Chris Evans Suspended
Rumors about senior running back Chris Evans running into some kind of serious academic trouble have been circulating for about a week without word from an official source. Michigan today confirmed that Evans, at least for the moment, is off the team, via Angelique Chengalis of the Detroit News.
Chris Evans is not a member of the football team at this time — per David Ablauf, Associate AD for Football Communications. “Privacy laws prohibit us from commenting further.”
— angelique (@chengelis) February 5, 2019
Evans confirmed it's school-related but he isn't leaving the school:
I am going through some academic issues right now. I’m working through it now. I will still continue my career at the University of Michigan ! #GoBlue
— Chris Evans (@Kidnplay_abc123) February 5, 2019
The Michigan Daily's Ethan Wolfe reported that it was indeed some form of academic misconduct.
Sources told The Daily that Evans’ departure is a result of academic misconduct, and he was disenrolled from one of his classes this week. It is unclear whether he is still enrolled at the University. Evans explained his situation on Twitter following news breaking of his status on the team.
We also received a couple of credible-ish reports last week that these academic issues were both very serious and self-inflicted. Students reported he was not in class last week but was today, so it appears that he is getting at least a chance to work back toward his degree.
His future on the football team remains in greater doubt. Regardless of whether Evans is available again next fall, he almost certainly won't be participating in Spring practices.
The news was particularly shocking given the particular player. Evans has never—to our or the public's knowledge—been connected to off-field issues in the past. Evans runs a youth football league in Ann Arbor (his team is ranked #3 in their age group), and in fact asked us to promote a fundraiser for it held the same night we did that Pistons event.
February 5th, 2019 at 6:30 PM ^
Damn, sucks! Hope he can make it back onto the team and get things back in order.
To ask the obvious: Any running backs in the grad transfer portal?
February 5th, 2019 at 6:32 PM ^
He seems like a great kid. I hope he gets his U-M degree and gets to play football again...in whichever order he prefers.
February 5th, 2019 at 6:36 PM ^
Bummer for Chris. He seems like a great kid and a good teammate who loves Michigan. I will always remember his segment coaching kids in Indy
Turner was my prediction to lead the team next year in rushing because of his all purpose size and speed.
What happened to our depth? Shit.
February 5th, 2019 at 9:05 PM ^
What happened to our depth? Shit.
Even if Evans is for some reason unable to play, we're still looking at Wilson (who imo had a great season), Turner, and Charbonet. That's a pretty fantastic stable.
Don't get me wrong, of course I'd like to see Evans get whatever this issue is straightened our and have him back on the field.
February 5th, 2019 at 10:19 PM ^
Giles Jackson probably plays more of the receiving back role too
but it's not great depth, but a solid rotation
February 5th, 2019 at 10:33 PM ^
Giles could be interesting for sure. I did not think about him.
Regarding depth it’s always good to have senior or upperclassmen leadership. My feeling was Turner was going to lead this team in rushing next fall ahead of Evans. Tru is obviously a very effective back.
So now you have two guys who have college level snaps. One was a walk on. And couple of unproven freshmen. I am very optimistic about Charbonnet but he is still a freshman.
February 5th, 2019 at 6:39 PM ^
Oof. Hope he gets that straightened out (and not just for his football future). Good luck Chris, get it done!
February 5th, 2019 at 6:44 PM ^
Football considerations aside, I really hope he can get this figured out and be successful at Michigan. He seems like a good dude.
February 5th, 2019 at 6:44 PM ^
Wow, totally unexpected.
I hope he can sort things out and number one - get his school work on track - because long term that will help him the most, and of course selfishly I'd like to see him back in the fall on the team.
February 5th, 2019 at 6:46 PM ^
I hope this is a learning experience for Chris - and one that does not ruin his career. No one is perfect, and hopefully he grows through this trial. Some mistakes are serious, but most are not insurmountable. Chris is an outstanding young man and a fantastic football player.
February 5th, 2019 at 6:46 PM ^
Hope he gets it sorted out and can stay on the team
February 5th, 2019 at 6:47 PM ^
Do what needs to be done Chris.
No easy way out. Finish.
February 5th, 2019 at 6:57 PM ^
Do we have any MGoCompliance officers on the board? Is "academic misconduct" limited to what it sounds like--cheating or plagiarism? Or failing a class? Or are things like Title IX issues lumped in there?
February 5th, 2019 at 7:05 PM ^
Academic misconduct is almost always some kind of academic dishonesty, and those are the two obvious options.
February 5th, 2019 at 7:29 PM ^
How do you get caught cheating that early in the semester? Mid-terms haven't happened yet and I doubt any major papers/projects would be due that early.
He must have been plagiarizing some minor homework assignment, but I don't see how that could merit kicking him out of school.
February 5th, 2019 at 8:03 PM ^
Maybe something from last semester that just came to light recently?
February 5th, 2019 at 8:42 PM ^
You don’t seem to grasp academic rules. Plagiarism or cheating on any assignment is grounds for serious discipline. It doesn’t matter if it’s on a “big” assignment or a small one.
February 5th, 2019 at 7:10 PM ^
There are a lot of possibilities here. Cheating or plagiarism falls under academic misconduct
Since he's not enrolled in a particular course that he was previously means he lost his hearing or simply admitted wrong doing
Read more here
February 5th, 2019 at 6:57 PM ^
This is utterly shocking. The dude even kind of looks like Steve Urkel. I never would have guessed this could happen to him.
February 5th, 2019 at 7:10 PM ^
Well, this sucks - more for him than for us. I hope he keeps a positive attitude towards working his way back, because I'd love to see that. Not necessarily for yards and TDs, but for the kid himself. People make mistakes, and need the chance to learn from them and pull themselves back up. If he can return from this crap, even at a lesser school, and finish his degree, that would be awesome for his long term outlook!
Good luck, Chris...
February 5th, 2019 at 7:34 PM ^
Can anyone think of an example of a player who was removed the team for academic issues (whether misconduct or just garden variety failing) who actually made it back?
February 5th, 2019 at 9:19 PM ^
Stefan Humphries, ken higgins, noah furbush /s
February 6th, 2019 at 1:35 AM ^
I remember seeing Stefan on North Campus while I was at Michigan, he was a class ahead of me. I think he took engineering math (advanced calculus - PDEs) and fluid dynamics. From what I heard he was pretty smart. So, not sure how he was in academic trouble.
February 6th, 2019 at 7:41 AM ^
Methinks you missed the /s.
February 5th, 2019 at 7:40 PM ^
Perhaps he's over extended himself. Kids in the community are important but the degree must be his priority.
February 5th, 2019 at 7:40 PM ^
Hey Chris, if you are reading this, know we are all pulling for you. Everyone has ups and downs, trials and tribulations. It's just tougher when the spotlight is always on. Focus on what's important for a long and fruitful life.
February 5th, 2019 at 9:15 PM ^
Just a guy. Michigan has been average or worse at rb since hart. All hope to charbonnet. Uga has 4-5 rbs better than michigan at all times.
February 5th, 2019 at 10:15 PM ^
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I logged in just to downvote.
Believe it or not, Chris was a human being before he became a Michigan football player.
Try keeping things in perspective.
February 5th, 2019 at 10:26 PM ^
Most would ask you not to be a dick, but I guess you are!
February 5th, 2019 at 10:24 PM ^
From the sounds of it, or the wording of some of the tweets, this comes off as like a plagiarism/cheating kind of infraction. While serious it could be something that he made a mistake on, admitted his mistake, did something about it and got back on track. If he has not been kicked out of school and is in fact back in classes it seems like something of a student code of conduct violation and not something more legally serious.
February 5th, 2019 at 10:35 PM ^
Since he didn't break the law here, I'm hoping he just gets a suspension, like 4-8 games depending on the details. A normal student that committed plagarism would most likely not get expelled from school, they would fail the class and be on some probation with some strings attached to their staying in school.
February 6th, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
Might explain why Harbaugh pulled the scholarship for APH last minute: looking for a scholarship transfer RB or juco with XP Pronto. @$#%
...explains the surprise?
February 6th, 2019 at 12:53 AM ^
We often give way too much lip service to "He just made a mistake, he deserves a second chance" to willful, blatantly bad behavior . . . but I really hope Chris Evans gets a second chance.
February 6th, 2019 at 6:28 AM ^
For perspective, it's an academic violation, not some violent offense.
Imma come clean here; I've cheated on tests at UM. Not in the sense of stealing exams or such, but I've smuggled in notes. I feel rote memorization in the Internet era is stupid, but rules are rules, and if I got caught I would've been in serious trouble. I was under a lot of pressure at the time, and did things I ain't proud of. I ain't a better man than Evans.
What I'm getting at is that people often cross lines when they're cornered, but they're usually different lines than the kinds I worry about. Or at the very worst, it results in uncharacteristic behavior that ceases as soon as the pressure is lifted. If the only offense Evans has ever committed at UM is academic in nature, as serious as that is, we're not talking about a guy who does shit just for petty amusement (we all know the type). It's not like I'd feel unsafe around him after hearing about this.
So, the type of offense matters. Also, track record. Usually when people talk about second chances, they're really talking about 600th chances. This is the first we've heard of Evans getting in trouble. The risk of recidivism here is very low.
February 6th, 2019 at 11:10 AM ^
Bravo, agree 100%
February 6th, 2019 at 7:37 AM ^
Go Chris! Hope to see you on the field again soon.
Work through your academic issues and c'mon back.
Go Blue!
February 6th, 2019 at 9:25 AM ^
This wouldn't be an issue at North Carolina. Hope he gets things worked out.
February 6th, 2019 at 11:09 AM ^
Hope he gets it figured out and can continue playing here. I don’t want to speculate obviously but if it was something that terrible I doubt they’d let him back in class. Who knows though. He always seemed like a great kid, and I hope wherever his path takes him it works out
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