LEGEND STATUS: Michigan DB Mike Sainristil will leave outstanding……
More than just a moment: Mike Sainristil’s lasting impact on Michigan
Mike Sainristil can vividly remember every detail of the play that he’s best known for.
More than his multiple pick-sixes or his many pass break-ups, or even his three career sacks, one play against Ohio State — above all else — defines the graduate cornerback to those outside of the No. 3 Michigan football program. And if you ask him to describe that play on a crucial third-and-4 late in the fourth quarter — he’ll give you the unabridged version.
“I was man on Cade Stover,” Sainristil told The Michigan Daily. “When the ball got snapped, I kind of took my eyes off of him, I was looking in the backfield a little bit. And then out of the corner of my eye I saw him releasing on an over route, or kind of like a tight end bluff. I was like damn, I know I’m behind, so as I’m running I saw the ball get thrown. It was floated, but the only reason it was floated was because of the pressure from the d-line. … (Graduate defensive tackle Kris Jenkins) forced Stroud to throw an off-timing ball, but it was also on time in a sense. He threw it off of his back foot, but the way he threw it allowed me to catch up.
“Stover put his hands up and I was able to get back in phase and not panic, and just reach the glove hand out there. And I got a piece of the ball. And I got just enough to poke it out.”
That moment, with the drama of a touchdown forced in-and-out of Stover’s hands — and the chance of an Ohio State comeback slipping with it — has garnered headlines for a reason. It was massive.
Sainristil’s calm and delayed flick of the ball was one the most impactful plays of The Game in 2022. And due to the nature and the importance placed upon that one game, it has become the shining emblem of Sainristil’s career thus far.
But if you were to ask Sainristil’s cornerbacks coach Steve Clinkscale, or Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, or especially his teammates about what comes to mind when they think of Sainristil, it’s almost never explicitly related to football. Outside of the program, Sanristil is known for his play on the field. Inside of it, he’s known as the premier leader of the defense.
But if you were to ask Sainristil about what defines him, above all else, he’d focus on his family. For Sainristil, family, football and the work ethic that he feels he owes both of them, are deeply, deeply intertwined.
And that combination has culminated in the leader that he has become.
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Another football moment that Mike Sainristil can vividly remember is the moment that he fell in love with it.
“When I was 10 years old, I had a pop warner game on the day of my birthday, October 3, 2010,” Sainristil said. “And I had a really good game. On the last touchdown I scored in that game, and I still have the video to this day, my mom got everybody in the stands to start singing happy birthday. And it was the coolest thing to me. … Just understanding at a very young age the family feeling that football creates, the bond that football creates.”
That feeling Sainristil loves about football — the family aspect — is key to understanding who he has become for Michigan. Because Sainristil is someone who does not take family lightly. For him, family ties are not broad, loosely defined bonds. They boil down to being willing to genuinely give everything for another.
And Sainristil knows exactly how much his parents have sacrificed. He knows the story of why his parents fled Haiti when he was just a newborn well. His father, working at a radio station, saw an impending crackdown on journalists on the horizon, and chose to leave for his family’s sake.
But on a day-to-day basis, Sainristil has seen the work ethic his family has given him and his siblings, and his intrinsic response has been to place an expectation of that level of commitment upon himself. He feels that he owes his family for the sacrifices they have made for him, and he repays them with how hard he works.
“What I saw daily from my parents, they work hard — very hard,” Sainristil said. “Even to this day they’re working very hard. So it’s like, my parents are doing that at their age, I’m much younger, I have more physical capabilities, I’m gifted talent. Like, I have all the tools. Why would I ever not want to work hard? Why would I ever go a day and waste time when I could use the gifts that I have to one day help them stop working?”
Along every step of his journey, his family was at the top of his mind. When he fell in love with football, it was because of his family. When he chose to decommit from Virginia Tech and commit to Michigan, it was chiefly because he saw how much his parents loved the school. And now, in his fifth year with the Wolverines, a large part of his motivation is the family that he one day hopes to have.
He feels like those within the football program have become his family, and with that feeling, he feels that he owes them all that he has. Because if Sainristil treats you like family, he demands the work ethic from himself that he saw demonstrated by his parents — and that mantra has seeped into every aspect of the Wolverines’ defense.
“In my opinion, you have followers, you have leaders and you have influencers — I think Mike is an influencer,” Clinkscale said. “I think Mike has changed the mindset of everybody on our team, not just the defensive backs. … Like he never stops.”
But work ethic alone isn’t why Sainristil has become such a potent motivator. Rather, it’s that he has figured out how to motivate by using empathy. He doesn’t bark or demand; he makes himself available to listen and calmly explains. He reaches out to the freshmen first, and he’s willing to use his own past frustrations and his struggles for playing time as examples of why he does what he does.
And this embrace of patience, and being comfortable with things not necessarily working out as expected and even having to change plans or positions isn’t something Sainristil learned from the team’s stars — but rather, its walk-ons.
“One thing I did when I got here was become real close with the walk-ons,” Sainristil said. “… Walk-ons have a different chip on their shoulders. … And those are the guys that I was around, those are the guys that I wanted to learn from, and ultimately, they helped me a lot in becoming who I am.”
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When Sainristil was a freshman wide receiver going through his first fall camp, his roommate was former Michigan wide receiver Nate Schoenle. And a few days into camp Schoenle, who was a walk-on, made a small gesture that Sainristil remembers to this day.
“In where we stayed for camp, the room was a big bed and there was a sofa bed,” Sainristil said. “I was on the sofa bed. Schoenle ends up getting hurt, and one day he comes back to the room and goes ‘Mike I’m not in camp no more. You’re the one working hard, you’re the one getting up early, you go ahead and take the bed.’ ”
Schoenle remembers the moment too, but he didn’t attach much meaning to it.
“I distinctly remember that, we still joke about it to this day,” Schoenle told The Daily. “That was a very, very minor gesture.”
But to Sainristil, in that gesture and moments like it, something clicked. He saw how Schoenle treated him with the selfless nature of a gesture as small as switching beds, and he realized who he wanted to be for his teammates.
He wanted to be someone who prioritized others over himself.
“Seeing somebody like that who wasn’t sitting there being sorry for himself at the fact that he was hurt, he was more: ‘I’m hurt. How can I help the other guys around me,’ ” Sainristil said. “That is what helps build leadership for someone like myself. Like somebody who is willing to do anything for everyone else no matter what they’re feeling. … That’s the type of person I wanted to be.”
Through the past five years of his career with the Wolverines, that’s exactly who Sainristil has worked to become. He’s taken that mantra of giving all of himself to prepare and grow those around him, precisely because he’s seen the impacts that it had. And it has made him stand out.
That’s why Clinkscale called him an ‘influencer’ and why junior safety Rod Moore called him his “best friend in the backfield.” It’s because he’s consistent: in how much he works, and how much he gives.
“He’s definitely a great leader every day and he’s the same person every day,” sophomore cornerback Will Johnson said. “He’s one of the hardest workers you can be around.”
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Today, Mike Sainristil lives a very different life from the young freshmen he puts in extra time to mentor.
Rather than living in a South Quad dorm with fewer responsibilities, Sainristil has taken on a caretaker, or zookeeper, role — depending on how you look at it.
“I got four dogs and a cat,” Sainristil said. “I got a dog. Then I met my girlfriend, she wanted a dog. So there was two. And then her family was on a trip in Puerto Rico, a man (abandoned a dog with them) and we took the dog, that was the third one, and then the fourth one was a dog that we adopted. And then the cat was a Christmas gift from my girlfriend.”
With five pets and the responsibility of care present in his life, it’s readily apparent that the position Sainristil occupied is different from most on his team. He’s grown, and he’s willing to put others — even abandoned dogs — before himself.
And that’s why he’s become indispensable for Michigan.
Not for his pick-sixes, sacks or even his leaping, heroic pass break-up against Ohio State. But rather for the fact that the Wolverines need him, his work ethic and his candor to nurture the next group of players who will end up like him.
Mike Sainristil has had his shining moment against the Buckeyes, and he may well have another. But what he’ll be truly remembered for is just how much he gave to make sure those below him will one day have theirs.