At this point, the legendary status of Mike Sainristil at Michigan is well documented. A former wide receiver converting to cornerback, only to become All-B1G and an All-American, the MVP of the Big Ten Championship game. A two-time captain whose leadership is cited by teammates and coaches alike. Maybe we have gotten used to Mike Sainristil at this point, but we shouldn't, and Michigan's defensive coordinator Jesse Minter still finds himself in awe of the 5th year senior and leader of his defense.

"He has an elite competitive mindset to whatever he's asked to do," said Minter. "He's such a good teammate, he's such a good leader, he's really competitive."

In terms of his success on the defensive side of the ball, Minter sees Sainristil's time at receiver as a positive and not a delay to his development on defense.

"He has a knack, I think playing receiver helped him, so he has a knack of understanding routes, patterns, sort of how routes work together. How one guy is going shallow, something else is probably coming higher. He understands that stuff really well from his offensive background."

Minter joined the Michigan coaching staff ahead of the 2022 season, when the MIchigan turnaround was well underway. The culture that had been established or refreshed before the 2021 season was evident to Minter. One thing that he thinks contributed to Sainristil's success, is the team focus on special teams.

"The thing that surprised me the most, doesn't really surprise me anymore, but was how sure of a tackler he was right away. As I was here, that really showed up right away. As I saw how we train special teams here and how everybody on the team is involved in that and does drills that really carry over to both sides of the ball and make you a better football player, it's kind of made sense why a lot of our guys are kind of good open field players."

So maybe the path makes sense. Another testament to what makes Michigan Football so good. Finding underrated players in recruiting, developing them into leaders and great football players. Instilling a culture in them that they live by and spread to the rest of the team, and pass the torch to incoming players. Still, Sainristil is at another level and deserves to be recognized.

"For him to be a pretty good player on offense, make a bunch of big plays in key moments and in big games on offense just like now has for two years on defense, the Michigan legend thing is real for Mikey. There's not many more better than him."

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