ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Throughout the offseason, there was a common phrase that echoed throughout Schembechler Hall: ‘Mike Sainristil took me under his wing.’
It didn’t seem to matter the age, or whether it was an offensive or defensive player. Of course, the defensive backs look up to the fifth-year nickel back, but so do the wide receivers — and the whole team, really — as Sainristil was once in their shoes, as well. We’ve heard freshmen say they’ve been under the tutelage of Sainristil, sophomores, even grad transfers, such as cornerback Josh Wallace.
But what makes the two-time team captain such a resource? And how does he spare the time?
The biggest thing for Sainristil is that he makes sure he has his part down pat, and that allows him to spread his knowledge to others.
“I would just say being a person for others, I know — I’m gonna make sure that my responsibility is taken care of, and now it’s about, OK, I know what I’m doing, how can I take what I’m doing and help other guys and bring other guys into understand it as well as I do?” Sainristil said. “So that’s just how I go about it.
“Just take it for what it is, don’t let that opportunity go to waste. A lot of people would do anything to be in the shoes that we are in. And you’re one decision away from not even being at the school. One wrong mistake from not being at the school. So you’re here. This is what you’ve always wanted, so take the opportunity and run with it.”
But why does he do it? Of course, it’s beneficial to the team that he does, but he just as easily could do his job, hang up his helmet and call it a day.
However, given his wealth of knowledge of both sides of the ball, he feels like it’s to the team’s benefit to share his expertise. And that expertise is mostly one lesson: work hard, even when it comes to learning.
“I’ve just always been that way,” Sainristil said. “I will say that I’ve been blessed with being able to apply things and things come to me pretty easy. So, I didn’t — I still am learning more and more about our playbook. But you know, based off of what I did last year, when I came in, when I switched over to defense, I’d say it came pretty quick to understanding the whole concept of what it is that we do on defense. And you guys asked me like, ‘Well, how do you how do you do that? How’d you learn so quick?’ I mean, part of it is because I’m older, I don’t have enough time to be wasted, not knowing the playbook. I want to play, I want to get out there, I want to go to the NFL, of course. So I had, I put myself in a position where I have to learn.
“And then I tell the guys like the second half of the battle is wanting to do it. Like, you have to be able to want to learn. If you’re not open to learning new concepts, not open to taking the coaching, and it’s never gonna be easy for you. So you just have to go out there and come in and get extra meeting time, stay, get extra time after practice, even when you’re tired. It’s a part of the game, it’s your job, it’s your responsibility to learn. So you do good, you make coach look good. And it’s a partnership.”
There’s an added benefit of Sainristil being a team leader and imparting his wisdom: he can reemphasize lessons players are learning from the coaching staff. And sometimes that can have an even greater impact given that he’s a respected peer.
“Coach is always going to be coach but I feel like the second player tells you, it kind of changes your perspective because you’re actually hearing it from someone who’s going through what you’re going through at the time,” Sainristil said. “But you know, coach is always gonna give you wisdom, was gonna give you from a perspective of experience. Because coaches have seen it all, they’ve been through all kinds of things, they’ve coached all kinds of people. So it’s always good to hear what coaches have to say but definitely, when a teammate tells you something, that perspective is needed as well.”