Most of Jesse Minter’s coaching experience has taken place at the college level, and his inaugural coaching staff in Baltimore is reflective of that.

Outside of climbing the ladder with the Ravens starting in 2017, rising from defensive assistant to assistant defense backs coach to the defensive backs coach in 2020 before taking defensive coordinator jobs at Vanderbilt and Michigan and eventually returning to the NFL as the Chargers the defensive coordinator the last few seasons, most of Minter’s experience included stops in college football early on at Notre Dame and Cincinnati before becoming Georgia State’s defensive coordinator from 2013-16.

Now in charge of putting a staff together in Baltimore, where he was tabbed to take over for longtime head coach John Harbaugh recently, Minter’s staff is coming together with a distinctive college flavor.

Harland Bower, the defensive ends coach at Duke under Manny Diaz, has agreed to join Minter’s staff in Baltimore according to multiple reports.

ESPN was first to share the news.

Bower, a former selection for the AFCA’s prestigious 35 under 35 program, spent 2021 as an analyst at Texas A&M and since leaving College Station has been a mainstay on the Blue Devils staff.

This past fall, Bower worked with a pair of All-ACC selections at defensive end in Vincent Anthony Jr. and Wesley Williams, and they represented two-thirds of the trio of that finished the season with 9 TFLs or more. Duke was one of just three ACC programs to have three players with at least 9 TFLs. 

In 2024, Duke’s defense finished second nationally in tackles for loss per game, second in fumbles recovered, fourth in sacks, seventh in turnovers, and among the top 25 nationally in turnover margin.

Before joining the Aggies staff in 2021, Bower was the defensive line coach at South Alabama for three seasons, where he worked with five defensive lineman who earned All-Sun Belt honors.

He also has stops at in major college football at Notre Dame, Troy, and Rutgers, as well as stints early in his career at Murray State (FCS) and Georgia Military College (JC).

Bower becomes the fifth college coach to join the Ravens staff so far, alongside Mike Mickens (Notre Dame), Esposito (Michigan), Miles Taylor (Nebraska) and PJ Volker (Navy).