Xavier Worthy's mom on why he left Michigan for Texas

The Athletic's Max Olson wrote a piece about Xavier Worthy, which details why he left Michigan. According to her, the Michigan admissions department was the culprit:

Unfortunately, as his recruiting process heated up, a pandemic was going on. Worthy couldn’t take official visits and had to build relationships over video chats. He became a big believer in Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis and his “Speed in Space” mantra, and that connection persuaded him to commit to Michigan in July 2020.

Sarkisian, Alabama’s offensive coordinator at the time, never backed off. Worthy and Jones took a November trip to Alabama to attend an Iron Bowl win over Auburn and do a self-guided campus tour, sparking rumors that a flip was incoming. But Worthy stuck with Michigan and signed in December. Coach Jim Harbaugh called him “one of the top players in the country.”

“I felt like that was where home was at,” Worthy said.

When he first picked Michigan, Worthy planned to be an early enrollee. His school district didn’t allow seniors to graduate early. Jones got creative. She got him enrolled in Apex Learning Virtual School, an online program, for the fall of 2020. It wasn’t easy to get that plan lined up without guidance counselors, but Jones ensured his class schedule met all graduation and NCAA initial eligibility requirements.

But that's not good enough for Michigan admissions, as we've learned over and over again:

In early January 2021, two weeks before Worthy would move to Ann Arbor with J.J. McCarthy, Donovan Edwards and the Wolverines’ freshman enrollees, a problem emerged. Michigan has strict admissions standards for midyear enrollees, one former staffer said, and wasn’t able to get Worthy admitted into school. He was told that based on his academic profile, it would be better to enroll in June for U-M’s summer bridge program. His mother was stunned.

“For me, that didn’t fly,” she said. “I turned in all of his academic paperwork and applications in September. As far as I had been told, up until two weeks before, he was on track to enroll early. There was nothing missing, nothing short, they’d waived the SATs. It didn’t make sense. Something wasn’t right. What’s the problem and why am I finding out about this now?”

Worthy wanted to stay at Michigan, but he wasn't allowed to join the team since he wasn't enrolled.

Worthy still wanted to honor his commitment. He moved to Ann Arbor and got an apartment. When Michigan posted a video of midyear move-in day on Jan. 16, Worthy was missing. Two days later, he announced on Twitter that “to end all the drama and speculations I am not enrolling early.” But he was in town. Since he wasn’t enrolled, he wasn’t allowed to work out in the football facility. All he could do was join Zoom meetings. After a strange month of trying to make it work, he moved back home.

“Michigan messed that up,” Jones said. “The trust wasn’t there. For us, trust is so big in everything. We just never felt like we were getting the truth about what happened. It was just a lot of, ‘We’re sorry.’”

The 17-year-old returned to Fresno to rethink his future. It didn’t make him feel any better that Central East was playing a five-game spring season and he couldn’t participate. During a loss to rival Buchanan, Biggs looked to Worthy on the sideline and told him, “Sure could use you right now.”

If he wasn’t going to Michigan, Worthy knew where he needed to be.

“I was going wherever Sark went,” he said.

When is Santa Ono going to get this fixed?