Michigan football: Who's battling with Mike Sainristil at nickel?
Michigan Wolverines football senior Mike Sainristil has a lot on his plate. He’s splitting time between defensive back and wide receiver, plus is serving as a team leader. According to head coach Jim Harbaugh, 80 percent of his practice reps have come on defense during fall camp, and co-coordinator Steve Clinkscale has been blown away by just how quickly he’s picked up being a defensive back.
“Mikey is still playing both sides, and he’s doing a great job of understanding and embodying what we want on defense,” Clinkscale said Thursday. “And to be honest with you, man, he’s so natural. Sometimes when I watch film, I have to say, ‘Wow, he’s only been over here with us for only a few months.’
“Just to see his personality and to see him just take key to the leadership. We ask him a lot to be a leader on the team — on offense, defense, special teams, with the young guys. Just to see him grow has been awesome. He’s really been a good leader in that room with the nickels.”
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It was Harbaugh’s idea, just before spring ball, to try Sainristil out on the Michigan defense. The Wolverines were a bit thin at nickel after the departure of Daxton Hill, a first-round pick to the Cincinnati Bengals, and Sainristil played in the defensive backfield as a high school standout for Everett (Mass.) High.
There are others who will get playing time at the position, too, and with the way Clinkscale likes all of his Michigan defensive backs knowing every position, there will be plenty of rotation — and that rotation will look different from week to week.
Senior cornerback DJ Turner, freshman corner Will Johnson, freshman Kody Jones and sophomore Rod Moore, who missed the spring with a shoulder injury but is back 100 percent, were all mentioned as factors at the position.
“He, DJ Turner has given us some nickel reps, Will Johnson, Kody and, of course, Rod Moore,” Clinkscale said of who could play nickel for Michigan. “And everybody knows it. Both the Green brothers [graduates Gemon and German], all the safeties, they all know nickel. We’ve done a great job of teaching everybody the position.
“Now, whoever’s going to play it will be game to game, and it definitely will be up to their ability and camp and what they’re doing. But Mikey is doing a great job, and we’ve seen so many guys do some good things in there. We’ll keep breeding that position.
“The way I look at it, corners need to know how to play nickel, safeties need to know how to play dime. If the safeties can play dime, then when we go against teams that have really good tight ends, we don’t have to create defenses to match up. If the corners can play nickel, then that gives us more guys out there that can be versatile. And then it also expands the knowledge of the unit.”
Turner is an interesting option behind Sainristil. Considering Michigan has two other capable cornerbacks jockeying for position in German Green and Johnson, the Wolverines could slide Turner inside at different times in order to get those three on the field together. Turner lined up across from the slot on 17 occasions last season (he had 620 defensive snaps), a very small number, but has the skill set to play there, finishing as U-M’s highest-graded coverage man last season per PFF (83.3).
Moore, on the other hand, broke out as a safety late in the year, but he also played nickel — in fact, he had the second-most snaps on the team at that position behind Hill with 126.
Flat out, Michigan has plenty of options — and Sainristil may be chief among them come game time.
