Exit James Hudson
Well, this makes no sense:
247Sports was able to confirm on Monday evening that second-year offensive lineman James Hudson asked for and was granted his release from the program. Michigan spokesman Dave Ablauf confirmed the report, stemming from a Facebook post written by Hudson's mother on Monday evening.
Hudson is not apparently in any trouble and had been heavily hyped as a major talent at tackle. Until about two seconds ago he was regarded as the favorite to replace Juwann Bushell-Beatty next year. So this is a bizarre one.
Andrew Stueber and Jalen Mayfield now step into the on-deck circle at tackle. This probably won't be a problem—hail Warinner—but losing a talented redshirt freshman at a spot where you want to have all the lottery tickets you can gather is a blow.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:14 PM ^
Terrible news. If you have listened/watched all of Ed Warinner's interviews, the one thing I can come up with is that whenever Warinner was asked the "why aren't Hudson/Mayfield getting more snaps" question, the answer was always something to the effect of "more attentiveness/focus/effort in practice." Maybe he was in Warinner's doghouse or something.
October 22nd, 2018 at 9:48 PM ^
If he was in Warinner's doghouse, I'm ok with another scholarship to spend on someone who will put in the effort.
October 22nd, 2018 at 9:56 PM ^
Eventually we will know why Hudson is leaving, but until then let’s engage in mindless conjectures
October 22nd, 2018 at 10:27 PM ^
I hear you get double MGoPoints if you question the guys character in the process.
October 22nd, 2018 at 10:49 PM ^
All things considered it seems to be reasonable speculation. Stueber steps in for JBB on the injury vs a guy who has been touted as the next guy.
Mayfield is going to play in the NFL. If Stueber passes you....I think you can speculate.
October 22nd, 2018 at 11:58 PM ^
Mighty confidant prediction for a guy with 4 years of NCAA eligibility remaining....
October 23rd, 2018 at 5:34 AM ^
Totally agree. I mean, just look at JBB. Took the dude 3.5-ish years to get to where he is now, which is a face-mashing RT. OL take time.
October 23rd, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^
Not to mention, there’s always the possibility to move inside or back to DT. Seems early in his career to just give up on the possibility of playing. Especially for a guy just scratching the surface of his potential at a new position.
October 23rd, 2018 at 10:17 AM ^
Poor reading comprehension on my part. I am not speculating he is in anyone’s dog house. Just that he may be unhappy for being passed over.
Certainly a bummer to see him go.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:36 PM ^
So...rampant unsupported speculation with a dollop out character questioning it is!
October 23rd, 2018 at 12:26 PM ^
If anything, the guy with a bunch of upvotes is the one you guys should have negged. He is the one that speculated about Hudson being in the doghouse. The guy getting negged simply replied to that line of thought.
I'm definitely not insinuating he was on Warriner's bad side, but if he was, I too am okay with parting ways.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:24 AM ^
This makes NO sense to those of us on the outside, I'm VERY disappointed the staff couldn't make it work with Hudson.
I'm not on Facebook, so have no idea what his mother posted. So I'll say hope everything is OK at home, and if it was a family issue that led to his withdrawal I hope they work it out.
Normally I don't favor restrictions on transfers, but with this type of player who was the very next in line for snaps, I just feel it's fair to not agree to an in-conference transfer.
If it even comes up...
October 23rd, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^
Look, maybe he just wasn't happy in Ann Arbor for whatever reason. Leave it at that.
October 23rd, 2018 at 4:20 PM ^
Right, don't impugn or cast aspersions like that dude J said yesterday, lolz....maybe he just didnt like it here.
October 23rd, 2018 at 11:05 PM ^
"Maybe"....... a LOT of things.
But I'd block his transfer to a B1G East team just the same!
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
Edit: Double welp
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:26 PM ^
Yeah shouldn't be an issue long term, but not fun to lose a guy who was touted as a future starter.
Stueber and Mayfield became favorites for a starting role next year. Honigford is there as a 3rd year who was projected as a tackle. And if we really want to stretch it, Filiaga is still here. Not an ideal RT, but neither is Runyan as a LT.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:30 PM ^
"Ideal LT" is a societal construct. Runyan has been one of the best players on the team the last two weeks. That's all that matters.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:34 PM ^
That's kind of my point. Runyan physically is not a prototypical LT, but he's been playing great. If he can play LT so well, you'd think we can get a guy like Filiaga to be a good RT if necessary.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:36 PM ^
Oh I see, gotcha.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:15 PM ^
"Societal Construct" - Wow! Would never see that on rcmb or an 11w, and who are we kidding, neither in a PhD from anyone from staee or THEEEEEEEE ohio.
The Michigan Difference!
October 23rd, 2018 at 12:03 PM ^
Hey! Don't knock this guy's thesis. There are a lot of academics out there that are starting to challenge the traditionally accepted hypothesis that "ideal LT" body is a "natural construct" that was one of the revelations revealed to Adam and Eve when they ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. Cutting edge stuff.
October 22nd, 2018 at 10:09 PM ^
MantisTobaggan, I enjoy your input on a regular basis. You are a sage of the gridiron.
You have terrible taste in movies, but we can keep our movie discussions to 21st century material to fix that.
October 22nd, 2018 at 10:32 PM ^
Keep in mind he's a millenial
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:28 PM ^
Very strange...
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:28 PM ^
Will be interested to hear some clarification on his reasons for the move.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:31 PM ^
Didn't start this year, didn't go in for JBB, didn't think he was 100% getting JBB's spot next year. So, got out instead of risking getting passed. Next man up.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:33 PM ^
He's been here 1.5 years, why is he even trying to get out? Especially in the middle of a 7-1 season where he might actually be needed due to injury.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:35 PM ^
I don't know, but if I think if he thought he was RT #2 right now and all but guaranteed to be RT #1 next year he wouldn't be leaving. I think he thinks he's been passed by another guy in his class and there's an even younger guy (Mayfield) across from him. He's probably (wrongly) thinking time is against him now.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:41 PM ^
Time to do...what?
I can understand, based on this scenario, him leaving at the end of the year.
But he doesn't get to join some other program in November and start getting reps; he'll just sit around (and leave school, I assume?).
JBB seemed to literally be inches away from a game-ending injury. Chances are there will be some other injury in the next 5 or 6 games (hopefully not, but things happen).
Getting passed on the depth chart, so I'll leave 2/3 of the way through the season, does not make any sense.
October 22nd, 2018 at 7:58 PM ^
If you are unhappy as a ballplayer, be it with PT, or relationship with your coaches, or injured, or literally whatever, it can become really easy to hate going to the building every day. And then it starts to make perfect sense to leave immediately and move on as quickly as possible.
No idea if that’s the case here, but your sound logic doesn’t account for personal, emotional, or psychological factors.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:05 PM ^
"be it with PT, or relationship with your coaches, or injured, or literally whatever,"
There are a whole lot of reasons there, so obviously you react differently to different catalysts. My assumption (like others) is that it is PT based, as that is most logical based on the info we have (e.g., Steuber going in, unexpectedly to the fan base, on Saturday).
If he hates the coaches with the fire of 1000 suns b/c of some interpersonal issue and he doesn't see the point in working on that relationship b/c he's leaving in 5 to 6 games anyway, OK.
But if it's just PT, he's throwing away time.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:09 PM ^
Maybe Ed Warinner has really, really bad breath.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:20 PM ^
You’re assuming that PT and coaching issues can be separated. They often can’t.
If you think you are better than the guy ahead of you and you are not playing, you tend to blame the coach, since he’s the one making personnel decisions. You consider him either stupid (why can’t he see I’m better?) or as having a personal problem with you (why is he fucking me?).
Or, even if you’re pretty level-headed and don’t start to hate the coach, you can get really discouraged (I’m already playing better than him, how good will I have to play to get a snap?).
PT concerns tend to become coaching concerns very quickly if you think you’re being unfairly limited.
Again, I have no idea if this is the case. But this is as common on football teams as jock straps. Not everyone leaves, but a lot of people are dissatisfied on every team, even ones having good seasons.
October 23rd, 2018 at 7:26 AM ^
Agree with this 100%. And Frankly, it's all areas of life if you have a problem at work it starts to become real easy to think about switching jobs. I left the military mostly due to a perception that I wasn't going to get a requested assignment because the squadron commander didn't like me(which was admittedly helped by him basically telling me that in cover my ass-ese).
I saw the same thing happen in high school football of all places when a guy who started for three years got passed up and was convinced it was the coaches fault when it was pretty obvious to everyone else on the O-Line that the other guy was just better. I got constant pressure on my job, but I realized it was because the guy backing me up outweighed me by 60 pounds and the coaches wanted to get his power on the line, still if I had been passed up after playing for the previous three years I would have been pissed as well.
I still think the timing is unfortunate and wish he would have waited until the end of the season at least and given himself some time to think about it, but if he was miserable then I can see why he just wanted out.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:05 PM ^
You played: did guys typically leave in this manner? We have four guys (JaRaymond Hall, DIB, Drew Singleton and James Hudson) leaving before they'd ever really be expected to normally contribute.
It just seems odd.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:28 PM ^
It wasn’t common, but neither was it unprecedented. Then again, everything was different when I played. The world is very weird right now.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:12 PM ^
And coupled with the fact that your average 19 year old tends to overreact to percieved slights that later in life you'd just shrug your shoulders and move on from its not all that surprising really.
Logical thinking is not the hallmark of most young men.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:15 PM ^
Agreed. Again, that is where you would hope the adults (e.g., parents) would be helping.
Assuming this is a PT situation, is that happening here?
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:25 PM ^
The old man is right. As you said in another post, it doesn’t really make sense. But, young kids with big egos and a lot of testosterone who are always thinking about a future as a millionaire athlete don’t always make perfect sense.
As for the adults — who knows? Those young kids with the egos and the rest are also the less likely to listen to the adults in these types of situations.
Speculation will get us nowhere. We have no idea who is telling him what.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:39 PM ^
Based on mom's Facebook post, it sure doesn't seem like she was the adult talking him off the ledge with this decision.
October 22nd, 2018 at 9:27 PM ^
That’s one reasonable way of interpreting it. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to give her the benefit of the doubt, either. That’s just me.
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:16 PM ^
....or spartan head coaches!
October 22nd, 2018 at 8:19 PM ^
Is this an unintended consequence of reducing the obstacles to a transfer? Players leaving in the middle of the season because it's an easy thing to do?
October 22nd, 2018 at 10:05 PM ^
Don't discount the lack of want to study. Not getting playing time and having to go to class at a school like ours can be overwhelming.
October 23rd, 2018 at 1:28 AM ^
Well, I'd just ask 71:
How many of YOUR teammates felt the need to bail mid-season? You're trying very hard to excuse these kids leaving so suddenly as a natural result of disappointment, but really?
Isn't this just TOTALLY a social media era driven phenomena?
And if so, doesn't it seem like it's happening a LOT at Michigan? More even than the "new" norm at least?!
October 23rd, 2018 at 9:57 AM ^
I can recall one, and maybe another (can’t remember if it was mid-season or right after the season).
Whether it’s a ‘social media age’ thing is in the eye of the beholder. If you tend to see that as a cause elsewhere, you’ll probably see it here. I think that would overlook the importance of more banal procedural changes like the early signing date making transfers want to look around and lock up a spot on another team earlier. Or the relaxation of transfer restrictions in general, and the more professional-like and more mercenary approach kids now have to teams because of it. Or the insane pay of coaches, which leads to more pressure and shorter tenures and thus fewer “programs” and more “teams.”
But heuristics like “social media age” help people organize ideas quickly and are sometimes right. I tend to think of almost everything political through a lens of the materialist conception of history, so I know how powerful that kind of thing is.
Edit: Also, I’m not excusing anything. If he’d asked me, I would have encouraged him to stay and would have had a lot of good reasons for him to do so. But I also have the (bad) luck of having been in shoes very similar to his, and so I thought I could provide some insight into what players might tend to think.
October 22nd, 2018 at 10:46 PM ^
Maybe he wants to train with Bosa ...
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