Why 1 Michigan football player says team hasn't panicked following defensive staff exodus
Josaiah Stewart didn’t realize at the time.
But when the Coastal Carolina import joined Michigan football last year, he was placed in a crash course on crisis management. Class in this school of hard knocks began in the summer just as the Wolverines embarked on their wild journey toward a national championship. Jim Harbaugh was hit with the first of two separate three-game suspensions as an NCAA investigation loomed over his program. Then a sign-stealing scandal steeped in espionage erupted in late October, thrusting Michigan into a maelstrom of controversy that threatened to send it off track before the team barreled down its final stretch.
To top it off, there were constant rumors suggesting Harbaugh’s return to the NFL was imminent.
“We have been dealing with it all year — all the scandals, all the allegations and whatnot,” Stewart, a rising senior edge defender, told the Free Press last week. “Blocking out all the noise has been our mantra all year.”
The lessons Stewart and his teammates learned during a tumultuous fall were applied in the frenetic aftermath of Michigan’s first national title since 1997. Harbaugh soon bolted for the Los Angeles Chargers and then took the bulk of the defensive staff with him, leaving his 38-year-old successor, Sherrone Moore, with the unenviable task of hiring a new set of assistants capable of maintaining the schematic continuity within a unit that surrendered the fewest yards and points per game in the Football Bowl Subdivision last season.
The exodus of assistants, led by coordinator Jesse Minter, threatened to destabilize the program’s foundation that Moore desperately hoped to preserve. After all, the transfer portal was unlocked when Harbaugh left Jan. 24, which could have triggered the kind of roster upheaval that has followed recent regime changes in Tuscaloosa, Seattle and East Lansing.
But since Moore was elevated as Harbaugh’s replacement, only two Wolverines have made plans to defect — reserve defensive lineman Reece Atteberry and safety Keon Sabb, who was expected to compete for a starting role. The high retention rate has been a surprising development in an age of constant, unfettered player movement.
“The only advice I have given guys is just stay patient,” outgoing defensive back Mike Sainristil told the Free Press on Friday. “Don’t make any emotional decisions based on what’s going on. Let things shake out first and go from there.”
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Sainristil’s voice still resonates within the walls of Schembechler Hall, where he spent the past two years as a team captain. As he switched from offense to defense, he helped seed a symbiotic, collaborative culture that Moore is eager sustain.
“If it isn’t broken,” Moore said, “we don’t fix it. We want the players to be as comfortable as possible as we move forward.”
That mission governed Moore’s approach as he made his first moves. After acclaimed strength and conditioning director Ben Herbert followed Harbaugh to California, Herbert’s protégé, Justin Tress, was installed as his replacement. Following Minter’s departure, Moore snagged Wink Martindale from the pro ranks. The 60-year-old blitz-happy play-caller hadn’t worked at the college level since 2003. But he understood Michigan’s system, having developed a version of it when he was running the Baltimore Ravens’ defense.
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“Coach Moore has tried to keep everything the same, keep the basics” Stewart said. “All the players appreciated that. We all might have looked at it differently if everybody was cleaning house and everything was different and just the little things we do start changing. ... But nobody on the team panicked. Nobody on the team was frustrated with things. We all just stayed the course. Things like this is a process. We kind of all understood that.”
Stewart knew better than to react impulsively. In December 2022, he left his starting job at a Group of Five power and joined a deep rotation of pass rushers at a Big Ten stronghold. It took him a while to get settled into his new role as a reserve. But when he did, Stewart made a major impact and began to earn more playing time.
By the end of the season, he was a key contributor as a strongside linebacker. In Michigan’s overtime victory over Alabama in the Rose Bowl semifinal of the College Football Playoff, he produced six tackles, including a sack of Jalen Milroe. A week later, he played the most snaps of his Michigan tenure during the Wolverines’ conquest of Washington in the championship game. Now, he is in line to be a major factor on a defense still chock full of top producers — from Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant up front to Will Johnson and Rod Moore on the back end.
“We knew what we had coming back this year,” Stewart said. “We have a lot of hungry guys. We have a strong core. We are going to keep this train rolling, no matter what.”
It was a bold statement. But it was also understandable considering the source. After all, since he joined the team, the Wolverines have yet to be derailed. They powered through controversies, distractions and plenty of turbulence to remain on course last fall.
“And that kind of followed through right into the offseason, literally,” Stewart said.
Such is life at Michigan, as he has come to discover. But not much has changed during this period of transition. It’s still full steam ahead, same as it ever was.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com. Follow him @RainerSabin
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Will Michigan football defense keep 'train rolling'? 1 player says yes
