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?
September 9th, 2023 at 7:48 AM ^
Being wary is one thing, but Worthy's mother submitted everything she needed to submit in September and wasn't told until January that it wouldn't fly. That's a huge problem. If she were told in October or maybe even November, Worthy might still be a Wolverine. You don't treat people like that. It's beyond rude. The admissions department screwed with this family and screwed with an 18 year old kid's life in a big way. Not okay under any circumstances.
As more of these stories come out, its clear that something needs to change in that department. New department heads would be a strong start. It's not ok to treat people like this and it will become a national story eventually.
September 9th, 2023 at 11:58 AM ^
If what you recount is completely true, then yes this is a bad look for admissions. But the only person you are hearing this from is the Mother. Admissions/The University legally (I am pretty sure) can't discuss this at all (FERPA).
People hear what they want to hear--what if admissions says "This works as long as X happens," and X didn't happen.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:28 PM ^
Its not a good look, at least from this article.
It not about Michigan's standards as others have mentioned, its about Admissions dropping the ball on what was acceptable and what was not. From the sounds of it, Worthy and his mom did everything that was asked of them and they were never told, until it was too late, that this pathway to early enrollment would not meet Michigan's standards.
That's an issue with admission, and whomever on the football team was acting as academic advisor. Its thier job to help students/players to navigate the byzantine admissions system.
It sounds like they failed to do this in a reasonable time frame, leaving few options
September 9th, 2023 at 8:04 AM ^
"Wary" is fine as far as human emotions are concerned; it's the lack of someone from Michigan staying close to the process and the family, keeping it honest but expedited, that could be the (delicate) missing piece. And I'm cool if that kind of service is provided to all kids once certain stipulated criteria are met, because many of us know that it can be frustrating for lots of people.
September 9th, 2023 at 9:00 AM ^
Agreed. This is what I imagine happened.
- Michigan prefers any kid who can, to enroll early. The Worthys, thinking NFL ASAP I'm sure, are all in for this plan.
- They go to the brick and mortar school and ask about Dec graduation, to which the school says, "Nope we don't do that."
- Mom looks into online BS credit, reads up on NCAA admit rergs and probably asks the coaches and they say, something like, "well make sure the graduation and NCAA initial eligibility requirements are followed and you should be fine." No one asks admissions about this specific online credit/school.
- Come Dec, he graduates and they send the details to admissions for enrollment. Admissions sees sketchy shit that goes against their policies re: online courses.
- They rec June enrollment and the Worthy's are out.
It's really a lack of communiciation in a specific circumstance of a parent going rogue and playing guidance counselor and NCAA regs administrator and not thinking that Michigan admissions should be consulted as well.
She has herself to blame (as case of she didn't know what she didn't know, been there). Michigan accepted the kid for a smoother June transition and he could have been in A2 and on the team for summer 7on7s in 3 months.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:26 AM ^
It depends. If Worthy‘s family cleared the plan with admissions in advance then admissions backtracked on their word. The said, it sure sounds like Worthy did not bother to see if this was acceptable to the admissions department before pulling him out of a traditional high school to enroll him an online school. If so, I don’t blame the admissions department from not signing off on this tactic. The admissions department is not there to serve as a fixer for the football team or any other side of the athletic department, and for good reason. Michigan‘s reputation rests on its robust academics. Its tuition paying families, alums, and credibility with employers depend on that reputation and it only takes a few bad anecdotal news stories to ruin what was carefully cultivated for years. Exceptions should not be made for one high potential WR at the expense of all established standards. And yes, he is not the first and won’t be the last WR worthy (pardon the pun) of wearing the winged helmet. There will always be another to take his place.
September 9th, 2023 at 1:15 AM ^
Nobody except old, out-of-touch, elitist white people would give a fuck about “a few bad anecdotal news stories” where Michigan looked the other way on admissions in order to lock down a superstar who’s going to be playing in the NFL one day. The gap between the athletic department and the rest of the university is a chasm and U-M is literally the only elite football school in denial about it. One day in the not-so-distant future, the last perfunctory ties between academics and athletics for major college sports will be severed completely. Let’s not kick and scream on the way out, please.
September 9th, 2023 at 4:02 AM ^
Stop while you’re ahead, you’re embarrassing yourself.
September 9th, 2023 at 1:27 PM ^
Why? Because I recognize the obvious while others here want to go on pretending like NIL and the SEC-ification of college football isn't happening before our very eyes? Even before COVID, most NFL-focused players weren’t setting foot in classrooms anymore at the elite programs. The athletic departments operate as de facto minor league pro teams that license a university name. I really don’t understand why Michigan fans won’t just accept this reality. There is no use in clutching to some mythical, bygone era of college sports purity. Michigan already cuts corners on this crap and does 99% of the same stuff that OSU, Bama, and Georgia do. That extra 1% doesn’t make us superior. Those schools are also very good flagship state universities, and even if you want to trot out dumb USNews rankings, are we just going to ignore the fact that Xavier Worthy enrolled at UT Austin, a very much academically-elite, top 10 public university? How about we talk about UNC Chapel Hill, a top 5 public school (2 spots below #3 Michigan) that not so long ago was giving out free grades to its basketball team? Virtually everyone is better off accepting the independent nature of the athletic department in relation to the rest of the university’s academic profile. But people on this forum can’t seem to let it go.
September 9th, 2023 at 9:35 AM ^
Exceptions are already made all the time. Again, if you think 95% of the football team could get into Michigan without the admissions department taking sub 3.0 GPAs and like 17 ACTs, I don't know what to tell you.
September 9th, 2023 at 10:32 AM ^
nobody is suggesting that admissions doesn’t make some exceptions. i’d even go so far as to say that’s a good thing, in that it extends an opportunity to people that contribute to the university community as a whole, beyond academics. i’d say the same thing about a talented artist or musician that might not otherwise get in.
but that’s not the same as just saying, “athlete? come right on through.” at a bare minimum, an athlete (or artist, or musician) should have to meet those “lower” standards AND check the boxes properly, which include proper accreditation, testing, financial aid forms, and whatever else you have to do these days.
September 9th, 2023 at 3:17 AM ^
We've gone to the point where admissions is eating flak for other departments. There's also a very clear difference between high school admissions, transfer admissions, and grad school admissions.
I don't know how much things have changed since I left but it was a poorly kept secret that the athletics department got a certain amount of leeway/hall passes to use on recruits that were academically risky and that revenue sports got the lion's share of that. The shadier the situation, the more attention it would naturally get. The administrators in athletics have a dual job, to monitor and project what the incoming class looks like academically and to make sure that it's clear to the family what it will take to come into the class. RichRod was famously completely unprepared for this environment and there was resistance to operating like WVU. Harbaugh's staff has shown that they are on top of this and I'm inclined to believe this was almost certainly an issue on Worthy's side than someone at Michigan deciding to screw this kid over.
September 9th, 2023 at 7:33 AM ^
You know as well as everyone else that 'admissions' is a euphemism for each departments' policy on transferring credits. Stop playing semantic games like you're smarter than everyone else...
EDIT: Paging back through, I realize that I'm the idiot here - this is actually about admissions, not transfer credits. So, my apologies to Tacopants. I will neg myself and encourage others to do the same. Dumb posts deserve to be negged - even my own!
September 9th, 2023 at 9:27 AM ^
newsflash: they're already lowered for athletes. 95% of the football team would not get in without reduced standards.
September 8th, 2023 at 11:37 PM ^
I call B.S. The mother is spinning this, clearly.
The transfer issues are real. Worthy's issues are not a symptom of that. This story wreaks of "he wasn't getting good enough grades, so his mother tried an end-around" (pardon the pun). It didn't work. And if playing for U of M and honoring his commitment was his priority, enrolling early shouldn't have been necessary. Xavier should have joined the team in the summer.
For those of you who may have forgotten, U of M is an academic institution first. Athletes already get some slack as it is. There's more to this story, so please stop trying to make everything about the transfer rules. U of M should not sacrifice its academic reputation to make sure a spoiled wide receiver gets in. And, by they way, he drops a lot of balls, kids. Just ask Quentin Ewers about Xavier's drop rate. You wouldn't like it. Give me Roman Wilson and CJ any day.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:42 AM ^
Just throw the kid under the bus and blame everything on grades. That's the ticket! Nothing is Michigan's issue - it's all on the kid, he clearly wasn't smart enough to get in.
What a bullshit argument you make. The credit transfer issue is a real problem for everyone - not just athletes. And it has little to do with academic standards, as we learned the other day in the UV article. Sure its Momma Worthy's story, and probably slanted to some degree. So what? That doesn't mean Xavier was failing his grades. And that is an absolutely shitty thing to say when you offer no proof of it other than your obviously tainted personal opinion.
September 9th, 2023 at 3:43 AM ^
Listen man, it was almost certainly something on his transcript. He did get into Michigan, the requirement was that he attend summer bridge which is what happens when there's a concern about the college transition. This isn't a foreign concept to the football team, many recruits come in during the summer and are a part of bridge. Early Enrolees usually have relatively good test scores/transcripts. It's hard to believe that the football staff didn't know that this would be an issue.
At the end of the day people who work for Michigan aren't out to get these kids and screw the football team. Admissions would be the first people to tell you that having a successful football team is a huge competitive advantage to schools they view themselves competing against for students.
September 9th, 2023 at 7:37 AM ^
I agree with everything you just said here. But it has no relevance to what LSA84 pompously declared - that Xavier failed his classes and couldn't get in. UM clearly had an issue with the online classes, and that is very different from saying his grades sucked and Mom tried cheating his way in.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:45 AM ^
While I agree there's more to the story, let's not make it seem like Xavier's a bum. The kid runs sub 4.3 and can absolutely stretch the field. He's a stud.
Give me Roman and CJ + Xavier.
September 9th, 2023 at 7:25 AM ^
I was with you most of the way.
But "U of M should not sacrifice its academic reputation to make sure a spoiled wide receiver gets in" is pretty hilarious.
Do you think the academic reputation of the entire school would be affected, even a tiny bit, if Worthy had attended school at UM? That is laughable. Honestly, if you are going to get on this high horse, I think you have to shutdown the entire football program.
September 9th, 2023 at 8:51 AM ^
Duke still plummeting down the academic rankings bc Kyrie Irving played basketball there awhile.
September 9th, 2023 at 8:58 AM ^
It seems like the issue is more about what admissions is willing to let slide in order to get some people into the school. If someone is going to try and use an online "diploma mill" just to get into the school a semester earlier than normal, it better still meet the same standards.
I won't speak for anyone else, but I worked very hard to get into Michigan and would be angry if they lower the *minimum* standards just to get some athletes enrolled if they won't make those same accommodations for other students.
The football program has been able to do quite well the past 100+ years without needing to throw out the academic standards... why should that change now?
September 9th, 2023 at 9:50 AM ^
Are you seriously this ignorant of the real world? Do you really think Michigan's academic standards aren't lower for athletes, especially those in the revenue generating sports? The standards are absolutely lower. Rivals used to publish GPAs and standardized test scores. They were low - like below 3.0 and below 20 ACT low. You think any one that isn't a football player is getting near Michigan with those stats?
If this is seriously the argument you're making or what you believe, maybe Michigan needs to raise its standards all around.
September 9th, 2023 at 10:05 AM ^
And there's usually a ton of academic support and assistance to help transition those lower performing HS students to the increased rigor of college classes. Which is what Michigan wanted for the Worthys. Spend summer getting up to speed instead of being dropped into the Winter Semester straight from online high school.
Without seeing his transcript I can't say whether that's right or not, but everyone including his mom seems to suggest he was a marginal admit. So that approach would make sense to me.
The funny thing is with the timing of his decommitment, that's almost definitely what he ended up doing at Texas.
September 9th, 2023 at 10:56 AM ^
I am very familiar with Michigan's admission standards actually... and that there is a floor to general admission and the each college/department within the school can have additional requirements on top of that.
The *athletic department* is not an admitting program within the university and, as such, does not have authority over admission standards for incoming students.
September 9th, 2023 at 2:24 PM ^
I worked hard to go to Michigan too, but I don’t see what that has to do with an athletic department that has long been cutting corners for its pro-prospect athletes.
September 8th, 2023 at 11:38 PM ^
Online classes are basically bullshit, and it seems like his mom went by the NCAA standards without clearing it with Michigan (from the excerpts you posted). The transfer problem is real because classes at other universities should be rigorous. Online classes are not though, so this might have been a real concern academically without knowing Worthy's full academic profile.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:12 AM ^
Online classes are basically bullshit
There's a lot of discussion around the benefits and drawbacks of online schooling, but let me point you to one very important factor: He enrolled Fall of 2020. Schools all over the place were either full virtual or hybrid for students in fall of 2020 due to Covid. I obviously don't know his mind and haven't seen his transcripts, but let's not paint it like he searched out an online diploma mill.
September 9th, 2023 at 6:48 AM ^
Except all classes were online classes in 2020, no?
September 9th, 2023 at 9:18 AM ^
Yes. But the online versions we were trying to teach were good faith efforts to deliver an education. We failed for dozens of different reasons which I could probably discuss for years, but we did legit try. Classes designed to be delivered online are designed as a joke and treated as a joke by students. Most end up looking like the dumb corporate training exercises you ignore and then select the obvious correct answer from a list of multiple choice options.
September 9th, 2023 at 7:21 AM ^
Most grades at schools have become bullshit, this is one example and by far not the worse
September 9th, 2023 at 9:18 AM ^
Harvard recognized that some incompetents were hiring based on GPA alone without regard to the university assigning the grades. I think that something like 80% of their class graduates with magna cum laude or better.
September 9th, 2023 at 11:27 AM ^
toughest thing about Harvard (and other private schools) is getting in
September 9th, 2023 at 9:19 AM ^
Harvard is bullshit and always has been. Just a gross, insular, place for elites to have a circle jerk with each other and then give each other positions of power.
September 9th, 2023 at 10:17 AM ^
Some schools are much worse. A buddy actually got really into this whole grade inflation stuff - he was reading how degrees at many schools have not given a grade below an A- in like 5 years
September 9th, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^
So true. Also the idea that one's education is somehow better because the diploma says Harvard or any Ivy is absurd. I've taken undergrad and grad classes at Michigan and EMU as well as grad classes at Vanderbilt and Princeton. The best classes/teachers I ever had were at EMU (RIP Professor Goff) and Michigan's RC.
September 9th, 2023 at 9:30 AM ^
looks like Vietnam put a fire under some asses!
September 8th, 2023 at 11:39 PM ^
I'm amazed at how many MGoPosters are willing to throw away any shred of academic integrity we have for ... what, exactly? We're ranked #2 in the country as it is.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:04 AM ^
No one is arguing that every recruiting class should be chock full of D students. Be realistic. In a school with almost 33,000 undergrad students, is allowing a few kids with less than stellar grades but other abilities that exceed the normal student body's going to tank academic ratings?
And despite you pointing out the football team's 2023 ranking, it's not solely a football problem.
September 9th, 2023 at 9:03 AM ^
From a strict factual standpoint... yes, it would (but *on an individual basis* by such a statistically insignificant numerical amount that it would not be noticed - the problem becomes qhen considering the aggregate... if the bar is lowered ever so slightly for one student-athlete, then what about the next and so on? Where is the "line" actually drawn or do we eventually just waive all academic requirements for athletes?)
That said - what is the point then of *any* academic institution having higher standards than the bare minimum if those standards just get waived when athletics (or some other special interest) is concerned? I am equally opposed to kids getting standards relaxed just because they are legacies or because their parents literally buy their way in as well.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:05 AM ^
I feel like you're missing the point. There's a lot of middle ground between "throwing away any shred of academic integrity" and stringing along a student athlete for months with no communication then screwing them over at the 11th hour when they've already moved to Ann Arbor.
It would be one thing if this was a weird one-off occurrence but as we've seen from the basketball team, this is a pattern now - we have had several potential prospects who felt like they were all clear to enroll at Michigan only to find out otherwise later. This feels like a major process or communication issue, not an issue of academic standards, and something needs to get fixed because it's burning bridges and can cause trust issues among recruits.
September 9th, 2023 at 9:06 AM ^
I agree about any concerns with "stringing kids along", but I also wonder how much of this was due to pandemic screwing with administrative work. Even *now* some places are still running far slower than pre-pandemic times due to staffing issues - it would have been worst around then.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:30 AM ^
Academic integrity is creating pointless roadblocks that make it difficult for someone from someone from Stanford to transfer in? That happened to Myles Hinton. The University of Texas is a pretty good school too.
September 9th, 2023 at 1:25 AM ^
All you have to do is read any John U. Bacon book about the Bo days to know that when Bo showed up football admissions changed drastically. As in, it got easier, not harder.
If Bo wanted someone, the admissions dept made it happen.
These days I honestly don't know what's going on. Football players have always been held to a different standard. It's just the way it is. And it's not just that way here.
September 9th, 2023 at 8:21 AM ^
I swear you U of M grads think you’re Harvard. News flash, you’re not. You all think that Donovan Edwards is at the Ford School?
I don’t care what classes my athletes take. I want to win games. It’s not the 90s anymore. Get over it.
September 9th, 2023 at 9:20 AM ^
Michigan is an actual school, which Harvard is not.
September 9th, 2023 at 9:56 AM ^
Harvard isn't Harvard either.
Also, they have this thing called the NFL that removes the pretense of college. You might be interested in that.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:12 AM ^
That timeframe was wild but family wanted him to graduate early, his school didn’t do that, so switched to some bogus online charter school to sign off on a degree, and they’re mad a top academic institution wouldn’t accept that? I’m shocked over here.
It sure seemed to workout in the long run for Michigan. Nothing against him, I really wanted to see him on the team, but I don’t think he would have been happy with his role the last two seasons. Weighing 165 and being asked to block 85% of the time and he probably would have transferred prior to Michigan beating OSU for the second time.
September 9th, 2023 at 12:25 AM ^
Since you're at least the second person I've seen refer to this online school as bogus, I looked it up. It was founded by Paul Allen (of Microsoft fame) and offers AP programs that are recognized by the College Board.
September 9th, 2023 at 2:06 AM ^
Wow, this guy looked up Paul Allen’s card