Always full speed, how Josaiah Stewart developed himself from unnatural high schooler to starting edge rusher

Josaiah Stewart wasn’t exactly a natural at playing football.

During his freshman year at Everett High School in Massachusetts, Stewart didn’t seem to have the makings of a future key edge rusher for the 2023 National Champions, let alone a player who could meaningfully impact a game. Rather, he looked more like someone who had never touched a football. Even Stewart’s own freshman coaches didn’t see much of a future for him. 

One varsity coach, however, saw it.

“I was coaching varsity, so I would go down to watch the freshman kids,” John Capra, Everett varsity defensive line coach, told The Michigan Daily. “I looked at (Stewart) and he was having trouble getting into his stance. He didn’t play much, but he was very tough. And I went over to the coaches, I said, ‘Who is he?’ ”

“They told me, ‘This is Josaiah. … Just don’t waste your time. He doesn’t know what he’s doing.’ ”

But Capra didn’t see it that way. He saw a raw player, but a tough one, and one that he could coach. So he took Stewart under his wing, bringing him through the varsity team’s drills. 

For every ounce of effort that Capra put into developing him, Stewart gave that effort right back. He took to the drills like a fish to water, rapidly improving past Capra’s initial expectations for him. He put in extra time in the weight room unasked, wanting to improve himself more and more under Capra’s guidance. 

By the time that Capra was done pushing Stewart — or, more accurately, as Stewart continued to push himself toward his desired level — people were asking about him again. 

“He got better and better every year, and he became so quick off the ball that (opponents) were just having so much trouble with him,” Capra said. “Every coach that I talked to after (games) said, ‘Who is that kid?’ ” 

Capra gave a very different answer than the one he received the first time he asked about Stewart. At that point, there was no underestimating Stewart, no chance of looking at him as a project not worth completing. With a relentless work ethic, he had forced himself into opposing backfields and onto the radar of FBS schools. Even as others started taking notice, he kept working.

As Capra finished up his defensive line drills one practice, he noticed Stewart taking the initiative to develop himself. Capra also coached the running backs at the time, so he was busy transitioning his players away from defense and onto the offensive portion of practice.

Stewart stayed behind, though. He was still grinding, loudly hitting the sled long after Capra and the rest of the team had moved on. 

“Because I heard the noise, I go, ‘What the heck is going on?’ ” Capra said. “It was him. He comes up to me after, and he said, ‘Coach, what can you do to get me better?’ ” 

Stewart was already toiling away, but he still wanted to work more. So when he asked Capra — who had watched Stewart rapidly pick up pass rush skills and get stronger in the weight room — for help, Capra looked for a new way to challenge Stewart. Based on a book he had read about what Hall of Famer Walter Payton did to gain stamina, Capra suggested that Stewart run hills. 

What would usually be a punishment for an underperforming player or position group turned into a reward for Stewart. Each day, he would go with Capra, and the two of them would run hills together.

At first, it was just Stewart and Capra doing it together. Then, the other defensive linemen began to join. By the third day, according to Capra, the entire team ran hills together. Stewart never even said anything to his teammates, never told them to come join him — they just saw him working, and they fell in line. 

“I knew Coach Capra would lead me in the right way, and I just follow suit, listen,” Stewart said Tuesday. “I didn’t know any better, so I’m listening to everybody, taking every coaching point I can. So I’m running the hills, and the defensive ends … are joining the crew, everybody’s joining and getting better. Just that mindset of improving, even on a small team.”

By the time he was a senior, Stewart was that big fish on a small team. The football season was pushed back to the spring semester due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Stewart already was committed to Coastal Carolina. After signing with the Chanticleers in December, he could have coasted through that spring season, guaranteeing he was healthy and well rested for his freshman year. 

He could have, but that’s not how Stewart operates.

“He only knows one speed or the other,” Michigan defensive line coach Lou Esposito said Wednesday. “It’s either off or on. There’s nothing in the middle, whether we have pads on, whether we’re in helmets, whether it’s walkthrough. … He plays with a chip on his shoulder all the time.”

Four years before he met Esposito, that chip pushed Stewart through his unusual 2020 season. It pushed him to continue working on his strength and conditioning after practice each day that whole year, setting the example for his teammates to do the same. It pushed him to a key play against rival Revere High School that season, effortlessly bursting through a double team before making an extremely athletic sack. 

“It was like an ‘aha’ moment for everyone who was there,” then-Everett coach Rob DiLoreto told The Daily. “It was like he had come of age. … I’ll always remember that particular sack.”

Once he had “come of age,” Stewart didn’t change anything. It didn’t matter if he was a freshman “waste of time” or the single-season sack record holder at Coastal Carolina. Any time Stewart is on, he works. For the past eight years, he’s pretty much always been on. 

Now heading into his senior season, Stewart knows what he’s doing. He was talented enough to play meaningful snaps at edge rusher for the Wolverines when their defensive line room included multiple current NFL players at the position, and capable enough to contribute to a game-sealing tackle in overtime in the Rose Bowl. With Braiden McGregor and Jaylen Harrell in the pros, Stewart’s set to start on what’s likely to be one of the best defensive lines in the country.

So while Stewart is a far cry from the high school freshman who couldn’t get into his stance, he still pushes himself just as hard as his younger self did. Fellow senior edge rusher TJ Guy called him one of the most talented players Michigan has, and simultaneously one of the players that practices the hardest.

“Just don’t be denied,” Stewart said of the mindset that pushed him to this point. “No matter where you start from, you can always improve. (Freshman year in high school), first snap playing football, I don’t know how to tackle, I don’t know what a blocking scheme is, I don’t know what a flag is. … I just wanted to learn and improve and be good at something.”

If being good at something was Stewart’s goal, he’s achieved that and more. Because when he takes the field Saturday, Stewart won’t be that unnatural kid who didn’t know how to tackle. After pushing himself through years of extra lifts, drills and hills, he’s the imposing pass rusher who’s drilling through the offensive line.

The post Always full speed, how Josaiah Stewart developed himself from unnatural high schooler to starting edge rusher appeared first on The Michigan Daily.


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