[Mike Boynton]: “Again, you just never know when seeds are planted for a later time of harvest. In 2014, Dusty was an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech. And my story about Austin, Texas not being anywhere close to Stephen F. Austin actually lends to this because Stephen F. Austin is so much closer to Louisiana than it is to Austin, Texas it’s a joke almost. And so, there were a couple of recruits that because our programs were both in the top of our conferences at the time, we recruited a similar caliber player… a lot of JUCOs in that area. And so, there were a couple of times where we shared official visits. So, a kid would visit Stephen F. Austin on a Thursday to Saturday, and he’d go to Louisiana Tech (where May was an assistant_ Saturday evening to Monday. But there was no other way to get from one place to the other than a drive. And so, there were a couple of times that we actually exchanged a recruit back 10 years ago. And he thought, just like I did, that when Mike White left Louisiana Tech, he would become the head coach there. Didn’t work out. And so, we had a shared experience in that regard, because one of the things he thought when he was interviewing for the job was that he would try to hire me from (Brad Underwood’s) staff. Didn’t work out, but that was our first real connection. And we’ve stayed in touch.”

“In fact, one of the guys who worked for him in his first year at FAU was one of my best friends named Eric Pastrana. He’s an assistant right now at Georgia with Mike White. So, I hired Eric because we worked together at Stephen F. Austin. I hired Eric to Oklahoma State from Dusty’s staff. And then he left me to go back with Mike White at Florida because he’s from Florida. And so there’s been these little small connections, but we’ve never worked together. We’ve just always had great respect for each other. So, when I got let go (at Oklahoma State) there were a lot of things that went through my mind. Whether I just take some time off. I was going to be fortunate to be in a position to not have to rush into doing something I didn’t necessarily want to do. But I’m not wired to not work. I really enjoy being around people and working with kids. There were some other schools, and I won’t name them, that offered me an opportunity. And none of them grabbed my focus and said, man, this is something you really got to give some thought to. And I remember I was out for a walk with my wife, and I got a text from Coach May. He said, ‘hey, are you available this evening for a talk?’ And I showed my wife, she said, ‘who’s that?’ I said the head coach of Michigan. She got excited. My wife is from Holland, Michigan and that was a part of it.”

“But it still had to make sense. So, when I talked to Coach he talked to me about what he was looking for, and what he thought he could try to build here. It became pretty easy, honestly. Who he is, what he’s about, the success that he’s looking to build at this program, the brand of Michigan, the Block M… all those things were things that I was hoping I would have at my next opportunity. Didn’t know where, whether it be as a head coach or assistant. And our philosophies, just in terms of building a team, and how we wanted to coach, really aligned. One of the things that I learned in my time as a head coach is that alignment with your staff is maybe the most important thing that you can have to put yourself in a position to be successful. And I felt that. And I knew the other guys that he was talking to about bringing in on the staff, and their commitment to just the process, and not getting distracted if things aren’t going your way in a particular moment. So, it was pretty easy. Once I knew he was serious, and I wanted to be at a place where I could add value, where I could use my experience as a head coach to be a better assistant for the next head coach if that was the position, but also at a place where you could win it all. And I believe all those things are true here.”