I don't recall ever seeing Doug Dutch on the field. Despite being one of the country's best receivers coming out of high school--#12 according to Scout and #10 according to Rivals--he caught only four passes for 34.5 yards in his entire Michigan career before switching to cornerback, where he continued to sit on the bench.
What's the story behind him? Was he just buried on the depth chart behind a bevy of more talented receivers (Edwards, Avant, Manninghham, Arrington)? Did he suffer from the injury bug? Off-field problems? Something else?
Yes, Dutch was buried behind a bunch of more talented receivers. In the 2006-07 offseason, he switched to cornerback when Carlos Brown tried corner and was thinking of transferring.
He didn't suffer any significant injuries, as far as I know, and he didn't have any big off-field problems. He just lacked sufficient talent.
He was put on the field once at cornerback last year (that I remember) when we were having a very hard time tackling. I think the coaches were just looking for SOMEbody who could tackle and not allow a big play. Dutch promptly allowed a big play, ducked his head when trying to tackle a guy, and missed the tackle horribly. He was subsequently yanked and I didn't see him play defense for the rest of the year.
Twitter - Recruiting Update: May 20