‘A big dancing bear:’ Florida Football’s Michai Boireau Overcomes Adversity
With the roar of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium behind him, Florida defensive lineman Michai Boireau celebrated his first career sack with his teammates in the opposing end zone. In what he calls a “blackout moment,” Boireau found out later that he ran about 20 yards down the field after the big defensive play.
To that point, it seemed the former three-star recruit from Hampton, Ga., had reached the peak of his Gators’ tenure. But to experience the highlights, the 6-foot-5, 349-pound sophomore had to overcome some major low-lights in his life. These problems put Boireau right in the crosshairs of seeing his football career end before it even started.
Growing up 40 minutes outside of Atlanta, Boireau always knew football was for him. Boireau looked up to his father, Michael, who was a two-year letterman at the University of Miami from 1998 to 1999 and played in the NFL from 2000 to 2003.
One thing about Boireau, his size was unmatched compared to his counterparts. By the time he hit middle school, Boireau was already more than six feet tall and pushing 300 pounds. Creekside High School’s Maurice Dixon and his staff were in awe of Boireau and immediately identified him as a potential prospect.
“He was in seventh grade, and I want to say he was like 6-foot-3, 260 (pounds) at that point,” Dixon said. “And my defensive coordinator, he was playing on his red team, and I was like, man, who’s this kid?”
In 2020, Boireau joined Creekside for summer workouts heading into his freshman year. While he would end up playing at nearby high school, Love Joy High, Dixon knew that he would be back. Just like he called it, Boireau returned to Creekside full-time in his sophomore year. However, Boireau gained almost 130 pounds over that one-year span, which he knew was not going to be sustainable and he had to lose weight. Fortunately, Dixon and his staff put a plan in place to help cut around 40-50 pounds.
“He made the decision to come back to Creekside; he kind of knew that the work that we put in, that he would lose weight for him to be the best,” Dixon said. “Our goal as coaches is to make them the best possible player they could be, and for him to be the best player he could be. He couldn’t play at 390. He had to play like 350 or 345.”
Eventually, Boireau got his weight in check and started to feast on the field. In his junior and senior years, Boireau combined for 87 total tackles, 23 solo, 12 tackles-for-loss and five sacks. Boireau also spent time on the other side of the ball, playing offensive guard, which Dixon said gives him an advantage in playing defensive line because he is able to pick up tendencies that the offensive line is giving.
Dixon called him “a big dancing bear” when Boireau was on the field, referring to the sheer size and athleticism Boireau was working with. The big dancing bear had drawn eyes from notable Power 4 schools, including Texas A&M, Michigan, Georgia and Florida. But this was a two-team race between border rivals UGA and UF, both doing their best to recruit Boireau.
Dixon believed that his talented lineman was destined to play for the Bulldogs, but Georgia had a concern that allowed Florida a chance to climb its way back in the recruitment race and win him over.
“I really want to say he really wanted to go to Georgia, yeah, but it became one of those things where, you know, we teach them to love who loves you,” Dixon said. “Georgia and Trey (Scott) were doing a good job of recruiting them, but they were just concerned about his weight. Could he get it down? And by that time Florida came in, by the time he got it down, he just felt more comfortable with Florida, so he chose to go.”
On June 19, 2023, Boireau committed to the Gators, but Georgia kept on pursuing him. Boireau would go on to de-commit from Florida on Sept. 11, 2023, and take one more trip to Athens, Ga., five days later, before making his full commitment that December. When the moment came on Dec. 2, Boireau re-committed to Florida and made it official on signing day later that month.
“I just think he fell in love with the campus when he went down there on the visit, and it was so much love for him. And I guess he saw the opportunity to go and feel it a little bit earlier,” Dixon said. “It wasn’t, we love you, but you have to lose weight. It was just, we love you. We want you to be a part of our team that kind of sold them.”
Boireau enrolled at UF in January and like that, his Gators career was off. At the conclusion of the semester and spring practice, Boireau went back home, not knowing that one of the darkest days of his life was about to happen.
On May 18, 2024, Boireau was arrested in Monroe County, Ga., on five counts — including a felony charge of evading a police officer, misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, driving with a suspended or revoked license, obstruction of law enforcement officers and speeding in excess of maximum limits.
According to the sheriff’s report, Boireau was driving a 2018 BMW on I-75 when he crashed into another vehicle while attempting to flee from Monroe County deputies on Saturday, May 18. The report stated that Boireau was clocked at 150 mph before being taken into custody. During a subsequent inspection, Cpl. Larry Sullivan discovered an undisclosed amount of marijuana inside Boireau’s vehicle, according to the report. Boireau spent three nights in county jail before being released on $60,000 bond.
“I was scared,” Boireau told WRUF’s Kevin Winter on the Gator Sports Network from Learfield. But more than anything, Boireau worried about his family and his football career, which seemed to be in jeopardy.
“I was just thinking of my mom, I was thinking about my career,” Boireau said. “I was thinking about, like, the future, honestly.”
For Gators coach Billy Napier, he could have easily told Boireau to pack his things and exit stage left. It would make sense, right? A freshman who has never played a down for UF makes a mistake like that, it seems like more than enough of a reason. Instead, Napier did not give up on Boireau, kept him around and that is something he is forever grateful about.
“I mean, Billy, coach Napier is a guy that won’t give up on you, even if you make a mistake once you make a mistake twice, he’s going to give you a chance to redeem yourself,” Boireau said. “I feel like, in a head coach, you need that.”
After he arrived back on campus, Boireau made the decision to get his life back on track. Still weighing anywhere between 380-390 pounds, Boireau changed his diet and workout habits in order to cut the extra fat mass he was carrying around. With how much the Creekside staff worked Boireau, making the transition to the UF conditioning program was not a difficult one.
“It wasn’t necessarily an adjustment because in high school I also had a very hard coach, so all the yelling and all that, I’m not new to it. (Gerald) Chatman is definitely a very technical guy, he’s very intentional after craft and all that,” Boireau said. “I just feel like he pushed us to be the best we wanted to be and he just loved seeing us get better, he didn’t want nothing from us. He just wanted to see us get better.”
After fellow defensive lineman Jamari Lyons went down for the year in preseason camp, Boireau was thrust into the lineup. In his freshman season, Boireau played 144 snaps across 12 games and had 15 total tackles.
Boireau came into his second season the leanest he has been. He lost 50 pounds of fat since first arriving back in 2024 and weighs around 348 pounds.
The progress made has impressed Napier, who sees a guy who continues to work his tail off and step up on the Gators’ defensive line. Napier said Boireau has all the right skill sets to really be a difference maker for Florida up front, especially with the injuries stacking up again at that position.
“Michai’s a very smart young man and he has good football acumen, he’s a good communicator, he makes players around him better, and I think he comes from a winning program and he knows what it should look like,” Napier said. “So he’s got some leadership traits and he’s got a little edge to him that I like, but he plays with a motor on game day, and to be that big, to see him pursue, to see the extra effort plays on tape and the energy, I think it’s why he’s a difference maker for us.”
Boireau has played in three games, has seven tackles — four coming against USF — one tackle-for-loss and sack.
He and his counterparts are looking to replicate last week’s performance against Texas — six sacks, seven tackles-for-loss, eight quarterback hurries and two interceptions — in tonight’s game at No. 5 Texas A&M (5-0, 2-0SEC)To do that, Boireau believes that it is all about executing their game and not letting the outside factors disrupt them.
“We just got to have the same savviness we had on Saturday,” Boireau said. “I mean, defense went out there and executed, offense went out there and executed. And we just need to have that same energy. And I say savviness is as we had last week.”
With how well the Aggies run the football, Florida has stressed all week the importance of gap integrity and making sure they have all the rush lanes covered. One thing that will be different from a week ago is the locations. Unlike the Texas game, where the home crowd was playing with them, Boireau and this teammates are on the road heading to one of college football’s biggest venues. Kyle Field can hold anywhere between 102-110 thousand fans and only gets louder at night.
To quiet the crowd, Florida (2-3, 1-1) needs to slow the run game down, get stops and make things frustrating for A&M’s offense. It is a tall task to slow down an offense that is averaging almost 35 points per game, but Boireau believes this team has what it takes to do so.
“We just honestly have to control the crowd,” Boireau said. “I mean we get the stops, we get the third-down stop to get them to fourth down and have them punt the ball, the crowd can’t get excited for anything.”
Boireau has faced plenty of ups and downs in his career but has turned those struggles into an impressive comeback. Dixon believes Boireau’s ability to handle that adversity will help his former player in the long run, and if he can stay on the field and make an impact, the skies the limit for the “big dancing bear” to make the next step and play in the NFL.
“I could tell in seventh grade he was an NFL player, man, so it’s about him just developing. And you know, for him, where do you want to go and where do you want to be? Do you want to be a day one or day two or day three pick? And that’s just all about the work that you put in, and one thing about Michai, he’s smart enough to understand the bigger picture,” Dixon said. “I think he understands how he played on Saturday. If he continues to do that and gets better, his stock will rise, he’ll be a very, very good football player on Sundays.”
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on ESPN and 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Gators Football, SEC
