Higdon, who sat out bowl to prep for draft, goes undrafted
This grated on me at the time, but I thought, “I guess he has to do what’s best for him.” But now to see him go undrafted, this bothers me even more. He is now an UDFA signee of the Texans.
As I see it, he had another chance at the bowl game to lead his team and improve his draft stock. Instead, he abandoned them. And for what?
I don’t know how anyone can be behind his decision any longer. I don’t find the “Well, if he got hurt than he might never have even been an UDFA signing” reason very persuasive.
While perhaps the bowl game might not have gone well anyway, I feel that part of the reason they lost was because the overall team effort was low due to poor morale. Morale and leadership is just the kind of thing a captain is supposed to provide. He could have provided that. NFL scouts would appreciate that. And a great performance on the field would certainly have helped his draft stock.
But when your captain jumps ship, a poor performance is to be expected. I wonder how many NFL teams thought worse of him for on personal level for being a captain who left his team, than they were impressed by any additional preparation he had for the Senior Bowl and NFL combine.
While I hope some players would learn a lesson from this, I think it will only get worse.
In other disappointing news, Zach Gentry, who had a poor bowl performance, but still left early, goes in the 5th round to the Steelers. Good for him I guess, but I wonder if he couldn’t have been a 1st or 2nd round pick in a year or two in this new offense. This one is more about players needing compensation in college, so they don’t have to jump earlier than necessary.
I rarely post here but read often, so I guess this just shows my frustration with these choices.
April 29th, 2019 at 11:28 AM ^
It doesn’t really change anything for me..I understand the choice, but dont feel any obligation to like or support it. College players at this level ie high end FBS are increasingly open in treating their collegiate career as a professional investment in their future at the next level.
I also feel that as a consequence I as a fan can be more open about the fact that I really dont feel any deeper affinity toward them beyond the fact that I want them to do well while wearing a Michigan uniform. Im not their friend or devotee, they dont owe me anything and I dont owe them anything.
But I think there’s a mutual interest in success there which puts us temporarily on the same side, but that ceases to be the case when their individual desires work against Michigan.
This isnt an emotional issue, this ought to be a negotiation between parties with conflicting interests. The program - all programs - needs to start looking at this from that angle.
April 29th, 2019 at 11:35 AM ^
The NFL has shown conclusively over the last decade that many of its franchise members are happily willing to draft players with serious allegations of violence, whether in domestic situations or out in public. Joe Mixon is just one of the more obvious examples of this.
But we're supposed to believe the notion that the entire league passed on Karan Higdon because they think he displayed poor character in sitting out a bowl game.
April 29th, 2019 at 11:53 AM ^
It's cool. I went to school with a lot of people who checked out their last semester and didn't get jobs.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:21 PM ^
Love people here ripping a kid from their living rooms despite the fact that he has quite a different living situation from the average fan. He has a kid and supports a whole family already. So perhaps his priorities at age 22 is a little different than yours, asshole.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:26 PM ^
Maybe he should have used a condom and not had a kid in high school. Have a kid later. It's an easy problem to solve.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:34 PM ^
Maybe you should stop judging people.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:35 PM ^
Maybe you should stop judging people.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:28 PM ^
Idk why, but this site is mental when it comes to the topic of players sitting out bowl games. Higdon served us well for like ~3 years, but then decides to sit out one game due to not wanting to risk injury since he was projected as a 4th or 5th round pick and since he has a child who needs to provide for and everyone freaks out. Guy needed to make the decision that was going to be best for his career. He's not a slave to our program who owes us anything. Stop being so selfish
April 29th, 2019 at 12:32 PM ^
Higdon has a young child to care for and provide for. Risking a career-ending injury in a meaningless bowl game makes no sense given his personal circumstances.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:35 PM ^
Seems strange to me that Higdon would get passed over like that.
The NFL has a lot of teams with horrible offensive lines that could use Higdon.h
Higdon finished 3rd in the league in rushing yards:
https://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/stats/individual/?selectedTable=1&league…
April 29th, 2019 at 12:39 PM ^
I for one was very upset he didn’t play. But looking back on it, reports are he a surgery and really wasn’t ready to go full bore or risk it not knowing. I was ok w Gary and Bush notvplaying after seeing what happened to Butt in the Bowl game. I sat in that stadium and felt so bad for the guy.
April 29th, 2019 at 12:59 PM ^
I'm not disagreeing with some people sitting bowl games, but I definitely don't agree with "the bowl games don't matter" sentiment. It seems like that sentiment is only applied when we lose the bowl game
The fans weren't even interested in that game until we lost lol
OR...based on the way the current "Playoff" system is setup, the bowl games don't matter. "But the regular season is a playoff" argument is stale too. Until we have a playoff similar to DII or any other NCAA sport that has a playoff I honestly could care less about the outcome of any of the bowl games. In the grand scheme, they don't mean anything.
"The Me"
"The Me"
"The Me"
roflmao
This whole "he did it to care for his kid" argument strikes me as disingenuous. He didn't quit school to go work at a factory, deferring his chances for a potentially better life because his baby needs food and clothes. He elected to pursue what appears to be his objectively unrealistic dream of playing in the NFL. In fact by doing this he is hurting his chances by getting a later start to what will be his chosen real career, whatever that is, and will be behind his peers who will start on that after graduating.
I'm all for pursuing one's dreams no matter how unrealistic they may seem, provided you are free to do so. I would argue that if his child is a key motivation, then he is making the wrong decision by grasping at the NFL "straw."
Not that it means anything but I just read a CBS Sports list of the "25 best prospects not drafted (plus others to consider), and he wasn't on it.
Even with all of the above, I'm pulling for him, but not because he's doing something noble, and not because I feel guilty that I have exploited him.
^^^ This post...
He went to one of the best public schools (if not THE BEST) in the nation, and received an education. Pretty sure with his connections at UM he'd land anywhere... and on his feet.
The "Kid" argument is null and void!
I refuse to get mad about someone who owes me nothing sitting out a game I didn't watch.
For anyone comparing Higdon's situation to those of Bosa, Fournette, McCaffrey, etc, stop it.
Those guys were guaranteed high picks who had generational talent and/or had done everything a player can do in college individually. Not at all the same with Higdon
The NFL will overlook a lot of stuff for elite talent. Randy Moss didn't even try to block anyone. See what happens to a backup who displays the same effort on plays where he's not targeted. Emmitt Smith was known to occasionally fall asleep in film sessions, and Jimmy Johnson didn't make an issue of it. When his backup fell asleep though, he was immediately cut. When was the last time you saw a backup WR on the sidelines throwing a hissy fit to his QB or OC about not getting the ball enough? Different rules for Elite players.
I'm not personally offended by the situation. I just think Higdon or any other non-elite pick chooses poorly when sitting out any games they're healthy enough to play. Perceived character makes a difference for marginal pick whose career will entail a lot of dirty work on special teams. And I guarantee there are some NFL decision makers his decision rubs the wrong way.
Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe this will serve as a cautionary tale for future Wolverines in this situation.
This bothers me, too, although I try in general not to criticize those who make this decision. They have many competing considerations, many of which are not known to us as fans. As fans, we also are unlikely to undervalue certain considerations that might have been incredibly important to him, such as his family situation.
That said, I think we can celebrate the choice of those who do choose to play, such as Chase Winovich. He was selfless, and that choice will forever be part of his legacy as a Wolverine. It also clearly didn't hurt him, and it's not a stretch to think that it might have helped his draft stock.
Also, this is a solvable problem through a combination of an NCAA rules change and insurance. There should be an insurance pool paid through the NCAA (so there are no collection issues with member universities) that assesses NFL potential and creates a payment formula for injuries that occur to NFL-worthy seniors during (say) conference championship games or bowl games. This would alleviate any financial concerns players might have during that time. To be eligible for the insurance proceeds, players would have to pledge to be fully available to their teams for all relevant games.
I'm going forward on all of this - I look forward to watching an NFL game and seeing a player introduced as "Karan Higdon - University of Michigan."
I really doubt he'll start in the NFL, but we're rooting for him.
Good lord can this place be insufferable.
Someone you don't personally know made a decision he felt was best for his life and in now way negatively affected you beyond a team you root for lost an exhibition game (in which other players also didn't play for the same reasons), and yet this is the, what, 4 fucking thread about it?
Oh yeah, and then the extra shitting on a guy who actually was drafted because he could have played another year and possibly gotten drafted higher, even though that seems to be based not any actual factual basis.
The one site bug I would love to return would be negging dumb posts like this.
I'm glad a 21 year olds disappointment made you happy.
I'm glad a 21 year olds disappointment made you happy.
I'm glad a 21 year olds disappointment made you happy.
I'm glad a 21 year olds disappointment made you happy.
Players make their own decisions based on what they feel is best. It isn't up to any of us to decide. Bowl games are stupid IMO.
Gentry got drafted in the 5th round mainly because of his combine performance. He has a chance to make it.
Higdon has a chance to make it because teams are always looking for RBs that can move the ball forward and can pass block. Plus that isn't a position of high value anymore so they don't necessarily get drafted the same.
He isn't guaranteed anything so he has to make it on his skill. One more game wouldn't have changed that.
People need to get over that fact that players sitting out bowl games is where we are now. It isn't just a "Michigan thing."
Apparently there are a lot of running backs that can do what Higdon does, so no need to use a draft pick. That's just the way it is now with the NFL. Hopefully he can play special teams well because that's probably what it will take for him to get on a roster. A bowl game probably wouldn't have made much difference unless he did something really noticeable.
He missed a pointless bowl game. If college football had a meaningful postseason, maybe he'd have played.
I doubt that Higdon sitting out the bowl game had anything to do with not being drafted. If a team didn't have enough tape on Higdon before the bowl game, that game wasn't going to change anyone's draft board.
You then jump into the team loss in the bowl game. Different topic. Let me ask you this question. If Michigan wins their bowl game do they still switch up the offense with Gaddis?
Finally, you jump to Gentry, your third different topic. How many TE's is Michigan going to hold on their roster? Read the scouting reports on Gentry, the knock on him was his lack of speed and his drops. He is about as fast as he is going to be and suppose he doesn't fix his drops problem? The Steelers needed a TE because of James signing with Detroit. Reading the scouting reports on Gentry they are saying a 3rd TE. Isaac Nauta was a 5 star TE Michigan was chasing 3 years ago (? time) and Gentry was drafted higher than he was.
Finally the fourth topic of paying college athletes. How much do they get paid? How much would it take for Gentry to get paid to play at Michigan to forgo being the 3rd player drafted in the 5th round? According to what I could find it looks like Gentry if he plays all 4 years of his Rookie deal will get in the neighborhood of $2.8 million.
We could have just a long conversation on paying football players but if you do, you are simply going to load the roster up with players who won't make it in the NFL and will want to hang onto that college football money. The stars will still leave.
Comp in college wouldn’t come close to pro. Players would still leave early.