It's Over For Demar Dorsey And Michigan
As of yesterday, Michigan coaches were reported to be trying to get Dorsey in. Letter campaigns and what-not were in the process of being launched. You can keep up the campaigns if you want but know that they won't have an effect:
"He signed a letter of intent but basically what happened, I guess he didn't qualify to their standards," Jackson said. "Admissions sent him a letter that they weren't going to admit him to the school and said to disregard the other letter (of intent) and was free again to start looking at other options." …
Now, Dorsey will reopen his recruiting.
"I would like to see him stay closer to home," Jackson said. "But it's wherever he feels comfortable."
This is depressing on multiple levels. GBW's Gene Hankerson says Arkansas, WVU, Tennessee, USC, Louisville, LSU, and Miami will look at Dorsey now.
I've watched the Lifeskills video and I just can't get Demar Dorsey out of my head. He took initiative and wanted to do well in school and stay out of trouble. He seems like a good kid. But watch the video starting at 2:23, and my heart melts. That auditorium meant so much to him because he thought he had finally made it and he proudly announced his commitment to UM there. Now it's being taken away from him.
I know I sound overly dramatic, but I really feel awful for the kid, way more than I care about UM's image now and its secondary. I understand that UM has certain standards, but denying him admission was just wrong after stringing him along.
Made me sick to my stomach to see him talk about when he committed to Michigan. You knew how much it meant to him.
Now, while I do feel badly for DD and wish him the best, I cannot say I'm mad at the admissions office. I place this completely on RR and his staff. It is very well known that varsity athletes get in with much lower grades and test scores than the rest of the student population (98% btw). The athletic department has "liasons" to the admissions department and I'm pretty sure the football team has one or two that deals exclusively with football recruits. One of the every very first questions a coach/recruiter will ask a student athlete is "how are your grades?" The coaches know the standards and can quickly know if their recuits will be admitted. This is a clear case of RR trying to lower the bar, and failing. Should we be surprised? Step back and consider this is the University of MIchigan, we pride ourselves on our exceptional academics and athletics. People fall into the trap of seperating these two, and thanks to ESPN et al the line between professional sports and college sports has blurred considerably. For UM to decline admission to DD was a stark reminder that UM is a school first and athletic team second. I'm proud that UM has higher standards, we are a school that finds the minimum unacceptable and should continue to, even in the case of athletics. There are is plentyful amount of student-athletes that succeed in the classroom and on the field, and our success in previous years using the current UM standards (possibly higher than now) shows that we can have our cake and eat it too. To quote JFK, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Running a successful athletic program using excpetional STUDENT-athletes is not easy, but we are the University of Michigan, we should, and we can.
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