Exit Kaleb Ringer
![14817[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/Exit-Kaleb-Ringer_D4EA/148171.jpg "14817[1]")
As caught by—prepare yourselves for a username—MGoUser "Every Roh Has Its Thorn," Redshirt freshman-to-be Kaleb Ringer has put an "FSU" in his twitter handle and adorned his page with that bulldog hockey fans know and no one else does. Usually this means the guy in question has left the team, though in this case Ringer does still have some Michigan stuff around.
The handle change from "Ring_RingUM" to "Ring_RingFSU" is pretty indicative, though. Further supporting data: his brother is at Ferris and he tweeted "big brah I'm on my way" recently. That could mean anything, sure. This not so much:
I put my internet sleuth hat on. I declare he's outie, as the kids said like ten years ago. I have taken the hat off. I feel bereft.
Ringer sat out last year with an undisclosed injury that I've heard was a knee issue. If that robbed him of some of his athleticism he may have chosen to keep playing instead of taking a medical scholarship. Whichever it was, I'd heard that there was a possibility he wouldn't make it to year two a while ago.
The on-field impact should mainly be felt on special teams. Ringer wasn't going to be on the two deep at ILB with Morgan, Bolden, Ross, and Jenkins-Stone ahead of him and probably wouldn't have gotten many snaps this year.
This does bring Michigan down to 85 even if they bring back suspended punter Will Hagerup. Hagerup recently said something on Facebook that suggested he'd learned he would be reinstated; it wouldn't surprise me if the two events were related. IE: Hagerup got booted down to walk-on and now has to get in line. Just speculation, that.
Michigan currently has 15 scholarships for their next recruiting class, and with normal rates of attrition should get to 18-20. Ringer is the first member of the 2012 class to leave; it stands at 24. Here's Ringer's recruiting post if you'd like to reminisce.
UPDATE: Official.
I don't think it does at all. You get to have 85 guys on scholarship on your football team. Once you get medicaled, you're done as a football player.
Personally, I have no moral qualms with how Alabama uses the medical hardship waiver. Now, the coach of a potential recruit might have an issue with it, so from a PR standpoint it's beneficial not to over use it, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it ethically. This is because I feel the free education is the part you're entitled to as a recruit, not the spot on the team. I don't have a moral issue with a coach saying "Sorry kid, all you have is this free education."
What I have a problem with is cutting players, or telling players after Signing Day that they have a spot when they don't. It's the "Sorry kid, we don't have a spot for you therefore we can't pay for you to be here so get out or pay your own way." That's not OK.
You said it better than I could have. It gives coaches a lot more leeway to recruit guys that might be academic or criminal risks as well. Trust your scouting, and if you end up with a guy who wasn't as good as you thought, tough cookies. That's the risk in amateur sports. Now, if you want to give these kids a salary, the whole ballgame changes.
but on the flip side, couldn't you say the exposure of actually playing somewhere is still better than being effectively a practice squad guy and be almost guaranteed to not get drafted. In that context, he would still get the Michigan degree, and not much else, so it's just his decision of what gets him closer to his goal - presumably playing in the NFL.
All I'm saying is that the decision should be with the player, not the coaches. I don't think there is anything wrong with saying "Hey, kid. We just don't think you've got the ability to ever play meaningful snaps here. You're welcome to stay on the team for the full four years, but if you want playing time your best option might be to transfer."
which has me thinking all this chatter about medical scholarships is much ado about nothing.
Each school has a medical team that determines if a player is capable of playing in their view. Our medical team has from day one been leaning in the direction that this is a career ender.
For all we know Hoke has strongly been pressuring Ringer to take the medical hardship and Michigan scholarship since the first report, however Ringer has shopped around and found a school that does not see the injury as career ending because:
- Their doctors just plain feel otherwise.
- Their doctors feel that with the lower level of competition at their level, Ringer is not at risk to the same degree he'd be at Michigan.
- Their doctors are amoral and will rubber stamp anyone/the coach is deperate to get a BCS level guy on the roster of Ferris Status.
Secondly my post assumes that injury recovery was the issue. It could very well have been that Hoke took Kaleb aside and said "Look you're expected to get X% of your mobility back. I'll honor the 4 years here, but at X% you're career scout team and any promises I made to you about playing time are void due to the injury." Kaleb wants to play, so he transferred. This could have all been decided back in December or even earlier and just announced due to the fact the Spring Term just ended.
When we're trucking people to Ferris by the busload or issuing an oddly high number of medical redshirts, but you can't be screaming redflag over one guy dropping a level of competitive football after an injury that was considered near career ending within weeks of its occurrence.
Many of those things may very well be true, and are probably likely. But, it is a valid topic to at least address if we as a fanbase are going to ride upon the high horse of oversigning immorality. My tone was not intended to be accusatory, but rather to foster discussion about why this is different as opposed to just ignoring it.
I still fail to see how you foster any kind of meaningful discussion with just one data point where we might not even have been over 85 depending on what was known internally. There is no way to do it without speculation which just gets ugly (see also my speculation on FSU's medical staff being immoral which is of course pulled directly from my rectum). You need meaningful data which means multiple years of oversigning have to happen first.
While you are correct that I did only have one data point, I also did not try to make any sweeping accusations of widespread oversigning with this data point either. I am a random dude on the internet, and therefore I do not have any insider information pertaining to the situation that would suggest wrongdoing. But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be discussed, even if it ends up simply being an exercise in reaffirming that there is nothing to see here. At the very least, the arguments below provide a handy list of reasons why this is a legitimate situation for those who may have cocked a suspicious eyebrow at this story. I would argue that this is meaningful discussion. And for the record, I am with you and the others that this situation is 99.9% likely to be legitimate.
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