5th Year seniors had to "audition" during spring practice
This bummed out Keith Heitzman, which led to his transfer to Ohio University.
We've all heard some buzz about 5th years not being invited back, but this is the first time I've heard that there was a formal try out process.
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The import from this story was that guys who wanted a fifth year of scholarship money would have to tryout, and in response to this, we've seen a bunch of guys leave the team.
I would suspect Harbaugh is fine with this and would rather have guys around who want to fight for their spot instead of being excited for an opportunity with the Bobcats.
Kids these days are soft. They need to learn that LIFE IS COMPETITION EVERY DAY.
Pipkins talking shit to ESPN, or some other guy complaining about having to "audition" just shows how SOFT & ENTITLED Hoke's "115 Sons" are. Like...Donut Soft...
as in 38-Donut vs. ND... and a terrible couple of seasons where the SOFT kids never played up to their athletic potential.
Dont let the door hit ya in the ass if you cant hack competition.
#Harbaugh
Whomever negged this clearly didn't see Michigan get manhandled by FUCKING Minnesota last season. Minnesota! Bo is rolling over in his grave!
Minnesota? Try Rutgers. At least Minny was a decent team last year and they've been good before in recent history.
How far back should I go?
Minnesota in conference:
2013 4 - 4
2012 2 - 6
2011 2 - 6
2010 2 - 6
2009 3 - 5
Yeah troll, that looks pretty good in recent history to me!
Looks pretty similar to Michigan's recent conference history, to be fair.
I don't disagree. Michigan has pretty much sucked for a while now.
In fact, if Michigan didn't play like a bunch of pussies that game (go back and look at the tape after Morris got hit -- not ONE of the lineman went after Minny's LB and they all stood around with their thumbs up their asses), then Michigan and Minny are both .500 in B1G play in 2014.
But that's changing the subject. I posted that Minny was more physical than us last season and that's why they won. That notion was challenged.
Minnesota won last year because it had better players, not because it was more physical. The best player on the field was Maxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Williams.
My thoughts on scholarships are they are a one year tryout for anyone. I know schools are moving to the four year scholarship, but if someone isn't getting the job done there's nothing wrong with letting them go. A lot of the time it isn't about talent. I've seen some very good players cut at my school due to work ethic or attitude. I'm not saying that's the case here, but you need guys with the right attitude to make a strong program.
It sucks he went to OSU, though. Some bad pub.
I never understood why calling them Ohio bothered them so damn much, but if it does, I'm happy to continue doing it.
There is something wrong with cutting someone with a guaranteed four year scholarship. The rule puts more pressure on coaches to recruit well. That means looking beyond the talent and adding weight to work ethic and coachability. We've already seen plenty of indications that Harbaugh is doing just that.
Michigan, fergod's sake
I think this thread is lacking a little perspective.
Heitzman jumped at the chance to play for Michigan when he was recruited. He redshirted and worked his way up the depth chart. He played a fair amount at defensive end before switching to offense because the offense needed a tight end. He wanted to be at Michigan, he worked at it while he was there, and he stayed out of trouble. I think he was good enough to be in the rotation either on offense or defense, although probably not a starter.
Then a new coach comes in. All he did for the previous years was thrown out the window, and the new coach says, "If you want to stay on the team, you have to audition." I think Heitzman had shown already that he's a good enough player to be "on the team."
Should he have left town? I don't know. But saying "it bummed me out" isn't enough to incite much of a response from me. It would be a little frustrating, and I think you're being disingenous if you think your response would be "Yippee! I'm so flipping excited that I get to try out for a team that I'm already on!"
Again, I don't really care about this one way or the other. Heitzman isn't a great player and won't be missed a great deal, but he's also not exactly ripping Michigan or Harbaugh on his way out, either.
A simple "no comment, Im happy to be playing at Ohio" would have been just fine.
and people in general, have forgotten how to do that.
Everyone thinks they're so interesting and important, but I honestly don't care what you had for lunch and I certainly don't need to see a picture of it on Twitter.
Apparently, the people who work for the Columbus Dispatch thought Heitzman was important enough to feature in an article. I don't see anything indicating that Heitzman called them up and said "Write about me! Write about me!" and he wasn't a bombastic player at Michigan, either. I think he's getting a little too much flak for saying "It bummed me out." As far as inflammatory comments go, that's about a 2 out of 10.
Yep. Everyone who's ever asked for an interview should simply say "No comment." That's the answer.
You don't have to say "no comment." You can say, "I was grateful for getting to play at Michigan. I saw an opportunity at Ohio that I believed was a better choice for me, so I transferred."
Yep. So there's the perfect way, and then there's the way Heitzman said it. Like I said elsewhere, it's a 2 out of 10 on the scale of things to get worked up about.
Who's worked up?
I don't have any ill feelings towards Heitzman. I don't think he made a bad decision. I think he made a decision that I would not have made, and that it indicates that his competitive drive is not what Harbaugh is looking for.
I wish Heitzman the best at Ohio and beyond.
You're not worked up. That wasn't directed at you. Some others are.
But some people in this thread are getting might judgy and uppity about it.
It's tough to be in the spotlight because you never know when a single sentence is going to be blown entirely out of proportion like this one. Plus, Heitzman was always basically a reserve player. How often has large scale media cared what he's had to say? (No offense, just saying)
Sometimes it's amazing what will get blasted to the corners of the earth. Harbaugh could be having a hum-drum presser and at some point he could mumble "Yeah, we like to think we work our guys harder than the competiton". All of a sudden you've got Skip Bayliss on First Take discussing the topic "Harbaugh: Slave Laborer"
Seemingly innocuous stuff can get blown up in a hurry
Something tells me all of the players are in the process of "trying out". Work hard and get better.
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From his perspective, ihe implication of asking him to try out might be "I don't think you're good enough. But I'll give you a chance to prove me wrong." Again, that's not a huge insult...but the vast majority of us wouldn't be jumping up and down with excitement, either.
If a new coach came in my senior year I would work harder, not expect a spot.
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But I used to do some singing. We had to audition to keep our spots every year. I don't see how this is any different.
I don't know what kind of singing you did, but I know how lots of choirs work. Music directors keep their jobs based on the number of kids they have in the program and how much they succeed. Having to try out for choir every year basically means, "If you were a complete asshole last year, this is my excuse to kick you out. Otherwise, I want you in my class so I can show the administration how great my program is."
It doesn't give him an advantage if he's only marginally better than another kid but the other kid has three or four years of eligibility left. And, as I've mentioned, he is/was not a star player. He's the type of player who might be on the chopping block, anyway. But as for 2015, he's a better player than Tom Strobel, Reuben Jones, Noah Furbush, Reon Dawson, etc.
Between being bummed and deciding not to compete. I would have been bummed, and then I would have done my best to go out and prove that I deserved my spot.
...or maybe you would realize that Jake Butt is better than you, so maybe it's not a bad idea to transfer somewhere where you can start.
Lots of guys transfer, and it works out for some and not for others. Who knows whether he made the right or wrong choice?
You're conflating two issues here and missing my point. It's fine for Heitzman to seek an opportunity he perceives is better at Ohio. I have no problem with that at all. But he would have seen that Butt was a better player whether he had to audition for his spot at U-M or not. He could have chosen to transfer (like a lot of 5th years do, ie Blake Countess) based on his desire for a better opportunity, and not because he was bummed about having to try out.
From Heitzman's comments, it sounds like the tryout impelled him to seek opportunities elsewhere. To me, that's the sign of some one who did not want to compete for their spot on the team. It sounds like, absent the tryout, Hetizman stays at Michigan. That is VERY different than just deciding to transfer because you believe there is a better opportunity elsewhere.
Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Big changes in a person's life generally don't come down to one issue. He was behind Jake Butt, he was bummed about having to try out, he was graduating, he had an opportunity to transfer and play immediately, etc. I don't see why it has to be one thing or the other.
"Obviously, (Jim) Harbaugh coming in was going to change things at Michigan — do things his way,"Heitzman told the Dispatch. "But I didn't know if I wanted to try out. That definitely took me off-guard. I was bummed out."
The try out is why he looked elsewhere. Without the tryout, he would not have. Like I said, I have no problem with him looking for what he believes is a better situation for him, but if the reason he's doing it is because he's not sure he wants to try out, a fair and reasonable conclusion is that he did not want to compete for a roster spot. I understand that sentiment, but it's not how I would have handled it, and it's not the kind of mentality I want on the team.
Sorry, but this doesn't prove that it's the SOLE reason he left. Again, life decisions rarely come down to one factor. If you break up with a girl, you might tell your friends it's because she doesn't want to have kids. That doesn't necessarily account for the fact that maybe she's messy, maybe you don't like her friends, maybe she's careless with money, etc.
I'm not looking for all the reasons. I don't expect you to know them. All I'm saying is that one reason doesn't guarantee the absence of others.
Going 5-7 last year and getting manhandled by all 3 rivals and also teams like Maryland and Minnesota.
You poor baby. How did you get up and go about your daily life every day when those people on the teevee weren't playing games as good as you thought they should be?
Of all the personal attacks on players on could have, saying someone was bummed on a 5-7 record set you have with some snarky response like that? You're a douche.
LOL. I was "bummed out." That's the point. It's a rather innocuous statement, isn't it?
The way your comment came across, you were equating yourself with Heitzman and saying that what matters more than him being "bummed out" is the fact that you felt bad that Michigan went 5-7.
But hey, name-calling is fun. It's the internet. Have at it all you want.