Exit Nate Johnson
[Bryan Fuller]
Sam Webb reported this morning that redshirt freshman cornerback Nate Johnson has been permanently dismissed from the program:
As I just reported on @michiganinsider, soph CB Nate Johnson was dismissed from the football team yesterday. It is permanent.
— Sam Webb (@SamWebb77) October 4, 2017
Jim Harbaugh wasted little time taking action after Johnson was arrested early Saturday morning for an alleged assault of a woman he'd been dating. Johnson was arraigned on Sunday on one count of misdemeanor domestic violence.
Johnson came to Michigan in the 2016 class as a slot receiver, then moved to cornerback in the offseason; he featured as a punt returner in the spring game but ceded that job to Donovan Peoples-Jones in the fall. He hadn't seen significant snaps this season on defense.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:00 AM ^
Also, Johnson had been switched back to WR recently. Not that it really matters.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:06 AM ^
Bad news for the alleged victim (i.e., the incident, not the dismissal), Johnson and the team. On the bright side, it sounds as though our coaching staff and athletic administration are handling this matters in a way that reflects well on the school, and reinforces a culture of respect.
October 4th, 2017 at 2:41 PM ^
As opposed to a culture that can come back to take a huge chunk out of your ass....cough cough Florida...
October 4th, 2017 at 6:39 PM ^
Right now, at this instant, it looks like the culture is that players that get in trouble with the law, but are star material, get a HUGE benefit of the doubt. Whereas players that are having trouble finding their football identity that find themselves in trouble with the law, are easily dismissed.
October 5th, 2017 at 6:59 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 10:07 AM ^
Surprised they didn't let the legal process play out first.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:09 AM ^
To me, that probably means they are aware of overwhelming evidence of Johnson's guilt. Maybe not, but that makes the most sense.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:12 AM ^
Or Johnson was upfront with the coaches about the incident and the decision was made based off of the information from a direct source.
Regardless, this is a sad situation for all involved.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:37 AM ^
Interesting that he was dismissed so peremptorily even though only charged iwth a misdemeanor. Either you're right that he admitted to what he had done and the coaching staff felt it was bad enough to warrant dismissal, or he has had other issues that have not been made public and the cumulative conduct was too much to bear.
Either way, it's good to see this being handled promptly and definitively, once the staff decided that action was warranted.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:38 AM ^
maybe Grant Perry is a really good wide reciever who was desperately needed and Nate Johnson was a positional journeyman who wasn't seeing the field.
/ducks
October 4th, 2017 at 10:55 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 11:00 AM ^
just kind of kidding around. Not trying to "rile everybody up." Not everything that everybody says on a blog should be taken super literally with serious import. You can't get around the optics here, even if it is not the case at all. Relax.
October 4th, 2017 at 11:16 AM ^
without knowing you personally or reading your entire posting history, it's extremely difficult for most of us to know if you're serious or not. Sometimes, it's easy to tell sarcasm, other times not. In your post, it was not at all obvious. Just saying.
October 4th, 2017 at 11:25 AM ^
thought /ducks would do, I guess not.
And I'm not saying it was entirely 100% sarcastic. Would Nate Johnson be kicked off the team already if he was a standout starter? I don't know, but it is certainly possible that (as with basically every program in the nation) we may be "waiting for the legal process to play out" in that case.
But I don't know the details of the case. It was just a mild self-referential quip. Things have gotten very touchy around here.
October 4th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 6:47 PM ^
There is a perception of double standard that is demanding clarification.
October 4th, 2017 at 12:32 PM ^
Would-be RS senior starting left tackle LTT disagrees with you.
October 4th, 2017 at 12:44 PM ^
offensive lineman that I haven't thought of in a while, was Juwan Bushell-Beatty so bad that he cannot be used on a really poorly performing offensive line? Is he hurt? It surprises me that a guy who played a lot in big situations last year has not been on the field, particulary when he did not seem that bad last year when he did play.
October 4th, 2017 at 5:48 PM ^
He barely played last year because when they put him in after Newsome's injury he was absolutely terrible so they shuffled the line to replace him.
October 4th, 2017 at 2:09 PM ^
October 5th, 2017 at 7:12 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 11:03 AM ^
the case here. I would guess they have looked closely into this and there might be other witnesses and since it was on campus there might even be some video. Either way the swift action tells me this is not a good situation for Nate.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:10 AM ^
Depends what info they had at their disposal. Maybe he was upfront and said the charges were true? Maybe the staff caught him in a lie? Maybe he was on thin ice as it was? etc etc etc
October 4th, 2017 at 10:36 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
bro if you're asking for a neg, I'll neg you
October 4th, 2017 at 10:48 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 4:09 PM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 10:22 AM ^
While that's technically true, he hadn't seen any snaps of any kind this season according to the participation lists.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:28 AM ^
It didn't sound good when it happened, and my guess is Johnson basically admitted enough to the staff that they determined a return wasn't an option. Glad this was resolved quickly and the victim recovers.
October 4th, 2017 at 10:45 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 3:40 PM ^
The message this sends to recruits and their parents is that we'll kick you off the team without due process of law. We care more about public perception than winning games and protecting your future. We are disloyal, and we don't care about our players. That's the message it sends to recruits. It's a terrible message.
Unless it comes out that Johnson flat-out told the coaching staff that he socked her in the face because she wouldn't give him a slice of pizza (or something equivalently unjustifiable), punishing him so severely before the case is resolved is not going to play well with recruits. Even in that case, Johnson confided in the coaches and they sold him down the river. There's no way to try and spin this as a positive for us.
October 5th, 2017 at 7:41 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 11:07 AM ^
Lesson to all.
Right or wrong, Don't put yourself in this position.
October 4th, 2017 at 11:22 AM ^
The correct phrase is not "don't put yourself in this position."
It's "don't abuse or sexually assault another person."
Full stop.
October 4th, 2017 at 11:40 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 11:50 AM ^
The correct phrase is not "don't abuse or sexually assault another person." It is "don't put yourself in a position wherein a reasonable person could even think that you had abused or sexually assaulted another person."
Full stop.
October 4th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^
Because most reports of offenses are not corroborated with physical evidence (does that bruise or black eye reflect self-defense or assault?), objective recordings, or witnesses, most have a subjective element that is often not well teased out by law enforcement or prosecutors when charges are first instituted.
I often counsel clients exactly along the lines of what you suggest:
WALK AWAY.
KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT AND WALK AWAY.
WHEN YOU ARE "CHARGED" OR "FLOODED," THAT'S A SIGN TO TO WALK AWAY AND TAKE A PERSONAL "TIME OUT."
But that's not easy and often that is not enough. People with volitile relationships or abandonment issues have a tendancy to follow those who walk away, because walking away can "trigger" fear of abandonment, then the loop starts:
Trigger, walk away, triggering the partner into chase, triggering the initial person into walking away faster (or push, strike, etc), more chasing, repeat.
Allegations of DV and sexual assault, although often "true," are also often very difficult to assess. Both often come in shattered relationships, long disfunctional histories, and anger/bias going both directions, and the "truth" may reside somewhere else.
(as I mention above, I'm a criminal defense attorney)
October 4th, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^
GREAT stuff.
October 4th, 2017 at 12:35 PM ^
You're both correct.
Don't assault people, but also learn to recognize an emerging conflict and either deescalate or get out.
Even if you're being physically attacked yourself, if you can safely turtle up and leave, do that, whether it's a buddy, a partner or some doofus in a bar. And if you're getting emotionally/verbally attacked, don't escalate. If you escalate a fight, respond in kind, or lay hands on a person, (a) someone can get seriously hurt and (b) you can end up charged.
It's good advice, but I have to admit I didn't appreciate it at 19. I haven't hit anybody since grade school, but in college, I definitely got in people's faces a few times that could have ended up with me getting hit.
October 4th, 2017 at 2:36 PM ^
I also purposely avoid placing myself in situations where there are going to be assholes, like a bar I don't know. And I avoid confrontations. And if there is a confrontation I just get the hell out of there. First of all, the guy could be some lunatic or have martial arts training. Second and even more important there are lots of people packing heat these days.
October 4th, 2017 at 11:57 AM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 12:00 PM ^
OR, a thought I might consider potentially more likely given the extremely swift and definitive action is: he "didn't" come fully clean with the coaches and they were presented with facts directly counter to his communication with them. In which case they immediately washed their hands if he lied/hedged/stretched the truth with them in the slightest.
October 4th, 2017 at 4:06 PM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 4:05 PM ^
There are also the Title IX ramifications as well, so there really is no way to just wait for the courts to sort this out. He could be kicked out of school well before the legal system works it out.
October 4th, 2017 at 6:04 PM ^
if we were all drunk. Right?
October 4th, 2017 at 6:37 PM ^
October 4th, 2017 at 8:24 PM ^
Johnson was going nowhere (switching positions this early generally is a predictive of a non-productive career on the field).
Harbaugh will clear more 'ships than Irma and Katrina.
He is the best at recruiting and maintaining the talent level on the field. For this reason, he will win a NC at Michigan
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