Speed, Speed And More Speed: The Michigan WR Story

Over the past year-plus, wide receiver Mike Sainristil has been heralded as one of the fastest players on Michigan's team. Now entering his second year in the program, Sainristil has worked to find his place on the team, and he feels his position is firmly entrenched among the fastest players to wear a winged helmet this fall.

"The top five for sure is me, Roman[ Wilson], A.J. [Henning], Giles [Jackson]... I'll put Ronnie in there," Sainristil added on Thursday. "Definitely put Ronnie in there. But I think Roman would come out with it. That guy flies for sure."

Out of that group, Sainristil thinks that Wilson would probably win in a standard 100-meter race, but that result would be closely contested by four Michigan speedsters chasing in pursuit. Wilson is one of the younger players on U-M's squad as a true freshman, and Henning is also in his first season as a Wolverine, but the two have already made an impact inside Schembechler Hall and are poised to do the same on the field.

"Them coming in as freshmen, I think it really helps us in the receivers room in terms of depth," Sainristil said. "It's added two more fast guys to our receiver corps, two guys that will go out there and make plays. They are unselfish players as well. That is just the type of people we need in that room, guys that will do their part as well as they will put it out there for those around you."

Since Michigan has five players who can be trusted to run routes into the deep-third portion of the field by Sainristil's account, the Wolverines should have a decided advantage on the perimeter this season. And with so much depth, Michigan is planning to take advantage of what looks to be a room full of speedy pass catchers.

"I just think it creates a better rotation because now you can run a deep route," Sainristil said. "You can go from having two guys run a deep route and then sub another one of us in and then give us the ball in space. We'll be going against a DB who was in that was covering two different guys for two deep routes, so now he's tired and we just have fresh legs to keep cycling. So, I think that really helps us out a lot."

In a perfect world, the best way to capitalize on U-M's wealth of speed outside would be with a strong-armed quarterback who can sling the ball deep downfield at a moment's notice. As it happens to work out, the Wolverines will have that exact player under center this year in Joe Milton, and he's been turning heads in practice already.

"For example, yesterday he threw me a post route," Sainristil said. "The first thing I told myself was Joe's in the game. No matter what, keep running because the ball isn't landing short. As I'm tracking the ball, I'm like, 'this has to be the highest ball I've ever seen thrown in a while.' The ball was in the ball hanging and I'm asking myself when is the ball going to drop? Where is it going to drop? Just head down and keep running. It's definitely tough to track the ball when it's that high and you don't know where it's going to land. Coach [Josh] Gattis just tells us to keep running and just don't expect it to fall anytime soon when five is in the game."

On paper, the combination of Milton's arm strength with the speed of Sainristil, Wilson, Henning, Jackson and Bell could be lethal for opposing Big Ten defenses this fall. While many of those players are young, the majority have had time in Gattis' program and should be ready to see legitimate playing time this fall, especially since Gattis puts a lot of importance on explosivity. 

How will this combination of speed and throwing power work out for Michigan this year? Will this be the most explosive Michigan offense in recent years? Let us know!