Rumor: Xavier Worthy possibly headed elsewhere
Well this is fun
Pardon my French but fuck the portal.
Well that’s just odd. Kid wanted to go to Bama and they took 4 other receivers and didn’t want a 5th. Guess his heart isn’t here. Hope he stays.
I'd love to have him on the team if he wants to be here. But if his heart isn't here, then I'd rather he not stay.
Sarkisian is the common denominator
I just learned yesterday that Cher's last name is also Sarkisian.
Pretty sure its Horowitz.
You do realize the school wouldn't admit him when he graduated HS early to come in early?
Any of 20 other schools ranked higher than Michigan would be delighted to have him.
I'd love for him to fulfill his (& his family's) dream & play for Michigan.
But in this instance I won't blame the player a BIT if that doesn't happen!
April 15th, 2021 at 10:44 AM ^
I knew a guy at Michigan, who I have since forgotten, who quit high school right after he was accepted to Michigan. At the time I thought it was BS because I thought acceptance letters were contingent upon you completing high school, but he claimed he did it an no one ever checked.
Not accepting a kid early who wants to go is sort of garbage. What did he need to complete in high school that would have mattered?
Welp. Was on the fence about drinkin tonight. Guess I’ll just go ahead and lean forward....
Cheers! To the never ending dong punch that is Michigan football.
Word of advice (I fully condone drinking so not that kind of advice). This is the first time since 2008 that I didn't have a clue who a recruit was, and frankly it is fucking liberating. Lemme tell you, I actually don't care about some high school kids making weird ass decisions that don't impact my life and I sleep like a baby after a little bourbon of course. Year 6(?) of Harbaugh and I'm numb to that program through and through. Basketball on the other hand, LFG!
April 14th, 2021 at 11:09 PM ^
+1. I stopped following as well. Saw the thread and clicked on it to see which sport he was committed to. A shoulder shrug later, I moved on. Jud Heathcote had a great line when he retired, something like, “I’m tired of 18 year olds deciding whether I’m happy or not”.
April 14th, 2021 at 11:52 PM ^
It’s actually year 7 so somewhere you missed a year but I can empathize with your situation.
Picture if you'd said that about DaVonta Smith a few years ago.
Picture how you'd be kicking yourself as he torched D after D on his way to NYC to collect his Heisman.
Because that's the type of talent you're potentially talking about here, in your oh so cool blasé Bourbon swilling way!
And yeah, Juwan is doing great! Couldn't be happier! But maybe you were a lil tipsy and missed Josh Christopher Commit Watch Night? Lucky you!
April 15th, 2021 at 10:35 AM ^
Couldn't have said it any better. Amen, Brother.
#BasketballSchool
Jesus tap dancing Christ. This feels so spot on for Michigan football right now.. but still, damnit all to hell.
Speed in....transfer portal?
Man I really hope we land Kaleb Brown and Tyler Morris....in other news, Eddie Mcdoom is in the portal.
Eddie Mcdoom must be at least 30 years old.
I looked up McDoom's stats and somehow he's never scored a TD in college. It's crazy to me he didn't in 3 years.
I did go back to his exit post and it read a lot like the Giles Jackson departure, though with Jackson you had his elite return skills.
Well, this sucks. Wonder if the view from Spring camp is swaying anything. I really hope not... I really hope he stays.
Alas, where smoke can be seen, there's a fire on its way. This sucks.
In some ways, this always felt inevitable.. and at the same time it doesn't make the suck any less.
I truly hope the player's morale and excitement towards the season is in another stratosphere, because by and large fan morale seems to be on the morphine drip.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:26 PM ^
Is he even enrolled yet?
Well he sure wanted to enroll...
But our admissions department knows best.
And let's make sure we take the High Road with osu, bama, oh Hell with everyone, when we tell them this amazing talent just wasn't good enough for Michigan!
April 15th, 2021 at 10:03 AM ^
Guys enroll early every fucking year at Michigan. Chances are if he couldn't its because they did in fact fuck it up somehow. That sucks for the Worthy because its almost certainly not on him but its not like this is some longstanding procedure the university has designed to fuck the football team.
Also I assume that everyone that is pro shitting on the admissions department for not doing more to change the rules also supports paying the players since its pretty clear you don't see these kids as students.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:03 AM ^
Guys enroll early every fucking year at Michigan. Chances are if he couldn't its because they did in fact fuck it up somehow. That sucks for the Worthy because its almost certainly not on him but its not like this is some longstanding procedure the university has designed to fuck the football team.
Also I assume that everyone that is pro shitting on the admissions department for not doing more to change the rules also supports paying the players since its pretty clear you don't see these kids as students.
More of these “rumors” have come to be quite accurate lately. Don’t have a good feeling about this at all. Really hope Worthy stays.
Agreed. Has there even been a "rumor" that hasn't been true lately?
Probably a bunch of good ones. But I wouldn't remember them.
Waiting for BronxBlue to enter the thread and tell everyone that all is well with our football program.
Hey, thanks for calling me out. Was worried you were going to just focus on Ace today.
Anyway, not good if Worthy leaves, but if the guy doesn't want to be here so be it. Wish him luck. Sorry I can't get too bent out of shape about college athletes changing their minds.
I also don't particularly see the benefit of being eternally pessimistic about a season that hasn't been played yet, but you do you.
April 14th, 2021 at 11:25 PM ^
I've known full well that the Red Wings would be bad the last few years. I still watch games but I'm not going to turn around and talk about them like they're a cup contender or even a playoff team. It's just calling a spade a spade. Things don't look so good from the outside right now for Michigan. That's pretty plain to see.
If you have evidence of me talking about UM being a title contender feel free to share it. My argument is that they may be better than the 3-9/4-8 talk I've seen.
April 15th, 2021 at 10:39 AM ^
I think they're more in the range of 5 to 8 wins. I didn't mean to accuse you of hyping them as a championship contender or something, but I'm just saying that there's reasons for the pessimism about this team. It's pretty warranted.
April 15th, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
I agree there's room for some pessimism, though 5 to 8 wins is a pretty broad range. 5 wins is a fireable offense; 8 wins likely means they've beaten a couple of good teams.
My expectations for the season are 7-5/8-4/9-3, mostly hinging on how the defense plays. If they get back to a top-20 range (which isn't out of the realm of possibility), then the offense should be solid and they can beat some people. Play like last year or worse and we're in the business of yet another coaching turnover.
This. Guys crafting their daily emotional states off of their negative projections based on the decision of older children with muscles who are good at an athletic competition that the guys merely witness but yet define their self off of...is sad. Being a pessimist is the easiest state of mind to take—take—so it isn’t surprising that the average fan takes a position of lowering expectations.
The odd thing is, these same folks—do they have this same kind of thought process to witnessing and then comprehending the minds of those same athletes, who are mostly black, when those athletes expect to be treated like objects for the white gaze, for white entertainment? Sure, much of the anger is placed on Harbaugh—but even that anger is so simplistic when you reduce the decisions of a young person down to players being on the take, players being prima donnas, players unable to handle competition, players seeing the toxic culture they hear rumors about, etc., rather than minding one’s own business, knowing that athletes make lots of individual decisions based on a complex set of factors like any other person making big life decisions.
April 14th, 2021 at 11:33 PM ^
Awww... is someone feeling sad today? Cheer up, Buttercup.
Between his admissions issues and Giles transferring I’d say there is a real good chance he never plays a down here.
Not sure why I’m getting downvoted but to clarify the admissions issues were on the University side and not his. That’s why I think it’s possible, along with Giles, he may leave.
April 14th, 2021 at 11:00 PM ^
Jackson was a big reason Worthy came here and a big recruiter in his own right. I was sorry to see him leave - sometimes intangibles are important. There is chatter that Worthy will join Jackson in Washington.
It's funny that you see less attrition on deeper more celebrated teams like Clemson, Bama which have 6 transfers; OSU 2 while Michigan has 17
I'm beginning to think our administration isn't as committed to success on the gridiron as those other schools you mentioned.
And perhaps our coaching staff may not be as successful as theirs either.
Could those things play a role in this I wonder?! ?
Yep, along with the fact that Sam Webb has acknowledged the rumors and that the coaches are concerned is... not good.
As a media member as close to the program as Sam is, he really can't broadcast or report on topics the staff doesn't want made public or bash his sources on the staff. But the smoke signals I interpret from Webb's comments say this does not look good.
Yeah, if Webb is being that candid then that's not a good sign.
If a guy doesn't want to be at a school then he should leave; it's not a moral failing to change your mind nor does it necessarily speak poorly of the place he's leaving. Michigan will need to keep recruiting top receivers even if Worthy stuck around; they'll just have to work harder going forward if he leaves.
Agree with you on the overall premise, if a player doesn't feel like a certain program is a good fit for him, it's probably best for both parties if he moves on.
I think any realist understands these things happen from time to time, and while maybe disappointing at times, when they occur as isolated incidents you accept it and move forward.
The ongoing pattern with the football program feels different. From an outsiders perspective, it appears like the theatre is on fire from. the parking lot. Oddly timed player transfers and staff changes at the eleventh hour. Message board rumblings about disfunction and low morale in the locker room. Even the player interviews this year in the media seem forced and robotic. Almost like the players are trying to convince themselves to feel good about what's happening within the program. I don't sense "an enthusiasm unknown to mind kind" from the brief media bytes we got during spring ball. The activity around the program gives off a "we're confused" vibe and the coaches are just bloviating coach speech in attempt to create a perception of control. i just get a feeling that this staff is out of answers and aren't very confident in what they're doing.
Perhaps I am dead ass wrong and hopefully so, and the BPONE has completely shaded my maize and blue glasses. But I get the sense that this program is completely lost and all the active participants are the dog in the house on fire meme. The activity around the program right now is speaking louder than the press conferences.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:11 PM ^
I agree Michigan football isn't in an amazing space right now; if they played a game tomorrow they'd likely get trounced. But I also do think that some of the confusion is because the team did a pretty significant reorganization and, especially on defense, guys are figuring stuff out. That probably comes down to the coaches, and you'd like to see a better presentation from them even if they are confused so that's not great. But honestly, it also sounds like there was a ton of dysfunction on last year's staff so perhaps there's some shell-shock all around. As for the Dudek/Morgan switch, guys move around for jobs all the time and given how we're still in this weird pandemic timeframe I'm not shocked that a guy who was leaving UCLA to go to Miss St. (if rumors are to believed) might have been snapped up by UM if they realized he was on the market and had connections to the program. But I agree, timing is weird.
I tend to not take message board chatter particularly seriously because too often it's generic "some guys are unhappy" which is probably true everywhere, but obviously if you keep hearing it and guys leave that's not great. But thus far I've been surprised there hasn't been some great revolt/departure from guys; seems like guys from CA were unhappy (Charbonnet, Jackson, apparently Worthy), but not much beyond that. And with Charbonnet and Jackson, they look a lot like the other 1500+ guys in the transfer portal, hoping to find a place where they can be utilized differently/more.
I've been called out in this place already but I'm eternally optimistic and, frankly, not all that bothered by Michigan football not being great; it honestly hasn't been for most of my adult life. I've pointed this out elsewhere but Harbaugh has 3/14 of the 10+ win seasons in the past 40 years, and 3/5 of the past 15 years (i.e. the time of reference for virtually every player UM is currently recruiting). I do think they'll be better this year; if that's merely 6-6/7-5 then you gotta make a change. But 9+ wins with some forward momentum (in terms of player growth, recruiting, etc.) doesn't seem out of reach and that's actually pretty encouraging given all that's happened.
I know this is a bit rambling, but at this point that's the state of the program to me. I get a sense that isn't the sentiment of the majority here, but so be it.
April 14th, 2021 at 10:21 PM ^
To be fair, I’m jealous of your optimism as you seem like a smart guy and are willing to look past all of the red flags with the football program.
I don’t have any issues with our differing views on the direction of the program, just knew that you would come in this thread and post something optimistic, despite the pessimistic nature of the news.
April 14th, 2021 at 11:11 PM ^
I don't think I posted anything beyond "if the guy doesn't want to be here then no reason to stay." It's not a good thing to lose a top recruit, but considering there are over 1500 players currently in the transfer portal I'm not particularly surprised guys are more inclined to not stick around in a situation they don't like.
I've been around this place long enough to see the near-constant complaints about the future of the program and how the next guy is sure to turn it around that I'm sort of done getting worked up about it. I'd be a hell of a lot less optimistic if Michigan had gone, I don't know, 4-2 and brought the whole band back together. Because that absolutely could have happened with a couple more breaks against PSU and MSU. And in fact, I was one of the people who was down on the prospects of Joe Milton suddenly becoming an above-average P5 starting QB in an offseason and thought it wasn't a great sign that McCaffrey was leaving from a quality at QB perspective. But the fact UM seems to be cleaning house after a bad season and might not suffer from a massive number of injuries to key players after an abbreviated practice camp during a pandemic does make me a bit optimistic.
I don't quite get why you'd care about what I'd post, but if I'm known around here as the guy who doesn't constantly assume the worst, so be it.
April 14th, 2021 at 11:54 PM ^
I don't quite get why you'd care about what I'd post, but if I'm known around here as the guy who doesn't constantly assume the worst, so be it.
I told you, you come off as a smart person, but I’ve seen you post in many of the negative news football threads and you always have positive comments. I’m just curious how someone who follows the program closely could be optimistic on this upcoming season.
There’s quite a bit to be optimistic about. We return a lot of production, we’re bringing in a really good class (with or without Worthy), we have an essentially brand new defensive staff that is much younger and more energetic.
You can acknowledge the red flags while also acknowledging that there ARE some things to be optimistic about. That doesn’t mean you have to think the team is going undefeated or anything, but it isn’t all bad.
One incoming freshman changing his mind doesn’t change any of that. Michigan still has a very talented receiving room and is sitting well with WRs in the 2022 class. Worthy leaving isn’t the end of the world and there are a lot of factors going on outside of the football program that have probably impacted him in a negative way.