ANN ARBOR, Mich. — After Michigan football’s Week 4 win over Rutgers, fifth-year team captain Mike Sainristil settled in to watch the late games. While he was primarily concerned with seeing how his former teammates, who are now at Iowa, fared against Penn State, of course, Sainristil was curious about how rival Ohio State would do against Notre Dame.
And it appears that Michigan was on Ohio State’s mind in the immediate aftermath of that game, as well.
In case you live under a rock, Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day had a bizarre postgame interview where he lambasted former Irish coach Lou Holtz while making passing mention of the Wolverines’ dominance in the second half of The Game in 2021 — somehow forgetting that 2022 followed a similar script. Day emphatically insinuated that OSU is a physical team, taking umbrage to Holtz’s comments about how the Buckeyes get dominated by teams that play a more physical brand of football.
Asked about Day’s postgame comments, Sainristil refrained but did note that he’s proud of his team’s work towards being known as a tough, gritty team on the gridiron.
“I will just say we’re doing a great job of handling our business,” Sainristil said. “That’s all we can do, just focusing on making sure that we’re the best team going into that game. And just being able to go out there — Coach does a great job of preparing us and helping us keep Michigan football, the people in this building, the main priority.”
Physicality up front, in particular, is what Michigan football has become known for, beginning in 2021, as far as the modern era is concerned. Sainristil says that the onus has been put on toughness, starting with the coaches, but the players have bought in. Given the nature of the Big Ten Conference, it only makes sense that the maize and blue would aspire to such ideals rather than having a more flashy style of play as some other programs have adopted.
“That’s what coaches here prepare us to go against,” Sainristil said. “We know, Big Ten, everybody’s going to go out there and you want to be physical. But we just want to go out there and be the more physical team at the end of the day.”
Michigan still has seven more games before the Buckeyes come to town, and while Sainristil would love to see them on the schedule this coming week, having the time on task beforehand will allow the Wolverines to continue pushing towards being even more physical.
As he says, everything the maize and blue do, even against other teams, is all preparation for that year-end showdown for the two rivals.
“Every week, we can’t wait to — we want to play that game. That’s ‘The Game’ for a reason,” Sainristil said. “But the result of that game doesn’t change, our wanting to play them next week, two weeks, or at the end of the year. We know, regardless, that come November 25, we have to face them. And all we can do is prepare and show week-to-week, how well or how good of a team we can be leading into that game.”