I’ll get this out of the way right now: In no way should Troy Woolfolk’s devastating leg injury — and the resulting nightmare of a depth chart — have any bearing on Rich Rodriguez’s job status at Michigan. To say Rodriguez has had horrible luck with cornerbacks during his tenure in Ann Arbor would do a disservice to the term ‘horrible.’ AnnArbor.com has a brief rundown of how Michigan got so thin at the position, and it isn’t pretty:

In addition to [Justin] Turner’s untimely departure, Donovan Warren left school early after the 2009 season to enter the NFL Draft, expecting to be a mid-round draft pick. Instead, he signed an unrestricted free-agent deal with the New York Jets.

This spring, the Wolverines signed highly touted recruit Demar Dorsey. He could have played safety or cornerback, but the university denied his admission.

Boubacar Cissoko started the first four games of the season at right cornerback last year, but was kicked off the team for violating internal rules, and subsequently pled guilty to four robbery charges.

Adrian Witty was a highly touted 2009 cornerback recruit, but never made it to campus as a non-qualifier.

You could argue that Rodriguez brought some of this upon himself: Witty and Dorsey were both his recruits and neither met Michigan’s academic standards (Witty wasn’t admitted by the school in 2010 after meeting NCAA eligibility requirements one year after being recruited), but few were complaining when the Wolverines added Dorsey on signing day to a strong crop of 2010 corners, and nobody could have foreseen just how desperately the Wolverines would need instant-impact corners at the time.

As for the others, Warren was a Lloyd Carr recruit — and Michigan’s top corner — who didn’t wait for his NFL draft evaluation before declaring early, and Cissoko was another Carr holdover who let off-field demons get the best of his career in Ann Arbor. Rodriguez can hardly be blamed for either departure. And Turner? Having one of the nation’s top 50 prospects decide he doesn’t want to work hard enough to play Division I football came as a surprise to everyone — he was a can’t-miss prospect who missed, and nothing in his recruiting profile raised any red flags until he showed up late and out of shape for his freshman season. Even then, fans expected Turner would turn it around and compete for a starting role this fall, but Turner never fully committed himself to football, and now he’s gone.

Rich Rodriguez has done everything he could to hold together the cornerback position. In 2008, with former five-star Warren and the talented Woolfolk already on the roster, he added Cissoko (a four-star and Rivals.com’s No. 4 corner) and three-star J.T. Floyd (unlike Cissoko, not a Carr holdover, as he committed after the coaching change). In the class of 2009, he locked up Turner, Scout.com’s No. 3 corner, and added Witty for depth. When Witty didn’t qualify and Warren departed early for the NFL, Rodriguez loaded up on 2010 corners with Army All-American Cullen Christian and three-star prospects Courtney Avery and Terrence Talbott, and pulled a recruiting coup when he landed Dorsey on signing day. Of those players, only Floyd and the three freshmen (excluding Dorsey, of course) remain healthy and on the team. The last thing this team could afford was a serious injury to the only experienced corner, and that’s exactly what happened yesterday.

Until we see what Greg Robinson and the defense can make out of Michigan’s depleted secondary, we won’t know just how large of an impact Woolfolk’s injury will have on the defense. At this point, however, it’s tough not to measure that impact in losses — multiple ones at that — and I only hope that Dave Brandon, as well as the Michigan fans, take that into account in what has been billed as a make-or-break year for Rich Rodriguez.

Similar Posts:

• Position Preview: Cornerback
• Donovan Warren Leaning ‘Heavily’ Towards NFL; Smith Out With Torn ACL
• A (Very) Early Look at the 2010 Defense
• S.O.S. (Save Our Secondary)
• Boubacar Cissoko Kicked Off Team

Well, this story is getting pretty old, but a third 2010 Michigan recruit has failed to qualify for the fall. Quarterback Conelius Jones will enroll at Fork Union Military Academy after failing to achieve a qualifying SAT score, according to the Detroit News (via a report from GoBlueWolverine.com):

Athlete/quarterback Conelius Jones, a member of Michigan’s 2010 recruiting class, will not enroll at the school this fall, according to a report.

Freddy Brown, Jones’ coach at Spartanburg (S.C.) High School, told GoBlueWolverine.com on Monday that Jones was denied admission due to his score on a standardized college entrance exam.

Brown said Jones will attend Fork Union Military Academy in the fall and will try to enroll at Michigan in the winter semester.

Jones (6-2, 197 pounds) was a three-star recruit who also received offers from Duke, Stanford, Syrause and Wake Forest, among other schools, according to Scout.com.

Although Michigan is certainly set at quarterback for this season with Denard Robinson, Tate Forcier, and Devin Gardner, Jones was expected to help provide depth down the road, especially if the team decided to use Robinson at another position (although that seems unlikely after Shoelace’s outstanding spring). Expect Michigan to make a strong push for 2011 quarterback Kevin Sousa, who has picked up an offer and appears to be the Wolverines’ most realistic option at QB in his class.

As mentioned above, Jones is the third 2010 recruit who has not been admitted to Michigan, along with defensive back Demar Dorsey and linebacker Antonio Kinard. Hopefully, he can make the most of his semester at Fork Union and join the team this winter.

Similar Posts:

• An Early Stab at the 2010 Depth Chart: Offense
• Wild Recruiting Weekend Recap
• The Denard Conundrum
• Antonio Kinard Doesn’t Qualify; Dorsey to Louisville
• A (Very) Early Look at the 2010 Offense

Michigan has lost another member of its 2010 recruiting class, as Dave Birkett at AnnArbor.com is reporting that Youngstown (Ohio) Liberty LB Antonio Kinard will enroll in a prep school or junior college this fall after failing to qualify academically for Michigan:

Jeff Whittaker, the coach at Youngstown (Ohio) Liberty, said Sunday that linebacker Antonio Kinard is weighing three options for this fall, playing football at prep schools Fork Union or Hargrave military academies, or signing with a junior college in Kansas.

“He’s looking at it like it’ll be his redshirt year,” Whittaker said. “It just won’t be at the university and then he’ll be able to get it in order and finish this test and get back on track coming up.”

The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Kinard was considered a long shot to qualify when he signed with Michigan in February. At the time, Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez said Kinard still had work to do in the classroom.

Whittaker said one holdup with Kinard’s eligibility was passing a portion of the Ohio Graduation Tests, a requirement in the state of Ohio. Still, Kinard hopes to attend Michigan in 2011.

“T.K. loves the University of Michigan,” Whittaker said. “The only goal in his life right now is to get through this and play at the University of Michigan. He’s had other Division I programs, which I’m not going to name, call him and want him to look at their universities. Big-time programs. They wanted to set him up with different schools and what not. His focus has not deviated one bit from the University of Michigan. He truly loves Coach Rodriguez and the University of Michigan.”

Although Kinard, a three-star inside linebacker according to Rivals.com, wasn’t expected to immediately contribute upon hitting campus, this is still a tough break for Michigan, who loses another player at a position of great need. Hopefully, Kinard can get his academics in line this year and make it in to Michigan next fall (a la Marques Slocum), but as Touch the Banner points out, few Michigan recruits who fail to initially qualify ever actually make it to campus — like Demar Dorsey, Adrian Witty, Marcus Witherspoon, and Quinton Woods, who all resurfaced at other Division I schools.

And yes, you read that right: Demar Dorsey has landed at another school. As mentioned in the same AnnArbor.com article linked above, Dorsey will enroll at Louisville in the fall. First-year head coach Charlie Strong and defensive coordinator Vance Bedford recruited Dorsey when they were coaching at Florida, the school Dorsey originally committed to before ultimately choosing Michigan on signing day. After Dorsey was released from his LOI to Michigan, he was free to choose any school that would take him, and clearly he still has a strong relationship with the coaches who originally recruited him at Florida. I’ll be pulling hard for Dorsey to succeed at Louisville, although it is still very disappointing that things couldn’t work out for him here in Ann Arbor.

Similar Posts:

• Demar Dorsey Has a Backup Plan; Nothing More, Nothing Less
• Knight to Rutgers & Your Signing Day Primer
• Michigan Lands Demar Dorsey
• Conelius Jones Fails to Qualify
• No Fly Zone? Demar Dorsey Unlikely To Be Admitted

There has been a somewhat overwhelming response to my post yesterday on the Demar Dorsey situation, and I just wanted to clear up a couple things that have repeated popped up in my email, in the post comments, and on other sites:

1. I have made my stance on Rich Rodriguez very clear over the last couple years: I think he is still the best coach for Michigan right now, and I have no “agenda” in any of the comments I made about him yesterday. Given the version of events that was outlined to me yesterday, I concluded that Rodriguez was at the very least one of the parties that deserved some blame for the situation. I think it has become pretty obvious by now that there have been some bumps in the road on the administrative side as Rodriguez continues to learn what will and will not fly at Michigan, as compared to previous stints at places like West Virginia at Clemson. I don’t believe there’s any conspiracy on the part of the athletic department or the university as a whole against Rodriguez — there simply have been a few instances where they weren’t on the same page. This was one of those instances. I very much agree with what Brian Cook wrote yesterday:
   

   As per usual, many people can take the hit. Rodriguez is one. Without knowledge of what he’s been told is kosher and what he’s been told is not—and how strenuously—how much is a guy working from assumptions built up after ten years at Clemson and WVU and how much is pure stubbornness from a guy who should know better isn’t clear. If there is someone on the staff who is supposed to be in contact with admissions and know which guys are borderline and which are no way—and I honestly don’t know if there is one—then it falls on that person. If there isn’t then there should be, and I expect that there will be.

2. The one line that drew the most criticism from my source’s email was this one: “Three felonies aside, strictly for academics, the director of admissions, [U-M President Mary Sue] Coleman, and [AD Dave] Brandon all agreed that Dorsey had no place at Michigan.” Why? The Detroit News posted an article two days ago that contained this quote from Dave Brandon [HT: MGoBlog]:
   

   Brandon balked at the suggestion he had anything to do with Dorsey not gaining admission.

   “That’s ridiculous,” Brandon said. “Admissions is not part of my portfolio at this university. I’ve got plenty else that I’m doing.

   “The misinformation is the athletic department is involved and there is some conspiracy involved. In this particular case, and, frankly, other cases, the admissions office concluded and made a judgment.”

   I do not disagree with this statement — I trust that Dave Brandon is being sincere when he says that this was the admissions office’s decision. That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible that Brandon (and Coleman) sat down with the director of admissions to discuss what is a very high-profile recruitment of a football player who is a borderline qualifier. In fact, this is likely a very good sign: I want to hear that the athletic department and the admissions office are in strong communication when it comes to these situations, and it sounds like Brandon was simply doing his job by talking with admissions about Dorsey. I don’t think this is the usual process for reviewing and approving a recruit (I highly doubt Mary Sue Coleman gets involved in these situations often), but this has been an extremely unusual recruitment. Still, the final decision on Dorsey came down to the admissions department, and they made their decision.

I hope that helps to clarify some of what I wrote yesterday. I sincerely appreciate all the feedback — both positive and negative — that I have received in the last day. As was pointed out by “oldmancoyote” in the comments of yesterday’s post, it is important in these instances to remember one thing: we’re all Michigan fans, and ultimately we’re all on the same side here, even if we have differences of opinion. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by the blog, and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Similar Posts:

• We May All Be (Somewhat) Wrong About the Dorsey Situation
• No Fly Zone? Demar Dorsey Unlikely To Be Admitted
• Demar Dorsey Not Admitted, Released From Commitment
• Brandon Makes Big Splash With Night Game
• Bill Martin to Retire as AD in 2010

When word came this week that Demar Dorsey would not be admitted to Michigan, many Wolverine fans — myself included — bemoaned the decision of the admissions department to reject an NCAA qualified player who had already been offered a scholarship, especially someone who had been through everything Dorsey has gone through over the course of his recruitment. I said this yesterday (emphasis added for reasons which will be revealed shortly):

I don’t have much to add to this — everything I said yesterday still holds true, in that this process has been incredibly unfair to Dorsey and is an embarrassment to the school and the program. Word is Rich Rodriguez is furious about the situation, and I don’t blame him one bit. He got cleared by someone at the school to offer Dorsey a scholarship, Dorsey qualified, and admissions refused to let him in (despite what sounds like a strong push from the coaching staff to reconsider) — this is not only unfortunate for Dorsey, who now has to find another school, but for Rodriguez and his staff, who will certainly be placed under scrutiny by recruits (and opposing coaches recruiting Michigan targets) about their ability to get commits on campus who may be borderline qualifiers.

The highlighted part of that paragraph was based on something stated by Brian Cook at MGoBlog before Dorsey had officially been released from his commitment:

This situation is the Draper/Labadie/compliance dysfunction all over again, with miscommunication between Rodriguez—who went to bat for Dorsey with a provost before signing day and got a signoff on him—and admissions replacing the lack of communication between the football administration and compliance. It’s a different sclerotic artery, but the root cause is the same.

Why do I bring this up? Today I received an email from a close friend with an intimate knowledge of the Dorsey situation. To protect my friend and his source, parts of the following email have been redacted, but I can tell you that I firmly believe that everything he told me is true, and it helps to clarify the entire situation a great deal. Here’s the email (emphasis mine):

Stumbled on a little tidbit of inside info …  When Rodriguez offered Dorsey a scholarship, he had a [Ed: GPA and ACT score removed -- suffice it to say, the scores didn't qualify] . Florida withdrew his scholarship because of his grades. Nobody in admissions ever cleared Dorsey before Rodriguez offered a scholarship. He eventually got his grades up by dropping out of school, attending an alternative high school which he did not get credit from [Ed: this would be the LifeSkills school which released the promotional video featuring Dorsey], and taking online classes, all of which he got an A in. His ACT score (according to his coach, Michigan never saw documentation) jumped to 18. Dorsey never even filled out a standard college application, which all athletes are supposed to do to be considered. Long story short, there was no mix-up. Three felonies aside, strictly for academics, the director of admissions, Coleman, and Brandon all agreed that Dorsey had no place at Michigan. Rod never checked with anyone before offering a scholarship and having him sign a letter of intent. He just did it and then expected admissions to let him in. I feel sorry for the kid, but this was Rod’s fault, not admissions. Had Rod ever checked with anyone, he would’ve gotten a firm “no”. There wasn’t even a debate about whether he’d be let in. And apparently, Rod’s in the habit of doing stuff like this.

Anyway, I thought this was very discouraging to hear. I still have a lot of faith in Rod as a football coach, but he really is just a football coach. And since that was at odds with what you and Brian wrote, I thought I’d write to clear it up.

He added this in a follow-up email:

Brian wrote that the day before signing day Rod went to bat for [sic] “a Provost.” I have no idea what that means. There’s only one provost. If you refer to each of the associate provosts as “a provost” then there are three more. [My source] swears this never happened. Maybe he met with someone about the felonies. Again, this was not about the felonies, but instead about the grades. He had a [low GPA/ACT score] at the time. It is simple [sic] inconceivable that anyone involved with Michigan would have signed off on that.

To me, this whole story sounds much more viable than what most of us have presumed to be true for the last few days: that Rodriguez found someone who gave him clearance to offer a scholarship, only to have admissions reject Dorsey months later, with some massive failure in communication between the coaching staff and the admissions department occurring somewhere in the middle. Breaking stories is not my usual job as a blogger, but I couldn’t sit on this story — again, I believe it makes a lot of sense, and although I am forced to release it as a story from an anonymous source, I believe it to be true. If someone has a way of confirming the story, I would love to get a definite statement that it is in fact true — as a student blogging in my spare time, I don’t have the resources (or the sources) to find confirmation.

Just to clarify, I have the utmost respect for Brian Cook as a blogger — I’m sure a source did tell him that story about Rich Rod checking with “a provost,” and he certainly wasn’t the only Michigan fan/blogger to take the stance he did. Again, I made the exact same assumptions. As it stands, I still feel much the same way when it comes to Demar Dorsey: I still believe he did a great deal of work to get his life turned around and to qualify for the NCAA, which he did — he just didn’t meet the academic standards that Michigan upholds, and it was unfortunate that he was offered a scholarship when it was apparently very clear that he would never be admitted.

Instead, this looks very bad for Rodriguez, especially in light of the recent NCAA violations (regardless of who is really at fault for the violations, Rodriguez was still cited for a lack of institutional control, which appears to be the case again here). I still believe that Rodriguez is a good football coach who can succeed in Ann Arbor, but it is apparent that he will have to do a much better job of managing the off-the-field aspect of coaching if he hopes to stay out of these types of situations in the future.

UPDATE: MGoBrian has a post confirming (to the extent of his knowledge) the details of this post. Also, I have removed the information of Dorsey’s exact GPA and ACT score prior to his qualifying scores — I had no right to give out that information, and I sincerely apologize for leaving that part of the email intact. Posting that was irresponsible journalism and not right, but there was no malicious intent — I was just trying to get the story right and made a regretful error.

Also, this clears up the issue of Brian’s statement about the provost:

Ace spends a section of his post debunking the idea that Rodriguez got a sign-off on offering Dorsey from the “provost” mentioned. I think there’s been a miscommunication due to an awkward sentence. The original paragraph:

“This situation is the Draper/Labadie/compliance dysfunction all over again, with miscommunication between Rodriguez—who went to bat for Dorsey with a provost before signing day and got a signoff on him—and admissions replacing the lack of communication between the football administration and compliance. It’s a different sclerotic artery, but the root cause is the same.”

This has been taken to imply that Rodriguez had gotten some sort of sign off from admissions; unfortunately I was trying to express the opposite. When Rodriguez was clearing Dorsey with part of the university—something that did indeed happen, though it might not have been a “provost”—it was about his checkered past and not his checkered transcript. It was the failure of both parties not to explore the kid’s academic background sufficiently, or of Rodriguez not to understand that Michigan is not West Virginia in these matters*, that left Dorsey and Michigan in the position they are today, where Michigan looks stupid coming and going and Dorsey’s left to find a new home in the middle of June. That is essentially identical to the CARA form fiasco.

Similar Posts:

• Demar Dorsey Has a Backup Plan; Nothing More, Nothing Less
• Wolverines on the Web Discusses Demar Dorsey
• A Couple Clarifications on Yesterday’s Dorsey Post
• No Fly Zone? Demar Dorsey Unlikely To Be Admitted
• Demar Dorsey Not Admitted, Released From Commitment

It’s official, and officially depressing: Demar Dorsey will not be suiting up for the Wolverines this fall, or ever. MGoBlog’s TomVH scored an interview with Dorsey himself last night in which the recruit sounded very unsure of his status with Michigan, and now the Detroit News caught up with his father, Eddie Jackson, who put any hope of Dorsey coming to Michigan to rest:

The father of Michigan recruit Demar Dorsey said his son is now free to look at other college options.

Dorsey, a four-star recruit from Boyd Anderson in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has signed and returned papers to Michigan that release him from the letter of intent he signed in February, his father, Eddie Jackson, told The News Wednesday morning.

Jackson said Dorsey met Michigan’s academic-entrance requirements with an 18 ACT and a 2.5 grade-point average.

“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.”

I don’t have much to add to this — everything I said yesterday still holds true, in that this process has been incredibly unfair to Dorsey and is an embarrassment to the school and the program. Word is Rich Rodriguez is furious about the situation, and I don’t blame him one bit. He got cleared by someone at the school to offer Dorsey a scholarship, Dorsey qualified, and admissions refused to let him in (despite what sounds like a strong push from the coaching staff to reconsider) — this is not only unfortunate for Dorsey, who now has to find another school, but for Rodriguez and his staff, who will certainly be placed under scrutiny by recruits (and opposing coaches recruiting Michigan targets) about their ability to get commits on campus who may be borderline qualifiers.

In short, this entire situation sucks, and I hope Demar Dorsey can find a school and excel there — I just wish that school could have been Michigan.

Similar Posts:

• Demar Dorsey Has a Backup Plan; Nothing More, Nothing Less
• Wolverines on the Web Discusses Demar Dorsey
• We May All Be (Somewhat) Wrong About the Dorsey Situation
• A Couple Clarifications on Yesterday’s Dorsey Post
• No Fly Zone? Demar Dorsey Unlikely To Be Admitted

For the past few months, Michigan insiders have believed that the biggest hurdle facing Demar Dorsey on his path to Ann Arbor was whether or not he would qualify academically. Yesterday, news came out that Dorsey had indeed met the NCAA eligibility requirements, but his status was still very much up in the air when it came to being admitted to Michigan:

A source on Monday indicated Dorsey has “qualified, he has made it,” but the University of Michigan has not admitted him. “That’s where the hang-up is right now.”

Dorsey, according to the source, has not yet been notified of his status at Michigan, because the football staff is still working to have him admitted.

“I don’t know anything yet,” Mark James, Dorsey’s coach at Boyd Anderson High, said Monday by telephone. “I’m just like you guys I’m trying to find out something officially.”

Similar Posts:

• Demar Dorsey Has a Backup Plan; Nothing More, Nothing Less
• Michigan Lands Demar Dorsey
• We May All Be (Somewhat) Wrong About the Dorsey Situation
• A Couple Clarifications on Yesterday’s Dorsey Post
• Demar Dorsey Not Admitted, Released From Commitment

Remember the Homeland Security Department’s biggest PR move, the terrorist threat level indicator? You know, this thing. Well, I decided — in a desperate attempt to figure out what type of content to post during the slow summer months — to apply these threat levels (minus the whole, you know, terrorist thing) to Michigan’s position groups. In other words, which groups are the Wolverines comfortably stocked at, and which ones have you buying mass quantities of bottled water and canned foods to prepare for the football apocalypse? Over the next week, I’ll be placing each of the position groups into one of the above categories. So far, I have covered the “Low”,  “Guarded”, “Elevated” , and “High” threat categories, and today, we we end with the “Severe” position groups. Duck and cover, everyone.

Cornerback: No surprise here — with the early departure of Donovan Warren from an already-disappointing secondary, cornerback is a major area of concern heading into the fall. The team will rely heavily on senior Troy Woolfolk, who is back at corner after bouncing between the position and safety last season. He is perhaps the only player in Michigan’s secondary who we can definitely expect to start every game when he’s healthy (Cam Gordon may also fall under this category, but he’s still a redshirt freshman who just switched from wideout to safety), and he’ll be relied upon to shut down the opposition’s top receiver. Woolfolk doesn’t quite measure up to Michigan’s usual standard of a #1 corner (think Law, Woodson, Jackson, Hall, and even Warren), but he should be a reliable starter.

The other starting spot should be hotly contested perhaps even during the season, as redshirt sophomore J.T. Floyd will have to hold off competition from redshirt freshman Justin Turner, senior James Rogers, and a host of talented true freshmen. Floyd has appeared much-improved this spring after looking overmatched at times in 2009, but his ceiling is relatively low compared to the players competing for his spot. Turner could be ticketed for safety, as he has looked big and a little slow for a corner this spring, but he was a highly-touted recruit who has the potential to be a special player. As for the true freshmen, Michigan secured a pair of blue-chippers in Cullen Christian and Demar Dorsey — both should see the field early and often when they get to Ann Arbor, although it appears that Dorsey has a large uphill climb with regards to qualifying academically. Courtney Avery and Terrence Talbott were both three-star recruits — if either is immediately thrust into a major role, things have probably gone very wrong.

The good news at corner is that Michigan is filling in the depth chart with talented young players after being burned by depth issues the past couple seasons. The bad news is that, besides Woolfolk, there isn’t a proven corner on the team right now. That’s a major concern for anyone who has witnessed the Wolverines’ secondary play of recent years.

Safety: Have I mentioned that last year’s secondary was disappointing? Well, a cursory look at this year’s projected depth chart does little to dissuade any fears that Michigan’s back five (remember, 3-3-5 defense this year) won’t be the weak point of the team again in 2010. Yes, Cameron Gordon has emerged as a potential impact player at free safety — he’s still a redshirt freshman who was playing wide receiver last season. That’s your last line of defense. Although it appears Gordon has the free safety position locked down, he will get some competition from sophomore Vlad Emilien and potentially freshman Carvin Johnson and redshirt freshman Brandin Hawthorne in the fall. Regardless, a first-time starter will be the man tasked with protecting Michigan from big plays over the top — I can’t be the only person who is somewhat petrified by this.

As for the box (strong) safeties, it looks like redshirt sophomore, and former walk-on, Jordan Kovacs will start on one side, while redshirt freshman Thomas Gordon is your current leader across from Kovacs. Competition will be heavy for these spots, however — redshirt junior Mike Williams, freshmen Marvin Robinson and Josh Furman, redshirt sophomore Floyd Simmons, and sophomores Mike Jones and Teric Jones will all get a shot at playing time. Of those guys, I’d expect Robinson and Furman to have the best shot at unseating one of the starters, although the coaching staff could be (legitimately) wary of plugging in a true freshman into an already-green secondary. Regardless of who starts, the team will be heavy on youth and light on experience at safety.

Kicker: Michigan signed kicker Brendan Gibbons to a scholarship in the class of 2009, with the expectation that he would start from day one. Instead, walk-on Jason Olesnavage handled the kicking duties last season, and performed well, but Gibbons has once again failed to grab the starting job against a pair of walk-ons in Kris Pauloski and Scott Schrimscher. There’s not a whole lot to analyze here: Rich Rodriguez has said the kicking game has been inconsistent, and that’s never a good sign when you’re looking at a first-time starter at kicker no matter who wins the job. With so much pressure to win games, and a defense that will likely give up its fair share of points, Michigan can’t afford to miss out on points in the kicking game. Let’s all hope that Gibbons, or one of the walk-ons, can step up and at least be somewhat reliable, or else Rodriguez’s very job could hang on a kick or two this season.

Similar Posts:

• Position Preview: Safety
• 2010 Official Depth Chart Breakdown: Defense/Special Teams
• Brandon Smith Transferring, and Another Look at the 2010 Defense
• An Early Stab at the 2010 Depth Chart: Defense
• Early Guess at the Football Depth Chart: Now Updated for Spring

There was quite a panic this morning when news started floating around that Demar Dorsey had signed a letter of intent with a community college. This is true. It’s also not nearly a big a deal as one would first think. Thanks to Brian and his legion of MGoBloggers, we know that:

1. Players can sign a letter of intent to both a Division I team and a JUCO or NAIA school — an LOI is simply an agreement on the part of the school to honor its commitment to the player.
2. Of the 70 players who signed LOIs to Ft. Scott Community College (the JUCO where Dorsey signed his LOI), 56% of them never actually made it to Ft. Scott.

If that sounds like “backup plan” to you, well, you hit the nail on the head:

“He’s working very hard to be a Wolverine, but he has to be ready just in case, to recover if he doesn’t get in. If he comes here, we’d love to develop him, and get him to his goals. WE ARE HIS BACK UP PLAN. He may never end up at our school. If he can’t get qualified, then he needs to know that he has a backup plan, and that’s us.”

That was Ft. Scott’s head coach, Jeff Sims, in an interview with MGoBlog’s TomVH this morning. So, yes, Demar Dorsey did sign a letter of intent to play at a community college. He also signed a letter of intent to play at Michigan. A lot of players need to do some work academically before they make it to Ann Arbor — Justin Turner wasn’t qualified until after fall practices started last season, but he’s on the team now and was available last fall. Of course, this can also go down the road Adrian Witty took, where a player can’t quite get the grades or test scores to qualify. With no comment yet from Dorsey, nobody knows how close he is to qualifying, although he must have a reasonable shot, otherwise Michigan wouldn’t have offered him in the first place — remember, U-M essentially pulled Tony Drake’s offer this year when it became clear the commit wasn’t going to make it academically, and Drake managed to qualify at Colorado State.

This news certainly isn’t good — it’s clear Dorsey has some work to do academically to get on campus in the fall, and Michigan could really use a player of his talent in the secondary — but it’s way too early for panicking. It’s been made very clear that Dorsey’s goal is still to be in Ann Arbor and ready to go for the fall, and until there is some concrete news about his academic status, I’m not concerned about a player covering all his bases in the event things don’t go according to plan.

Similar Posts:

• Signing Day Update: Parker to Washington, 26 LOIs In
• We May All Be (Somewhat) Wrong About the Dorsey Situation
• Antonio Kinard Doesn’t Qualify; Dorsey to Louisville
• No Fly Zone? Demar Dorsey Unlikely To Be Admitted
• Demar Dorsey Not Admitted, Released From Commitment

Back in February, I took an early stab at projecting the offensive and defensive depth charts for the fall. Now that spring practice is underway and the new roster has been released, there’s a lot more information available about how Michigan will line up and who will be lining up where. So, I’ve taken another opportunity to make myself look really foolish in the fall, and updated my projected depth chart to reflect these changes. Here are a few notes on the changes:

OFFENSE

One player who has a lot of buzz surrounding him so far in spring is running back Mike Cox, whose running skills seem to be catching up to his outstanding athleticism and frame. For now, I’ve moved Cox up to second on the depth chart with Michael Shaw, behind the injured Vincent Smith. With all the talented players the Wolverines have at running back, I expect to see a fair amount of running back by committee come fall, and Cox should be one of the backs in the mix for carries.

At receiver, Roy Roundtree has been practicing at outside receiver, but I expect him to move back into the slot when Junior Hemingway returns healthy in the fall. Word from practice is that Roundtree and Martavious Odoms have become a dangerous combination when both see the field at the same time, so it would not be a surprise to see Michigan start two slot receivers next season. We’ll have to wait and see if that has any effect on the tight end position, but for now I’m keeping Roundtree as the top slot in my depth chart along with Odoms — down the road, I may split the slots into two positions.

On the line, it sounds like Mark Huyge, Perry Dorrestein, Taylor Lewan, and Michael Schofield are the players battling for the two tackle positions, so I’ve changed the depth chart to reflect that competition. Patrick Omameh, who some (including myself) originally thought would move out to tackle this season, has been playing (and impressing) at guard. I have him projected as the starter at right guard, with the experienced Huyge and Dorrestein at tackle — I wouldn’t be surprised if Lewan grabs one of the tackle spots, but he’s a redshirt freshman who is still filling out his massive frame, so for now I have him backing up Huyge.

DEFENSE

The big change here is the alignment — I recommend checking out this helpful post from Touch the Banner to get more familiar with the slight move to more of a 4-2-5 look:

From left to right along the line should be Ryan Van Bergen, Will Campbell, Mike Martin (injured for spring practice, so Greg Banks is playing there right now), and Craig Roh. The two interior linebackers are Obi Ezeh and Jonas Mouton, if they hold on to their positions. The weak side safety in the above graph is what Michigan is calling the “spur” position — right now, Mike Williams and Brandin Hawthorne appear to be the most likely players to start there, with Mike Jones, Thomas Gordon and probably Josh Furman (when he arrives in the fall) also competing at the position. The strong safety — Touch the Banner calls it the “boundary” safety, but I’ll use the more common term to save confusion — appears to be Jordan Kovacs’ position to lose, although Marvin Robinson could compete for time there when he enrolls in the fall. Vlad Emilien has received the first-team reps so far at free — deep — safety, although Cameron Gordon impressed when Emilien sat out with a minor injury this week. If Troy Woolfolk were to move back to safety, this would likely be his spot.

At cornerback, Woolfolk is obviously holding down one spot, and I’ll place him there in the depth chart until he moves (if he moves) to safety. J.T. Floyd has been getting the first-team reps at the other corner spot, and has impressed so far, although J.T. Turner will make a strong push for that starting role. Of course, the competition at corner will not be fully settled until the fall, when Demar Dorsey, Cullen Christian, Terrence Talbott, and Courtney Avery arrive on campus.

For the full, updated depth chart, hit the “Football Depth Chart” tab at the top of the screen, or simply click here.

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• Position Preview: Safety
• 2010 Official Depth Chart Breakdown: Offense
• An Early Stab at the 2010 Depth Chart: Defense
• An Early Stab at the 2010 Depth Chart: Offense
• Five Players With the Most to Gain in Spring Practice