Josaiah Stewart tripped up Jalen Milroe to win the Rose Bowl: The Michigan EDGE reflects on his biggest moment

Josaiah Stewart didn’t know he had made one of the biggest plays of the Michigan football season.

It wasn’t until the bus ride back to the team hotel following the Rose Bowl that Josaiah Stewart realized he had made one of the biggest plays of the Michigan football season.

That last second of Michigan vs. Alabama, which you have undoubtedly seen a dozen times over: Jalen Milroe fielded a poor snap on fourth-and-goal from the three-yard line and ran directly into the crowd at the line of scrimmage. The Wolverines were headed to the national championship game when he was stuffed, not even near to the end zone.

So why was Milroe put on hold? Even Kenneth Grant, in an interview with TMI shortly after the final whistle, wasn’t sure who had made the play. He hadn’t tackled Milroe, but he was in there someplace. Even though he wasn’t on the field, he surmised that it might have been Kris Jenkins. Perhaps Grant didn’t have a chance to watch Joshua Stewart until the bus ride back home. Stewart, who many believed would be too short to succeed in the Big Ten, surprised everyone by pushing the Alabama right tackle so far off the line of scrimmage that he tripped Milroe and sent the quarterback hurtling toward the Rose Bowl turf.

“With that back flaring out, you know he’s going to run that ball right up the middle at that point,”

Stewart stated to TMI. That QB draw was sort of their primary selling point. He immediately ran up the middle. Just running through him and closing that distance will help you avoid the tackle, in my opinion.

“Until I saw him being tripped up on the bus, I had no idea who had made the tackle. That’s me, Derrick Moore, playing the two D-tackles in a powerful, physical manner. It was overstuffed.

JC Latham, a former five-star recruit who is generally predicted to be selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, was the right tackle in question. After spending two seasons at Coastal Carolina, Stewart, a composite three-star, went to Michigan.

Stewart was the kind of player who thrived in the Sun Belt, but his size (6-foot-1, 245 pounds) made many wonder if he would be able to play in the Big Ten and other conferences. He silenced the doubters against Alabama, just as he did for the majority of Michigan’s perfect season.

Really, all I was trying to do was show myself that I was capable. And I’ve always known that I can; all I needed to do was put my mind to it. That’s what matters, Stewart replied; I did that, and we won.

“..Refuse to give up. A defensive player should have this mentality: You should only beat the guy in front of you. That was my frame of mind when I entered that play.

Stewart appeared in all 15 games for the Wolverines in 2023, totaling 38 tackles — including 8.5 TFL and 5.5 sacks. He was also credited with 25 quarterback pressures, per Pro Football Focus, and two pass breakups.

Mike Sainristil — his former teammate at Everett (Mass.) High School — helped recruit Stewart out of the Transfer Portal to Ann Arbor.

“I was just letting him know that Josaiah, if you come here, you have the opportunity to change your life,” Sainristil recalled telling Stewart. “If you had 12 sacks in the Sun Belt, think about having seven plus in the Big Ten against the competition we play. Your ceiling is really high. Your future is right here your hands. Come here, come win a championship, come be a part of a legacy.”

After the Rose Bowl, Stewart remembered the messages he had heard from Sainristil and Michigan: “He told me

that I may potentially participate in a national championship. Furthermore, what knowledge do you possess? We’ve arrived here. I believed what he said. He made a strong case to me.

Despite Sainristil’s departure for the NFL, Stewart will rejoin the Wolverines for a more season. He went on to say that he hopes to build on a fantastic season and that he enjoys U-M’s winning culture “and how serious they are about it.”

“I’m at a loss for words,” he murmured.”I recall watching Alabama play Georgia during my freshman year of high school football. Alabama wins on that last drive to DeVonta Smith.” It’s an incredible experience, and I’m in it right now. I seized every moment I could.