...to whoever has the most negative points, needs to start taking a deep breath and counting to ten before posting and flying off the handle (usually bending over backwards to defend Rich Rod). We've had explosions of posts over "Fire Compliance! Fire Lloyd for being disloyal! Fire football administration! Fire Admissions!" Mostly wrong. To the point people are posting contact info, and doing everything short of forming a mob to hang that dirty injun' in the jailhouse. We like to say we self police so this site stays a step above all those other places that deteriorate into "Argh Fire Rich Rod" trolling. But I've watched this site over the last few months turning into that thing...just over everything else Michigan other than the coach. Next time you want to call for blood in a board post, ask yourself if you're sure you know everything going on...or just THINK what you've heard are the facts. Then remind yourself you're from MICHIGAN. And see if you still want to post it.

Glad the USC news came out today.  Finally deflects some of the attention and negative perception away from UM.

This situation is just a bummer all around.  Wish the kid could've been admitted - for his sake and for the sake of the university.  

I retract my admissions statements. this is more on RR than admissions.

While I commend Brian on placing some much-needed context on this fiasco, I disagree somewhat with the notion that RR is just being "stubborn" and doesn't get the situation here at Michigan, because frankly this isn't the Michigan that I (and my guess is most readers) grew up with.  Case in point - here has been RR's life since he joined UM.

• Arrives after the much-publicized Les Miles debacle.  Depending on who you talk to, RR was UM's 3rd or 4th option as a head coach.  There are already grumblings by local press and "insiders" that RR isn't a "Michigan Man" and doubt is placed on his ability to lead UM.
• Almost as soon as he stepped off the plane in Ann Arbor, his former employer WVU attacked him in the press, claiming he destroyed player records and perpetrated other dastardly deeds against the Mountaineer people.  In my opinion, UM's athletic department's response is somewhat muted, lacking in the the type of "he's our guy, back off" passion that you'd like to see for your new head coach.
• RR's name is dragged through the mud further by the buyout clause in his contract, a clause that virtually every big-name coach has and is usually dealt with behind closed doors.  Idiots like Sharp and Snyder rant about UM spending "taxpayer's money" on a coach's violation of a contract, vitriol that I doubt will exist if/when Izzo bolts for the NBA.  In this instance I'm not sure how much the University could have done to help, but before coaching his first game, RR has been attacked in the media twice.
• The mass exodus of players, through transfer, graduation, and early entry to the NFL, decimates a team that (as we've seen), didn't have much in the way of depth.  His intricate and specialized offense is run by a since-twice transferred freshman and a walk-on, behind a patchwork line and with a stable of inconsistent and oft-injured RB core and pedestrian WRs.  The defense struggles under the admittedly bad hire of Scott Shafer, but also shows disturbing holes in the secondary and virtually no meaningful depth.
• RR is branded a bad guy who doesn't recognize "family values" by a couple of disgruntled players, including a petty Justin Boren who proceeds to trash RR all the way to OSU.  Sensing blood in the water, both local and national media question whether RR was a good hire.  Mind you, he has yet to coach a single game at UM, and is still subject to far more scrutiny than any coach who has ever been at UM.
• 3-9 in his first year.  The offense struggles mightily as Threet and Co. struggle to adapt to RR's very technical offense, and the defense struggles under poor coaching by RR and his staff and the realization that perhaps they were not as talented as they first appeared.  First non-bowl season since before most of us were alive.
• In his first offseason, RR's coaching ability is questioned (perhaps fairly in some respects, but still quite early given the mess he inherited).  People are already calling for his head.  True. optimism is in the air with the arrival of a well-regarded recruiting class, but freshmen QBs + little depth doesn't instill immense confidence.  
• Little-used Justin Feagin (perhaps recruited because RR realized what he had at QB) is found to be involved in drug distribution, and is dismissed immediately. This serves as further proof that RR is a bad guy who only recruits thugs, ignoring the fact that guys get dismissed from teams across America for similar offenses, including prior UM teams.  No condoning or spit-shining the bad situation, but it is the reality of major college sports that sometimes you lose on the chance guys.
• Freep Jihad/Practicegate, as some half-truths, miscommunications, despicable "journalism", and administrative incompetence paint RR as a taskmaster who completely disregards NCAA rules governing practice time.  Whole forests in the Northwest are decimated to make way for the flood of editorials in Detroit denouncing RR, and enough electrons are discharged on he Internet covering the story to power a mid-sized city.  Even though it later turns out that any infractions were extremely minor and fed could be traced back to RR, he is the one taken to task for the infractions.  At this point, it is fair to say that RR no longer would agree that it is raining outside; Angry Michigan Coach Hating God  is simply peeing on him.
• 4-0 to start the season, RR has righted the ship and everyone is realizing the guy can coach.  Cries for his dismissal are silenced.  A 1-7 finish (due in large part to the appalling lack of depth on defense and starting two freshmen without his workhorse RB to help carry the load) renew and intensify those looking to eliminate the coach.  
• At this point, a loud majority of fans and pundits struggle to understand why "Michigan would be this bad", ignoring the fact that this isn't Carr's team anymore, and some struggles are to be expected.  People want 5* recruits and a return to Big 10 titles, so RR takes a chance on a highly-rated kid in Demar Dorsey, even though he has a sordid past both legally and academically.  Perhaps a sign of desperation, as the calls for his ousting become even greater, but again, not uncommon in college sports.  It sounds like RR did not follow the correct channels in seeing if Dorsey would be accepted, and for that he deserves the negative press he has received.  Depending on how you are scoring at home, RR is either an extremely unlucky guy, a horrible guy who doesn't know how to run a legit football team, or someone who may be best cutting bait and coaching somewhere else.  

I am not saying that RR deserves to be let off scot free for the past few years - he clearly has struggled integrating his system with less-than-optimal talent, and his defenses have been historically bad, walk-ons or not.  He has also rubbed some major players behind the scenes the wrong way, and has found a way to make every misstep possible both on and off the field.  But this Michigan isn't the Michigan that I remember - this is a soap opera with a million bit players, all looking for their moment in the spotlight, even if it destroys the narrative and upsets the lead actors.  

In this day of instant news and an unparalleled level of access and exposure afforded to millions via the Internet and social media, UM has become a punchline for administrative oversights and poor execution, where every misstep by some support staff or administrator somehow finds it way back to the head coach, as some referendum on his abilities as a coach and his worth as a person.  That doesn't seem fair to me, and while RR certainly hasn't lived up to his billing, I can honestly say that UM hasn't lived up to its either.  

This makes more sense and makes the rejection of Dorsey more palatable, though no less disappointing.

I still think, though, that Michigan needs to come up with a way of avoiding this situation altogether. By not having a minimum expected recruiting profile defined, resources that were devoted to Dorsey went to waste instead of being invested in other recruits like Sean Parker.

Also, I find the "RR should never have offered to begin with" angle a little cozy. How was he supposed to know where the limit is without knowing it to begin with? My opinion is that the HC should be the accelerator and its up to compliance and admissions to be the brakes. This is where the culture clash comes into play with me. Compliance and Admissions do not seem to be accustomed to being diligent and vigilant; hence we keep going off the track. We can blame Rodriguez for pushing too hard, I guess, but, do we really want him to back off?

I'll ask RR what the deal is when I meet him at the Women's Football Academy on Saturday. I'm sure he'll be forthright and tell me everything. 

start sticking with your original posts because they've been a lot more accurate than your retractions. this was not RR's fault, he was given the OK to offer dorsey and then admissions decided to change their mind.

Oh, Demar Dorsey, I remember that guy. 

Sorry, I was in the middle of dissecting UConn's roster.

Have to say, the way Brian presents this new story makes very little sense to me at all. If his transcripts were that bad, then admissions would have been able to say from the get go that even if he makes the cut (UM's or NCAA's) his scores would be called into question for their large jump. So 4 months later but 2 weeks before his final grades are out they send back his LOI. Sorry, that is the biggest pile of crap. So admissions can take their pick, they made a cluster%@#$ of this because they are incompetent or they did this on purpose. And we all know that the admissions department at the University of Michigan is not incompetent.

take a provost down to Florida to vet Dorsey before he was offered? The snafu here seems to be admissions, since I can't imagine letters of intent circumventing their office (maybe their brains) on their way to recruits.

and to me, it sounds a lot like someone in the admissions department is shifting blame, nothing more.  I'm sick and tired of all the he said / she said, anonymous source BS and trying to read between the lines.

And I don't buy this crap that there's no way a kid can turn his grades around if he makes up his mind, busts his ass, and puts himself in a position where he can be successful in doing so.  More scrutiny can be placed on the Lifeskills school, but it sounds to me like they, and Demar, did their jobs.  That school isn't just for athletes.

Brian's doing a 180 partly / mainly because a fellow blogger has an anonymous friend who can't believe Demar can decide to finally bust his ass and take school seriously, attend a school specifically designed to help him do what he allegedly did (improve grades).  By the same rationale, if a kid makes a mistake, then there's no way he can do anything but make similiar mistakes I guess.  Right?  Because it's not possible to have a change of heart, attitude, or focus if given a second chance.

The anonymous friend gives himself away by saying it's not about the "felonies", but repeatedly references "felonies", just as if he were talking about a convicted felon.  (e.g. "Three felonies aside...")  In my opinion, it was ALL about the "felonies" for them and the doubt over the improved grades was all the excuse they needed to refuse Demar admission.

but this seems to be more similar to the Adrian Witty deal than we initially thought.

Here's what I take from it:

Rod meets with admissions before signing day. This was where the original mistake was made. Admissions should never have approved the letter of intent if there was a caveat.

Come last week, admissions receives notifications of his scores. They are not only from an alternative high school, but improved so much that it causes a few raised eyebrows at admissions. They don't buy it and reject him.

So, one of two scenarios happened before the LOI was sent:

1) Admissions tells Rod that Dorsey's grades need to be raised if he wants in, but then turns around and thinks his grades went up TOO much. In my mind, this is borderline hypocrisy. "Raise your grades, but not too much or it'll look sketchy." I don't like it.

2) Admissions DOESN'T tell Rod about Dorsey's bad grades and approve the LOI anyway. This is borderline incompetence.

Either way, I feel it's impossible for Rod to do anything with recruits without consulting admissions since they control all the academic paperwork.

Where have I heard of an athlete with a 1.9 GPA after 3 years magically jumping to eligibility standards after switching high schools?

A copy of Bledsoe’s high school transcript from his first three years reveals that it would have taken an improbable academic makeover — a jump from about a 1.9 grade point average in core courses to just under a 2.5 during his senior year — for Bledsoe to achieve minimum N.C.A.A. standards to qualify for a scholarship.

N.C.A.A. Is Looking Into Former Kentucky Player Eric Bledsoe