It took a few more months than we thought it would, but Michigan has finally flipped 2019 Massachusetts athlete Mike "Sweetness" Sainristil.

110% Committed ✊?〽️ pic.twitter.com/7AFI1CQlST

— Mike Sainristil ? (@MikeSainristil) November 4, 2018

110% > 100%

Virginia Tech thought they had a gem secured in the heart of Don Brown territory, but couldn't maintain control through the entire process. Michigan now takes possession of this 5-10, 175-pound slot receiver prospect, or maybe a 5-9, 175-pound safety prospect, or another running back, or maybe 6'8"/375 offensive tackle for the 2023 class for all the scouting service evaluations out there on him. Steve Lorenz posted an Insider($) note after Sainristil visited on that big June recruiting weekend that at least added some clarity to his position:

Michigan is not recruiting Sainristil at cornerback; instead, they are recruiting him as an athlete with the current likelihood being wide receiver. 

The crystal balls flipped hard to Michigan during the subsequent Commitapalooza but Sainristil remained committed to Virginia Tech until a few days before he set up his Michigan visit for Penn State. Don Brown visited his school during the recent bye, further adding to the least surprising flip of the year.

What Michigan appears to have secured is a bottle of lightning to assuage those of us still rankled that K.J. Hamler was never offered, IE a slot smurf. Caveat: Commonwealth, but he might be a really good one.

GURU RATINGS

Rivals	ESPN	247	247Comp
3*, 5.6, #63 ATH, #2 MA	4*, 80, #24 ATH, #33 Northeast, #1 MA	3*, 86, #75 CB, #809 Ovr, #3 MA	3*, 0.8676, #62 CB, #678 Ovr, #1 MA

Since he appeared on our radars in June, ESPN bumped Sainristil up to a low 4-star, shot him 20 spots up their athlete rankings, and moved him ahead of 23 other athletes. 

That differs from 247, who's dropped him 4 spots in the cornerback rankings and 100 spots overall as various seniors around the nation popped. I plugged these into my composite stars formula and the ESPN bump moved him into the Nate Johnson/Grant Perry region. Squint at that with the Massachusetts curve and you get a Dennis Norfleet: a human highlight reel who generates a ton of local press (and blogger love) but equal incredulity from the scouting types trying to project a ceiling from a guy who's never touched one.

Sainristil's rankings also have a distinct whiff of "Eh, we haven't been up there, but the Boston papers seem to like him." ESPN had Sainristil the second "78" until they got a guy up there and bumped him to an 80 (unfortunately with no explanation), and 247 has been slowly dropping him the last month as they get to evaluations of the people under him—he was 56th in May. Rivals is the comparative skeptic, ranking Sainristil 12 spots below the last 5.7.

There's also disagreement about a crucial inch: Rivals has him 5-9, 175 pounds; 247 lists him at 5-10/175, and ESPN has 5-9 but 180 for weight. For what it's worth, in his highlight films Sainristil is average height for the guys on the field—he may be 5-9 but he's not "5-9" if you dig.

[Hit THE JUMP for two videos of Sainristil dunking on 8th graders, scouting based on two videos, and the FAKE-est 40 time yet]

SCOUTING

There is very little out there. Sainristil is from a recruiting state still celebrating its domination of the 1910s (one can relate), and he missed the New Jersey camp that put former teammate Lewis Cine on national radars. Adam Kurkijian is The Guy Who Scouts Massachusetts and describes Sainristil as a pelvis in search of a position:

I started covering HS football in Mass. in 1996, and I don't think I've ever seen a player with hips as fluid as Mike Sainristil. His movements are so natural. A joy to watch.

— MassVarsity (@MassVarsity) September 15, 2018

The Boston Globe's eye was caught when Sainristil executed a fake punt vs Mo Hurst's old team:

In the scoreless first quarter of a season opener at Xaverian, Sainristil lined up to punt on fourth-and-14 from the Everett 38-yard line. He leaned down to catch a low snap as it hit the turf, and glancing up, noticed that all the Xaverian defenders were backpedaling.

So, the 5-foot-10, 165-pound Sainristil took off down the sideline, picking up 16 yards and a first down with his blazing speed. Seven plays later, Sainristil snared a 20-yard touchdown pass from Everett quarterback Duke Doherty.

Rivals posted an eval when Sainristil committed to VT in February, calling him a potential cornerback or slot receiver with a jet-pack:

His primary asset is that he can practically fly with his speed. His track times are good-not-great (7.07 in the indoor 55-meter dash), but he translate every bit of that when the pads come on. Naturally, speed makes a difference at plenty of positions.

He's able to cover more because of that speed than because of his specific techniques, and with the ball in his hands, makes things happen primarily with that initial burst. It's easy to see him improving very quickly when he focuses all his energies on improving his specific skills for football.

They also focus on his size and use the term "mighty-mite", projecting a redshirt and another year of growth to find a position.

247Sports sent Brian Dohn on a tour of the Northeast a few weeks ago and the Detroit News got Dohn's take after the VT decommit:

“He's interesting in that, at first, it was all DB,” Dohn said, “but the more you look at him, he’s really quick, has slot receiver ability, and has some ability in the return game too, so he’s an intriguing kid. He is not the biggest, not the strongest, but he has some things you can’t teach and he’s a good competitor also. Virginia Tech has talked offense, Michigan brought up some offense or return-game stuff. He is being recruited more in the athlete category.”

That's, uh, that's it. ESPN doesn't have an Insider eval or any news. 247 mentions him in their VT roundups. At a time when the recruiting industry can barely be bothered to watch tape on the star running back of one of the nation's top high school programs, or even take in the Georgia 7A Championship Game, the Greater Boston Area might as well be Esztergom.

Most FBS schools too fell into the tourist traps of Budapest and regretfully never made it out to see the jewel of Hungary. Indie VT blog The Key Play talked to Sainristil in February and learned that Tech's interest came from VT safeties coach Galen Scott taking a quick scouting visit the night before they played BC. Virginia Tech was not sold on one position or the other at the time but it sounds like it was the slot or the slot:

"They told me because of the way I play I could play on either side of the ball," Sainristil said. "They play with sometimes an extra defensive back on defense, they use their slots a lot, which is what I play, and that's what I'm used to doing, so I could fit in and help out in those aspects of the game."

Also in VT blogger takes, their SBNation guy:

Sainristil isn’t a burner, but the dude has Sean Savoy-like quickness and more than enough speed even if it isn’t elite. I love his field vision on offense or on defense, and I can see why Galen Scott is assigned to him. His vision and ability to backpedal make him almost more a natural safety than any sort of corner or receiver- even if I think he could be quite useful at those positions.

OFFERS

He was Virginia Tech's second 2019 commit (sorry), visited Penn State unofficially, and had offers from BC, Wisconsin, Rutgers, Southern Miss, UNC, and a late one from Ole Miss, plus interest from Indiana and Syracuse and some local MAC offers.

HIGH SCHOOL

Not counting the prep schools, Everett is the Bama of Massachusetts high school football—they're literally called the Crimson Tide—and most recently won a second straight Div. 1 state title over rival-in-chief Xaverian Brothers (Mo Hurst). The new head coach this year, Theluxon Pierre, played for Don Brown at UMass. They were rolling through this season, using Sainristil as a runner, receiver, safety, and punter, until suffering an upset last week.

Wisconsin got DBs Jakarrie Washington and Lubern Figaro from there, Notre Dame took the only four-star of the database age in OL John Montelus, and of course Don Brown hit them hard, pulling Manuel Asprilla, Jim Noel, and Lukas Denis from there for his BC secondaries. The historical Facebook page shows nicknames are nothing new to Everett football alumni, who include such pre-1950s stars as "Fritz", "Art", "Hub", "Pike", "Swede", and "Yo-Yo".

It's also the former high school of top 50 target Lewis Cine, who transferred to a big Texas school this year and committed to Georgia shortly after cancelling his Michigan visit. 

STATS

Nobody bothered to enter stats in MaxPreps but I counted 5 INTs in his junior highlight video. I didn't count the yards.

FAKE 40 TIME

No camps, no 40 times. Athletic.net put his track & field numbers up, mostly from his freshman year: 39'8 triple jump as a sophomore, and a 7.07 55-meter dash, a 5'2 high jump (placed 6th), and a 1:37:89 (1st place) finish for his team in four-man relay. Would you take a 55-meter dash from when he was a freshman? Let's see…multiply 40/55 times 7.07, curry the diviso, subtract 1 second for "hit puberty since" and…4.55. That gets five FAKES out of five, as should all 40 times.

VIDEO

This junior video shows Sainristil lining up at free safety, cornerback, running back, strong safety, slot receiver, nickel, wide receiver, H-receiver, tight end, and other cornerback (no punter unfortunately). The sophomore video includes a bunch of kickoffs and bubble screens—the kickoff return for a TD was either very sped up or a tantalizing preview of Norfleet potential, and a punt return where he juked past the world but was cut down from behind before he could accelerate into open space was especially Norfleet-ian.

He was having a productive senior year as of 6 weeks ago.

Half: @EHSAthletics15 leads @football14_mhs 27-7. Everett WR Mike Sainristil eludes multiple Mansfield defenders to score from 36 yards out on a pass from Dillon Doherty with 1:10 remaining in Q2. @HerewegoJoe @mattyfeld612 @ConveyWEEI pic.twitter.com/TqM5Vi3YTq

— Matt Siegel (@SportVideoMA) September 15, 2018

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

The highlight videos are about all we have to go on, but those are nice highlight videos, caveat competition. Sainristil shows fantastic awareness wherever he is on the field and the requisite elusiveness and speed to run down, around, and away from top Massachusetts high school football players/future startup social media managers.

With Eddie McDoom's transfer and Grant Perry's impeding graduation, Michigan's slot receiver options when Sainristil arrives will be classmate George Johnson III and guys borrowed from the regular receiver or RB depth chart. That opens a path to the field for a mountain goat-blocking slot ninja, however the massive leap from New England high school ball to the Big Ten will probably necessitate a break-in period.

I do think Sainrisil is better on offense; he won't arrive running artisanal routes, but he's got a natural feel for the soft spot in zones, the kind of acceleration that's really hard to keep up with in man (see: the Cincinnati game last year), and he likes to block. That's based on two highlight videos and therefore means very little.

Running back is another option, where Sainrisil could develop into a Vincent Smith-like third down back, screen merchant, and all-around pestilence for a defense that was sure it was signing up for a meatball pounding.

If offense doesn't happen, he's probably not a cornerback, but he could be an effective slot specialist on defense. This conversation is harder with people who don't remember Jon Shaw, who used to come in as a nickel safety and turn himself into a real nuisance on passing downs. Sainristil's quick instincts and good feet make him an asset against runs in space, and that spacial awareness will come in handy in zone coverage. The film doesn't show Sainristil in press man very much—mostly he gave a 6-7 yard cushion and exploded into the backfield or ran with a Massachusettsman for "why isn't the quarterback down yet?" seconds before making a play on a terribly thrown ball. But even on the well-thrown balls Sainrisil adjusted before the receiver, and had a few tricksy moves even as a sophomore for messing with the guy he's covering. If he was 2 inches taller everyone would think he's a safety. Alas.

ETC

Nickname is "Sweetness" which fun fact is also Mayer Hawthorne's dad's nickname.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan gets another quick-footed (we really like the feet this year) athlete to fill what will soon be a depleted slot ninja role that's obviously not going away. We're not saying "I told ya so" about taking Speedy Eaglet when they had the chance, but it does appear they've learned their lesson and won't let another slippery playmaker get away.