Pipkins To Transfer, Says He Was Pressured To Sign Medical Hardship Papers
Pipkins got on the field late in the opener last year [Bryan Fuller]
Ondre Pipkins will attempt to use his last year(s) of eligibility elsewhere and he is not happy about it:
"I feel I'm healthy and ready to play," said Pipkins, who played last season after he was cleared to return from a torn knee ligament. "I don't want to sign the form. I wanted to play for my seniors and for the team. Coach Harbaugh said, 'I recommend you take the medical.'"
Pipkins said he felt constant pressure to retire. …
Harbaugh told him that he wanted "to make sure you graduate from Michigan" and that the coach did not plan to invite him to fall camp due in part to medical concerns. The lineman added that Harbaugh told him that he did not believe he would be drafted into the NFL for medical reasons.
"I feel bad I wasn't able to complete this journey with my classmates," Pipkins told ESPN. "I feel I am healthy and without pain. I believe Michigan wanted to free up the scholarship. I felt I was practicing well and could compete at a high level at the nose tackle and tackle positions."
First off, good for Pipkins for saying something about it—and apparently painting Harbaugh in a somewhat sympathetic light.
But this is a strange situation for a lot of reasons. I can't really figure out why Harbaugh would want to run Pipkins out of town:
- He was scheduled to be a senior and Michigan is at 85 scholarships right now, with the three former walk-ons (Kerridge, Glasgow, Glasgow) we think will get scholarships in 2015 accounted for.
- Pipkins thus doesn't impact the numbers in the 2016 class; the only reason he'd need to go this year is if Michigan was going to bring in yet more transfers.
- ND DE transfer Jhonathan Williams was just told no by Michigan.
- I'm sure at least one other player has a very legit medical hardship-inducing injury they haven't announced yet.
There were some rumors Michigan was looking at fifth year wide receivers that haven't come to fruition as of yet, but none of this really makes sense. Michigan seems to have room for him, and the move would appear to be a redshirt (that he should have gotten as a freshman /shakes fist at Hoke) so that he can be a fifth year somewhere else after getting his degree. That is unless he actually shouldn't play football.
Pipkins asserts in the article that Michigan wanted the scholarship… but for what?
I don't like this. And between this situation, the number of verbals we've taken, and that Minick wasn't been fired after drunk driving...I don't like the moral and accountability directions lately.
Nobody is treating anybody differently. M has never summarily dismissed a player for a first time DUI. Nobody likes that kind of offense, and thank the Lord nobody has been hurt in any of these recent cases involving M. If that is the way we are going to operate, then JH himself should never have been hired. I do not believe in one strike and you are out in this case.
Your moral high ground comment in combination with an avatar that appears to be a bottle of booze next to a college football helmet struck me as funny. Not really sure why.
I am sick of losing. I want Michigan to win. If JH felt that Pipkins was not healthy enough to help Michigan win, then I do not see the problem. People want to win but they do not want to do what it takes to be a winner. To win requires making the tough decision. Harbaugh is willing to make those tough decisions.
So it's ok as long as it's to win?
What about when Urban Meyer medically disqualifies a player, a highly recruited player that he recruited? Is that wrong?
Pipkins was also a pretty decent player and I'm not really sure who is that much better. None of this makes sense.
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From an injury perspective, it was probably right to keep him off the field. I think it was the handling of it. They told him first that he would be fine and then renegged.
I'm also not understanding how he would still count against the 85 if he has medical hardship. They normally come right off the books once that happens.
If your referring to the freshman that Meyer medically disqualified, thats not even close to the same thing. If Meyer was going to medical him he should not have recruited him. But if your talking about a player thats been there a few years and has had a chance and Urban decides the kid isnt healthy enough to contribute, then I absolutely have no problem with it.
Considering that team trainers aren't allowed to examine players untl they arrive, how would Meyer, or anyone for that matter, know the severity of his injuries?
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Do we really believe Harbaugh wouldn't do this? Is it coincidence that this also comes out a day or two after the piece on his Stanford recruiting classes.
Michigan is just like OSU and Bama and LSU. Big time football programs do this all of the time and it's not going to end until they put rules with penalties in place for doing such things.
Michigan is NOT like OSU, Alabama, and LSU. Michigan tries hard to follow the rules. OSU, Alabama, and LSU try hard to skirt the rules and not get caught doing it.
Looks like the other medical is probably Chris Fox. From the MLive comments on this story:
" I'm guessing the other athlete Pipkins was talking about is Chris Fox. My roommate works (worked?) with him. Says the last thing Fox said was "Oh F***, Harbaugh wants to see me." and hasn't seen him at work since. And that was about 8 days ago. "
Too bad but not unexpected given his injuries.
sounds like that NFL Line "Coach wants to see you, bring your playbook"
Hard to say whether this was done to make room on the team or because of a medical issue. But, wouldn't it be nice to have better scholarship rules so that incentives aren't created for pushing guys off the team.
The fact that there aren't written rules about it is why we can't really complain all that much. If coaches wanna get rid of a dude and he does have some sort of injury problem, then so be it.
Until rules are in place to mitigate the issue this will continue to happen.
All we know for sure: Pipkins has done next to nothing in his Michigan career and can be considered a Bust.
We dont know if he does not hustle, or anything else that prompted Harbaugh to not want him on the team.
We dont know if Harbaugh and the team is actually trying to help Pipkins, because he may have a true issue with that leg, and they dont feel he can be effective on it...so they want him to be healthy for life.
"He remains on full scholarship and counts toward the 85-scholarship limit in pursuit of graduation from the University of Michigan."
Technical truth. Not judging Harbaugh because I don't have all the facts and, at the same time, think it's nonshitty for the grown ups running the program to tell a kid he needs to pack it in for his health.
My HS basketball coach had to pull me off the floor with a broken nose. I wasn't coming out otherwise.
Sometimes players need a grownup to make the decision because they won't make it themselves.
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I have no idea what has taken place between Harbaugh/Staff and Pipkins on the issue ..
It's just the first "black eye" under Harbaugh and everyone is freaking out a bit. To this point it was just shirtless Jim farks and a few "Harboner" jokes from spartys ... This situation is absolutely commonplace in CFB, just happens to be headline-grabbing because ....HARBAUGH!
This too shall pass ...
It really sucks that injuries have prevented Pipkins from reaching his potential. I wish him the best, and I'm sure it's not easy for him to hear he likely doesn't have a shot at the NFL. Pipkin's first priority is for himself; Harbaugh's is for the team. Those goals aren't always going to align, and I really don't blame Harbaugh for wanting him to get the medical when it sounds like the odds of him contributing anything on the field this year are low.
I had high hopes for Pipkins this is sad to see. Also this looks very ugly but I will trust the coaching staff on this one I guess.
How long before we have a Jeff Seidel or Shawn Windsor column saying how shady and evil Harbaugh is and how St. Dantonio would never do this?
...I wonder if the "not being fair to your teammates" line was about Michigan not having a scholarship for Kerridge or one of the Glasgows if Pipkins didn't take a medical.
And I think it's fall camp when you have to be at 85 scholarships. I think you can have more than 85 prior to fall camp during a certain window of time.
I didn't follow at first. That strikes me as a plausible explanation, although I have to question whether Harbaugh would essentially cut a version of Pipkins who's, say, 60% of his former self so that a walk-on could attend camp. Does Michigan really need a 14th receiver (or whatever the number is) that badly?
This may be the most valuable post in the thread.
If that's the case, they aren't trying to medical Pipkins in order to free up a scholarship, they are just telling him that he isn't going to see the field (no camp, no PT obviously) and giving him a golden parachute of sorts. Finish up your degree, help the team in some other way (on the weight training staff, usually) and we'll pay for it.
If they don't care about the scholarship - there is no need to medical him to give him that "golden parachute" though.... just let him stay on the team, eat up a scholarship, and not play.
So in that scenario they don't care about the scholarship - but are lying to the player to avoid the uncomfortable truth.
That would be even sleazier than just telling him he wasn't good enough, as well as a false use of the medical hardship.
I think only time will tell what the real story is here. If Pipkins can contribute significantly to another team and we see more players balk at coach's reccommendations for medical hardships than we can assume Harbaugh's taking a page out of the Saban book of scholarship management. That would be particularly clear if we sign more transfers within the next few weeks and months.
Otherwise we can trust Harbaugh is looking out of Ondre's future and his team.
Hope its the latter...
1. Does a kid ever want to sign medical hardship papers?
2. Is it ever easy for a player that loves a sport, and competing at a high level, to give it up.
3. If Harbaugh, Mattison, and Durkin thought Pipkin was NFL material, and healthy enough to play, would they really be pushing him out? Are NFL quality defensive tackles so common on Michigan's roster these days?
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Well, seems to me Pipkins will shop himself around to other programs. If whatever program he lands in doesn't medically clear him to play, we'll have our answer.
I don't buy that Michigan football can't use a guy like Ondre Pipkins on the front DL in 2015 as a senior in his final season. He is a big, talented player who suffered a lot of injury, and is apparently back to much better health (according to him).
Only a few months before the team's first season game, they hand Pipkins his pink slip as a senior?
Wish him well in his future endeavors, of course. But that's a full force punch in the stomach man.
At the same time, this is not Harbaugh's first rodeo. Michigan football has been soft for almost 10 years now. Harbaugh is coming in, surveying the situation, performing gap analysis. Now come the cut-throat decisions.
Pipkins has had 2 concussions and has arthritis in his knee. He has had a career riddled with injuries and low production.
I cant see how he could help the team on the field, or even on the practice field as a scout team member.
is a big business. If Ondre has arthritic knees then he should give up the game. Shame on the doctor's. There the one's who should have pressured Ondre to take the medical. Maybe the doctor's advised Ondre he could still compete yet told coach not a good idea. Best to you Ondre.
According to the article, the doctors did advise him to quit.
Mr. Pipkins,
Welcome to big boy football. Good to know that Jimmy's in it to win it.
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