Exit Aaron Alexander

Not true, just not A2x2.  We still have Andrel Anthony and very excited for his future!!!

Everyone getting an extra year of eligibility kinda adds to that crunch as well I would assume. Obviously not everyone’s extra year will be utilized, but anyone who does impacts scholarship counts. Unless the NCAA finally amended a rule where the CoVidshirt year doesn’t count against scholarship totals.

As it stands, we flipped a couple guys we didn’t think we’d get and are pursuing a couple guys in the portal we didn’t know would be there. The CoVidshirt is an added factor to a situation where numbers would already be getting tight. 

Hopefully, David Ojabo told him he is coming back, putting JH in a numbers bind.  It's at least possible!

It’s not that weird if you keep processing all of their players. Talent is cyclical. At some point they will have someone you really want and we won’t get the time of day from that school. 

Wait, is Alexander the son of God? Because having him on the team could offer an FBS football team some unique advantages!!! 

Always down for negs but I believe he was processed or not given a committable offer when it was time to cash in the chips. It sucks and no one ever likes to admit it but the writing is kind of on the wall. Lower-rated recruit who jumped at the chance to join the team and as a result of yesterday’s flips, ultimately wasn’t a take.
 

Similar to Swenson a few years ago but in that case I felt like the staff just didn’t like the fit for him and should’ve cut ties earlier. Whereas I think Alexander would’ve made it if not for the last second rush and numbers crunch. We don’t know what conversations were had and hopefully some transparency was established. Best of luck to the young man! The most positive outlook here is that with the early signing period, some team (possibly a P5 one at that) should be willing to pick him up. 

You are absolutely right and Michigan holds the keys to their destiny at this point. Having a bad relationship with a strong H.S. football team in your own back yard, where you would usually have better than a 50/50 chance at their players is not a good look. These players play with a chip on their shoulder and come back to bite you in the ass when they play you. I hope they repair the rift and good luck to the kid.

Still don't love the idea of the staff accepting the commitment of a kid they aren't going to guarantee a spot for

Me neither.  But we have been on the other side of this too.  This cycle in fact.

"Committing" does not mean anything anymore, to anybody. 

At least everyone is used to that by now.  I hope.

This. The early signing period is the early signing period. It's not like they processed a guy on the eve of NSD. They gave him 3 months to find another spot, which seems reasonable to me.

Now if they'd told a commit in February that they re-evaluated and he's no longer welcome, that's a different story.

As usual we won’t get the full story on this either way. I do feel like in the past the understanding was that post-Swenson, Harbaugh staffs have been careful to give kids on the fence a clear expectation of where things might go when it’s not a sure thing. Hope that hasn’t changed but sounds like either way we pissed off Belleville again here…sigh

Yeah, my issue was them offering so early if he wasn't a take.  Alexander was always a fringe candidate and UM was always likely to be able to get him late if the scholarship number shook out differently and they had a spot.  It made no sense to me to offer him in June and then say "but remember, we might not take you if we don't have enough spots" because there's only downside in that situation.  Not that I particularly care about Belleville as a talent pipeline but this is still shitty for Alexander and the staff should know better.  This won't be a huge story because it happens a bunch but Harbaugh deserves blame for letting it happen.

Or they could have just saved themselves  giant headache and not given the kid an offer at all until they figured out whether there was room.  

Let’s think about this too…

When was the last time he visited Michigan or went to a game despite his proximity?  

Do we really think that Crowell wouldn’t be screaming from the rooftops and singling out Michigan by name if his tweet was about them?  Rowser didn’t sign yesterday either, along with almost anyone else from Belleville.  

Something feels off here. 

Does anybody know what AA was told about his offer being contingent? Or do we always going to speculate on what we think went down and then turn that speculation into fact because of boredom?

Nobody here thinks JH should have pulled an offer with no indications, I would assume. So why do we speculate that it was the case because the HS coach sends out a cryptic rant?

Ever think, if it was UM, he names Harbaugh and then it allow JH to respond with a clear explanation of how it went down w/o naming the student?

Sounds like you’re thinking of Tay’Shawn Trent

They’d have to offer him, which they didn’t. The thing is—no P5 went after this kid despite his UM offer. If he gets an offer there, then maybe he should thank UM for putting him in the spotlight.  

Everybody is in an uproar over this whole "pipeline" thing but a player can chose wherever the hell he wants to go and has an offer to. Sure having a coach in your corner sing your praises helps and relationships go far but at the end of the day, it's not going to stop UM from recruiting a player in Michigan or across the country. When you combine the academic and athletic opportunities that UM provides and then have a HS coach or program say "Don't go to that college... They once didn't take a 3* prep kid of mine years ago", than the pipeline isn't really needed anymore. 

We did nothing of the sort.  Quit speculating with a negative slant.  

Don't know anything about anything with this situation, but if he's also tagging Wayne State and Grand Valley, I'm not sure how he could be upset at Michigan for not taking him.