Michigan football is preparing for a bowl game, but a lot of assistants are preparing for much more than that.
Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale has been around the block a few times when it comes to the coaching world so he fully understands what's going on right now as a new regime moves into town. With the firing and fallout of Sherrone Moore, followed by the recent hiring of former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, Wink knows that change is coming.
"First of all, I know what we signed up for in coaching, in the profession itself," Martindale said. "You know, moving — my wife has has moved enough."
As Wink nears the end of his career, he's been there done that, but the young players who are just getting started in some cases know it too. Running back Jordan Marshall talked about college football being a "business" for the coaches specifically and the Texas players mentioned the same sentiment when talking about their former defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski being removed in favor of Will Muschamp ahead of the bowl game.
But it seemed to hit different for Wink. It's probably because the grizzled veteran coach has seen families uprooted dozens of times over the course of his career and he knows it's about to happen with a lot of his current coworkers. He was asked how he and his coworkers are handling it and he was nearly brought to tears when describing what the transition can and will be like.
"I don't know if you handle it is the right word," he said. "I mean, it's just, it's a tough situation. It's hard because of not only the relationships that you have — we've become family because we actually spend more time, as far as the coaches themselves, the assistants, more time together than we do with our families.
"With Twitter and everything else, it's entertainment for people to see all this, but I get emotional talking about it — it's real life. There are little ones that have to be uprooted from school and things like that. So it sucks."
Seeing a tough, 65-year old defensive football coach get choked up makes you realize that this is all much bigger than football. But, it is still football. On that front, the future is unknown for guys like Wink and his fellow assistants. Again, as a veteran, Wink seems to have an idea on how things will play out and he's just hopeful that everyone lands on their feet.
"I'm to the point where I want to look out for them," Wink said of his colleagues. "I want to get them a job and whatever else comes from it. But they're professionals. They've prepared the same way for this game as they have for every other game."
With his connections, Wink might just be able to pull some strings when it comes to getting some of the other assistants a look but at the end of the day, they're all focused on beating Texas right now. After Dec. 31, attention can shift, but for now guys like Wink and Biff Poggi are doing their best to keep it all together through the difficult situation that has manifested itself in Ann Arbor.