The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1546678
OCTOBER 2026 ❱ THE WOLVERINE 19 as a coach. I got to sit with him and talk through things with him. "We had a lot of philosophical similari- ties. I feel more confident after working with him for two years than I did when I first got here. So, his confidence in me felt mutual. Once he decided he was go- ing to leave … I don't know that I'd say he pushed, but he recommended me as the guy to keep it going. "Then, obviously, that affected our players. Having Dusty and all our guys who were committed to come play for him still want to stay made me feel good. We then put together a really good staff of guys who will bring a multitude of diverse opinions, thoughts and backgrounds, in- cluding a couple former head coaches along with some guys who have been here with us. "I think it's going to give us a chance to be really successful going forward." The Wolverine: How will you allocate the duties among your new staff? Boynton: "[Former Brown coach] Mike Martin and [former Osceola Magic G-League coach] Dylan Murphy will both run our offense. We'll bounce ideas off each other, and [recently promoted] KT Harrell will work with them on the offen- sive side of things. Myself, Coach [Kyle] Church and Akeem Miskdeen will, for the most part, handle our defensive schemes and adjustments throughout the year. "… One thing I learned from Dusty is when you have good people, you put them in position to be really good at their jobs. I think that was Dusty's real true secret sauce. He was confident in him- self and had such a low level of ego that he didn't worry about whether someone was going to get credit for in-game ad- justments or whatever. You serve these players to win at a high level, and who- ever gets credit doesn't matter. "He allowed [former assistant] Justin [Joyner], myself, and Coach Church to coach our defense, and I don't think he was on that side of the floor more than two times in three years of practice." The Wolverine: You kept almost the entire roster intact. What was your mes- sage to the players and recruits to get them to stay? Boynton: "If I had to boil it down to two or three things, No. 1 was, 'we are at the top of this thing.' It's very rare you can come into a situation where the expectations are what they are. Let's embrace that. We are expected to be a top 10-ish team, maybe higher. … It's cool to be at a place where people expect you to be successful, and a privilege to be at a place where the thought is you're going to be one of the teams at the end of the year with a chance to win it all. Let's do this thing together. "Another thing was they committed to doing this because they wanted to be on the team they were actually on already. We looked around that circle that Tuesday morning when we were together the first time as a group. The message was, 'hey — this is the same MIKE BOYNTON RECORD AS OKLAHOMA STATE HEAD COACH Season Overall Conference Standing Postseason 2017-18 21-15 8-10 T-6th NIT Quarterfinalist 2018-19 12-20 5-13 9th 2019-20 18-14 7-11 T-7th 2020-21 21-9 11-7 5th NCAA Round of 32 2021-22 15-15 8-10 5th 2022-23 20-16 8-10 7th NIT Quarterfinalist 2023-24 12-20 4-14 T-13th Totals 119-99 51-75 Senior guard Elliott Cadeau was among Michigan's leaders in 2025-26, delivering 10.5 points with 234 assists and 34 steals in the national championship season. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL