Kyle Goon: Will the real Jesse Minter please stand up? The Ravens coach has much to prove.

Palms sweaty? Knees weak? Arms heavy?

Does this describe new Ravens coach Jesse Minter on Sunday, ahead of his first regular-season game against the Indianapolis Colts? I seriously doubt it.

Minter is nothing if not a fastidious planner. His anchor is his playbook, grounding him to the turf along the Ravens sideline. His schemes, drawn up over years, are his security blanket. Minter seems most comfortable and at home when he’s wearing a headset.

But there is a lot more to being an NFL head coach than one’s schemes. Here, Minter feels like a barely known quantity.

You can watch many clips of “Ravens Wired,” the team’s self-produced behind-the-scenes show, and glean that Minter loves his family and he loves football — and little else. He went viral for a clip in Minnesota when he rapped Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” as his players crowed with delight, but this glimpse of Jesse Minter the Human Being seems more like an exception to an overall guarded image.

You don’t climb to the heights Minter has reached without being a knowledgeable and charismatic football leader. But taking over the Ravens will require him to dig deeper than just into his playbook and reveal more about his mettle than will feel comfortable.

Being an NFL head coach requires you to give your pound of flesh and then some. It is all-encompassing, all-consuming, and even if you do everything right, the job spits out even smart, hardworking coaches unceremoniously after two or three years.

In the wake of John Harbaugh’s dismissal after 18 seasons, I’ve ruminated on what makes players buy in to a head coach and what repels them. Harbaugh was one of the most steady, most consistent coaches in the NFL, whose presence and messaging buoyed the Ravens franchise for nearly two decades — until one day it all seemed a little stale.

It doesn’t give a complete picture to note that players who have called this training camp “a breath of fresh air” (most notably Lamar Jackson) are making referendums solely on Harbaugh’s coaching style. But the idea that his approach had reached a ceiling certainly seems to be part of the sentiment.

Then you have a coach like former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald, a Super Bowl winner in just his second season in charge in Seattle. A huge part of his success comes from his schemes and creativity, fabulously deployed by his “Dark Side” defense. But, as we’ve also seen on HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” there is a genuineness to his presence that seems to connect with his players.

In one scene, Macdonald jokes during the Seahawks’ ring ceremony that he’s “still awkward” and implies he always will be. But his demeanor crosses the spectrum of emotion and command, from his quiet conversations in his office with injured safety Nick Emmanwori to his barking in practice at linebacker Derick Hall to stop getting too close to quarterbacks.

There was never a realistic world in which the Ravens would have fired Harbaugh in 2023 to promote Macdonald after they had made the AFC championship game. And, to be clear, I don’t think Harbaugh was ever not being himself, threaded clean through with Harbaugh-isms and an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. But seeing Macdonald’s easygoing authenticity — and how it has connected so powerfully in Seattle — definitely makes you ask “what if?”

In Minter, the Ravens clearly aimed for someone out of the Macdonald mold, both schematically and as a relatable figure. Maybe they’ve found the right guy.

Canvassing the locker room in the last week, players told me they find Minter to be smart, direct and personable. He met with individual players early in the offseason but rarely has had time for one-on-ones since. But Minter attends position group meetings regularly, speaks up in them and always feels approachable.

As one player put it, Harbaugh had an aura and a track record that could feel intimidating to newcomers — not intentionally but simply because he had won so much and was so deeply entrenched in the franchise. “Jesse — he’s kind of just a guy you can talk to,” said one player, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the team’s operations. It was intended as a compliment.

Another thing several Ravens said: Minter gives straightforward evaluations, including tough truths. In position group meetings, even when he isn’t in the room, there is a powerful sense his assistants are sticking to his messaging: “There’s no ‘he said, he said’ when you get in the room. It’s all the same message,” one veteran player said.

These are qualities of a good coach, to be sure. Players told me they still wanted to see how Minter handled the season’s tough moments. Until the games count, there’s no way to know what stuff he is made of.

None of the Ravens’ preseason games was particularly close, a compliment to how Minter and his staff prepared. But, in close games, how will he look? Will he go for fourth-and-short? Will he be quick to throw challenge flags? If a game is going sideways, will he say the right things in the halftime locker room?

Minter, of course, has simulated a lot of these moments with his staff, including folks who specialize in game strategy. But starting Sunday he knows he’ll truly be on the clock — and he couldn’t be more excited.

“This is what you sign up for. This is why you want to be in the chair that I’m sitting in,” he said. “It’s not to run from those situations. It’s to run at those situations, trust your preparation and trust the training and trust all the things that you’ve done to try to be ready.”

The funny thing about the modern coaching mold — at least the school that Macdonald represents — is that it is not about being the tough-as-nails, hard-nosed field general (with all due respect to Indiana’s Curt Cignetti as perhaps the best of these throwbacks). It requires a level of authenticity, which inherently requires vulnerability.

The Ravens and their fans have seen glimpses of the real Jesse Minter, but over the years, we’ll expect to know him a lot better — and he will have to be willing to be his real self in a more public way.

He can win games with his schemes and play-calling, but the only path to coax the best out of his team will be by leading with heart.

That might feel like a scary leap to make for many people. But, nearing the eve of his head coaching debut, Minter doesn’t seem nervous about taking the plunge, even if he has a long way to go.

“I’ll sleep fine on Saturday night just knowing the amount of work that this team has put in,” he said. “We’ll let it fly on Sunday and see what happens.”