They were in the top 10 last year as well.

>"I feel like we're always prepared, ready to go, and I haven't had a coach like that in a long time," said Chargers safety Derwin James Jr., a second-team All-Pro both years under Minter. "He can relate to anybody, honestly. He can get anybody to understand it. ... He's not just a player's coach or friend. He's a coach that's got discipline, that holds a standard. That's all you can ask for."

>Minter can make the stars shine bright, but he can also get the most out of lesser-known players. After four years in Washington, cornerback Benjamin St-Juste landed with the Chargers in 2025. He played his best ball under Minter.

>"I never really was around a coach like that, that had so many tools," St-Juste, now with the Packers, said. "And this toolbox, what made it so successful for me at the DB position is because it was a very DB-friendly scheme as far as knowing where my help is, what routes that I can be more aggressive on and what routes that we're going to concede. So everything was laid out clearly on my responsibility, and we had so many different varieties to play a single coverage."

>Humphrey echoed that sentiment, saying playing to the help and leverage in zone "is something that's been emphasized more than I've ever experienced in my entire career."

>Minter's mad-scientist mind doesn't always result in a highlight. Sometimes the beauty is in destroying a play from the start. NFL on CBS analyst Logan Ryan played cornerback for 11 years in the NFL and won two Super Bowls. He was on the call for the Ravens' win over the Colts, and the next day, the play that stood out to him was a blitz that forced a throwaway on third and 11.

>Ryan believes Baltimore's defense can get back to the level it played at in 2023, when the Mike Macdonald-coordinated unit allowed the fewest points in the NFL. Macdonald, now the Seahawks' Super Bowl-winning head coach, and Minter were together in Baltimore from 2017-20.

>Minter's defense is both solid -- in its pillars, communication and responsibility delegation -- and viscous, changing to take advantage of different opponents' vulnerabilities and limit their strengths.

>It hasn't been perfect, a reminder that the NFL is a hard business that waits for no one. In a Week 2 loss to the Saints, Minter lost a challenge, and the lost timeout loomed when the Ravens' final offensive drive fell short. The defense couldn't finish, and the offense lost steam, even though both should be built for winning. "Should" doesn't get anyone anywhere.

>It was an all-too-familiar development for a team that's blown 13 fourth-quarter leads over the past five years, tied for most in the NFL. But if there's anything Minter has shown in his career, it's the ability to learn, to adapt, to bounce back.

>"He puts you in position to be successful on a week-to-week basis," safety Kyle Hamilton said. "It's not cookie-cutter. It's very malleable."

>So, too, is Minter. He took the Internet by storm when he rapped Eminem's "Lose Yourself" at a team dinner during the preseason. While others were caught off-guard, Volker wasn't. That was the song Mount St. Joseph's walked out to ahead of games.

>Obaseki remembers Minter, upon becoming defensive coordinator, having the defense over to his two-bedroom apartment simply to get to know his players a little better -- "him going out of his way to do something nice to the guys."

>Stanley called Minter "a very positive guy overall," perhaps a more recent development. Minter still keeps the 98 rejection letters he got when he was first looking for a job, but 20 years later, he thinks about them differently.

>"I think my mindset has shifted maybe in the last five or six years to away from proving people wrong and more to proving people right," Minter said. "I think I've become a little bit more of an optimist and a positive thinker when you want to prove people right rather than the negative connotation of proving people wrong."

>Don't mistake his affability for a lack of competitiveness, though. Miles remembers testing his young coordinator with two-minute drills stacked against the defense -- no blitzing, for example -- and seeing Minter get "very respectably competitive" as he tried to overcome the limitations.

>"Make no mistake about it because he's cool and he's calm, he's competitive as hell," Volker said. "If you're keeping score, he's going to win."

>He's been bringing those competitions to the Ravens, too. In minicamp, he had Tyler Loop -- who infamously missed a field goal in Week 18, ending the Ravens' season -- kick a 40-yard field goal with a chance to end practice. Loop connected. Minter has also had offense-vs.-defense medicine ball tosses and more, per ESPN.

>It's all in the spirit of Minter's mantra: "Be the best." It's a shortened version of Minter's pledge at his introductory press conference: "We will be at our best when our best is needed." The three-word version, in big silver lettering, greets players on their way from the locker room to the practice field.

>Too many times, the Ravens haven't been close to their best when their best was needed. That's why Minter is here: to push through years of missed opportunities, of late-season heartbreak.

>Based on his career trajectory, his unique blend of football genius, and his "normal guy" persona, there are plenty of reasons to believe the best is yet to come.