Is it possible that Harbaugh told him he still could have a scholarship but would not likley be on the team?  Can he provide someother kind of scholarship, but tell the guy he is not good enough to play football at Michigan?  

We hired Jim Harbaugh because we wanted to get back in the game... literally, we wanted to be relevant again, and that means being a top ten team playing in the FBS playoffs every few years, maybe more.  To make that happen means having to compete with the other elite FBS playoff caliber teams, including doing a lot of what they do vis a vis recruiting to stack their teams with the quality of players to make it happen.  We have the coaching, now we need the players.

We may not stoop to the level of an Alabama in the way they cull the herd, but if we want to someday beat Alabama at football we need to do exactly the types of things Harbaugh & Staff are doing right now to finish the recruiting cycle: climb trees, do sleepovers, sit in class with students, tweet crazy pictures with students...and yes, discourage or even cut loose a few commits who the staff has reevaluated and determined not to be up to the level of someday helping us beat Alabama. 

Signing Day is coming down to the wire, and this stage of recruiting is a dog-eat-dog world where our_rivals like sparty are busy offering schollies to some of our top recruits, and we're doing the same to commits at other schools.  There are still a fair number of elite uncommitted recruits that usually get scooped up on signing day by teams like USC and Alabama, but now we have Jim Harbaugh doing his job to sign some of them, including OL recruits who Mr. Swenson simply wouldn't beat out for playing time.  That's ok, I'm sure our staff regrets not having cut him loose earlier, but I consider this an overlap from the Hoke coaching transition that will smooth out going forward.

When did Kiante Enis decommit or have his offer pulled?

Did I miss something?

I sure hope not. He is the best RB in this class of M recruits.

I think the most troubling part of this is that it seems likely the coaching staff had concerns about Swenson's ability long before they pulled his scholarship, but waited until they were sure they could land someone better before cutting him loose. If he wasn't up to their standards, they should've given him more time to make alternate plans. I'm wondering if this apparent lack of concern for the needs of the athlete in this case might resonate negatively with other recruits, or the parents of recruits, who are trying to make their decisions.

Okay, this is obviously what Jim Harbaugh's going to do. He did it at Stanford. There's now enough smoke where a defender such as myself is saying, "Okay, yeah. This is happening."

Michigan recruiting isn't going to be an after-school special. Harbaugh's going to recruit his face off and take the best student athletes he can get to sign the line on February 3rd. Period. He's not going to stop to assess feelings.

As a fan, are you in or out? 

We know he's one of the best coaches in the biz - at any level. If he can maintain his current maniacal pace for any length of time, he's going to be the best recruiting head coach in the land to boot. Top coach with top talent equals lots and lots of winning and hardware.

The price to pay for that is that guys like Erik Swenson are apparently going to be left behind.  Are you with Swenson?  Or are you with Michigan?

You don't have to like it. But we might as well check the whole "This Doesn't Sit Well With Me" attitude right now. Each and every one of us.  What are you going to do about it? Are we going to march on Schlissel's home and demand more ethical recruiting? Will you stop buying your season tickets to a perennial top-10 program? Are you going to demand a more soft-handed approach if it means losing Jim Harbaugh as Michigan's head football coach?

 

If yes, I credit you for your conviction. Best of luck with whatever you choose to do with your spare time from this point forward.

 

If not, then go ahead - whine about it. Curse the heavens. Get it out of your system. This sucks for Swenson. What a dirty process. Poor kids. Thoughts and prayers...

Now get over it. Because I'm pretty sure this isn't going to be the last time you read this story.

 

Personally, I hope he was given more time than what we're hearing, but that's as far as my concern goes. Unfortunate, but we'll all live.

 

 

Look, it has to work both ways.  There is nothing stopping a "committed" recruit from changing his mind and going to a different school (Mike Weber anyone), so I don't see why coaches can't do the same thing.  What they need to do is move up National Signing Day or allow kids/schools to sign an agreement earlier in the process.  While I know it sucks for kids like Swenson that dreamed of going to Michigan, it's just the way it works.  I'm fine with it.

like "unacceptable" and " moral high road", and so on. Those of you who thought Michigan had a moral high ground to stand on before now are delusional. Michigan never had any moral high ground to begin with - there have been countless things much worse than this that have happened that make its transgressions similar to those of other programs.

I'm not exactly psyched about the look of this, although I do accept it as the reality we live in regarding recruiting in 2016.  I have to think, though, that this will not be as frequent an event for recruiting classes going forward.  The guys in this boat are either A) Hoke recruits; or B) Summer Swarm recruits.  It is reasonable to assume that the staff felt a need to offer someone at those camps to ratchet up excitement.  Also, Harbaugh had not yet started getting the top guys to sign on the dotted line (in fact, he still hasn't for the most part since NSD has not yet occurred).  Going forward, I'm guessing the coaches will be setting a high bar for offers and be able to qualify them in a transparent way since they have an expectation set.  

I don't see why guys like "Bobby Kunz" or "Shane Kinnee" are trying to blow this up.  Honestly, they're making it look worse than it is and we don't even know the coaches side of the story.  They are also doing this in crunch time right before NSD and I can bet you they will be the first ones who whine when we miss out on top prospects. 

this is how it looks to me (condensed into one post)

1) the timing sucked

2) Swenson handled it pretty well for a 17 year old kid

3) quit waiting for the other side of the story, it's not happening

4) the kid's life isn't over, he is going to be fine

5) this isn't Saban level (there may be a scholarship for you to sign on NSD...maybe not)

6) the timing sucked

7) we all hope Harbaugh/Drevno/Et al. handles this differently in the future

8) the timing sucked

9) it was probably best that above all, they were honest with the kid

10) when we win the National Championship, nobody will care about this anymore....

So are we all going to act/feel the same way towards Jordan Elliott because he might essentially do the same thing to us. 

A lot of people sure have strong opinions based on incomplete information...

I'm only citing him because there is little other information out there (neg away if you'd like), but I saw Gregg Henson claim someone within the program told him the staff warned him awhile ago that his offer was in jeopardy if he did not improve in a way not specified by Henson, recommending that he look around at other back-up schools.

IF IF IF that is true, I feel the situation is tolerable but still not something I hope to see regularly. While he doesn't specify the timeline, I'm guessing it has to be at least before the season, if the staff expected him to be able to improve. If the staff outlined the stipulations of his offer, told him to plan a backup and he didn't meet the stated goals, nor plan a backup (and maybe he did? He speculates he has been speaking with, and will likely land at, Northwestern) is that on the coaching staff? 

My one and only issue here is dropping him three weeks before signing day. I feel like December 1 is the latest something like this should happen unless it involves something unforeseeable like off-the-field trouble or academics. And even then, December 1 is cutting it close.

Now IF that isn't true, and the staff dumped him out of the blue, pun intended, that lacks integrity, is intolerable, and a bad sign of things to come. No gray area for me. But I am in support of the staff rescinding offers from recruits resting on their laurels or looking likely to be unable to compete on the team. Warn him well in advance and give him AT LEAST two-month's time to find another team.

My two cents.

Also, Nate Johnson is "committed" yet is going to decide between 3 schools on Signing Day...how is that okay?

Before Title IX, a school could give as many football scholarships as they could afford. A kid like Swenson, who loved Michigan, would still have a scholarship where he could prove himself later or end up riding the pine for 4 years.

Hard to know what exactly transpired here but it it doesn't look great. While recruits can change their minds too, I don't think you can reasonably hold 17 year-old kids to the same standard as experienced middle-aged professional coaches. It might be nice, but it's not reality. I hope we don't see more of this.

Good post, and I pretty much agree for the most part with a bit of variation

I may be in the minority here but it's my opinion that Harbaugh did the kid a favor. If it's true that he informed these early commits that he would still honor their scholarship offer but that they would not likely ever see the field based on coaching staff's evaluation, then the kids have the choice to stay on as committed or to look into other options that would allow them to see the field sooner. Also, who knows whether Swenson or the other commits have continued to hear from other coaches throughout the process, which s quite likely considering. And in some cases being committed to UM made them even more desirable to their programs. I honestly see it as a win-win for all involved. Much ado about nothing...