Mike Sainristil is having his best statistical season to date, setting new highs in just about every receiving category. His work has not gone unnoticed, recently drawing praise from team captain Ronnie Bell among others.
He spoke about what he has changed this season, the people who helped put him in position to succeed, how Josh Gattis puts the offense in position to succeed, and his first impression of Georgia’s defense when meeting with the media. For everything Sainristil said, read on.
On hearing that Ronnie Bell thinks he’s the most improved receiver this season and what has led to the improvement
Just the way I’ve attacked the offseason and consistency I make sure to keep as the year keeps going, whether that’s blocking, running routes, catching the ball. Just making sure that regardless, whatever it is I’m doing I’m giving my all to it.
Is there one area where you feel you’ve made the biggest leap?
Nah, nothing in particular. I’m just trying to make sure my game overall is the best it can be.
On football performance operations manager Jim Plocki
Since I’ve got here coach Plocki has always been a great person. Like you said, he’s the first face you see when you walk in the building and there’s not any day I can think back on where he didn’t have good energy. He’s not really an on-the-field guy but off the field he just always has positive energy and that’s something that helps whether you’re having a bad day or whatever it is, you walk in the building and the first person you see gives you a smile, gives you a ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ I feel like that helps you.
On the people that have helped shape him and help him get to where he is today
I feel like I’ve had a lot of positive impacts in my life. My family, my friends, coaches. One coach in particular that I could shout out to, his name is coach Reynaldi (Audate). He just passed recently. He was my high school wide receivers coach. He is definitely one person I would say that since I walked in high school always believed in me. He would take me to recruiting trips when my parents couldn’t. He was just always there for me, whatever it was, and I just know that whatever I do, he’s always going to be watching and he’s just going to be proud of me, whatever it is. My mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, my cousins, and there’s more coaches that I could go on and on about, people who helped get me to where I am today.
On bonding as a team, how much that was missed last season, and how much it has helped this year
You know, one thing that was definitely taken away from us was the team trip. I feel like that’s huge in our bonding here on the team. Guys who early-enroll have the chance to really bond when we take that trip, kind of like myself when I early-enrolled and we took the trip to South Africa. I feel like we did a great job this offseason just hanging out with each other, being around each other as much as possible, even with the COVID restrictions or whatever it was. Guys on this team really like each other, you know what I mean? And I feel like that’s really helped on the field, as you can see. It just gives you that ‘I want to play, I want to do good for the man next to me.’
On Josh Gattis and the offense’s evolution the last few years
Just the trust that has gone through the roof here between coaches and players, guys just believing in the process. Coach Gattis has done a great job with us. He’s just putting it all out there for us and I feel like we’ve done a great job of giving him our all in return. It’s just been a great thing that we have going.
(Inaudible question)
Just the things that we learned when he first brought the offense in and just now that we have two, three years of it under our belts, we just developed in areas where we struggled before. There’s a lot of veterans on this offense now, along with a few young guys. It’s just been a great mixture of everything.
On signing day for current players and how much attention they pay to it
I just see on social media who’s coming. Only I feel like the guys I really follow are the people that I host, really. Other than that I don’t really pay too much attention to it because I’ve got to keep my focus on (inaudible).
On how much Gattis and the offense save in the playbook for the right moment or right look from a defense (ex. Erick All’s Penn State TD, Donovan Edwards’ passing TD vs. Iowa)
I wouldn’t really say like he saves it, it’s just we just practice it and we just use it when the opportunity presents itself. The opponent we play might not have the right defensive look for us to run it into so we’ll just continue practicing it, keep it in the playbook and the second that the opportunity presents itself we can use it.
On ‘Those who stay will be champions’ and what it means to him now
It means everything, and it just goes to prove that the saying is true. And also in the weight room I’m pretty sure the quote says ‘Those who stay will stay.’ We kind of broke that down the other day and the team brought it up kind of just saying that if you stay, you make memories here, those memories will always be in the building, faces will always be in the building. We have the All-American wall. This team this year is always going to be remembered in this building for our Big Ten championship banner that we have up now. It just feels great.
Where is the Big Ten championship banner right now?
Right now it’s next to the video board in Glick. I’m not sure if it’s going to get moved or not but that’s just where it is right now.
Do you like it there?
Yeah, it’s good. It feels good to look at.
On hosting recruits and how much he pays attention to fit and does he debrief with the coaches
I would just say like bringing high school kids around college guys, seeing how they interact or even just one-on-one conversations, just feeling them out and then if Coach asks what do you think about a certain player just quick feedback: ‘Yeah, I think he’s a good guy, I think he fits in here’;’Maybe this is not the place for him.’
On what he has seen on tape from Georgia
They’re a great defense, another great defense we’ll be playing. But there’s opportunities and just with two, two and a half weeks of preparation we’ll just continue practicing the things that we’re good at. We’ll be good. We also have a good offense, they have a good defense, and it’s just gonna be another great matchup playing that. I can’t wait. I’m also playing against one of my best friends (Lewis Cine), their starting safety. So yeah, can’t wait to go at it against him and leave it all out there for this team.
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