Ricardo Miller Leaves Team
Ricardo Miller's facebook page:
I know there was a fake Devin Gardner page out there but this one has 1200 friends and several pictures of Miller taken from cellphones and the like. Looks legit to me.
Miller bounced to and from tight end after arriving early, never finding playing time. With walk-ons seeing snaps ahead of him the writing was on the wall—time to move on. As a redshirt sophomore his departure does open up a scholarship slot in the next class. That brings Michigan to 23 plus any guys who don't get a fifth year; they currently have 22 plus maybe longsnapper Scott Sypniewski. Gareon Conley is wavering, of course.
Also: yeah, Miller's getting a degree in three years. Good luck to him.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:23 PM ^
Good luck Ricardo...hopefully we can see him another day in a Mike Cox type of performance.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:58 PM ^
November 7th, 2012 at 11:50 AM ^
She might want to have that looked at.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:31 PM ^
this has always puzzled me. Kid came in much ballyhooed, then barely a peep from him at a position where UM is thin. Odd.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:51 PM ^
I think he was recruited as a WR.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^
He was also initially a top 3 overall kid in the state of Florida (that Florida) before he moved up here for senior year in high school. I followed his recruitment pretty closely. He's a great kid. I understand his move and wish him well.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:40 PM ^
FL kid to a guy who was passed by walk-ons? Was it an undisclosed injury? I know recruiting rankings aren't gospel, but wow.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:44 PM ^
No injury. He's just not very good. He was extremely overrated as a high school underclassman.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:50 PM ^
to me how much the guy underperformed.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:54 PM ^
Ricardo Miller was a kid who was big and fast-ish early, so as a sophomore he was getting a lot of press and hype, which led to him being an early top recruit in Florida. It didn't hurt that he played for one of the top programs in FL. Like many other kids, everyone else caught up and he plateaued.
Interestingly enough, Marvin Robinson was a kid people thought might be the top recruit in Florida in the same year for similar reasons. MRob has seen the field a lot more than Ricardo Miller, but he still hasn't been the stud many thought he'd be.
November 7th, 2012 at 12:12 AM ^
DJ Shoemate was a guy who starred as a sophomore for a big program in Southern California (Servite) and went to SC after committing super early. Never played, went to UConn when the sanctions hit and fumbled against us in 2010, then faded away due to injuries. Just a kid who matured young but never had a position or great talent.
I'm just surprised Jimmy Clausen and Matt Barkley panned out as well as they did since both had question marks (competition in Clausen's case, kind of shitty stats in Barkley's) despite peaking so early in the recruiting process because they played for big time high schools as young kids.
November 7th, 2012 at 10:33 AM ^
Credo!
Go Friars.
November 6th, 2012 at 9:28 PM ^
he just ended up being a "tweener" kinda player. Not agile enough to be a wideout, but not able to get thick enough while still maintaining his athleticism to be an impact at TE.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:32 PM ^
Michigan Fans have nothing but love for you Ricardo..And i suspect you will always be a UM fan..Good luck to you..good kid..Go Blue
November 6th, 2012 at 6:33 PM ^
I remember him as the eager prospect who bled Maize and Blue. I am totally bummed with this one...although he has done us proud...graduating in 3 years and playing football...wow
November 6th, 2012 at 6:39 PM ^
WHO??
November 6th, 2012 at 6:46 PM ^
If you open a comment with "not being a dick," then chances are you're being a dick.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:50 PM ^
...or chances are he frequents MLive.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:10 PM ^
Certainly these occurrences are not mutually exclusive.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:59 PM ^
huge dick.
November 7th, 2012 at 10:22 AM ^
we're talking Ricardo Miller here, not Mike Cox?
November 6th, 2012 at 6:49 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 7:03 PM ^
banhammer!
November 6th, 2012 at 7:08 PM ^
If you really bleed Maize and Blue like your tag line says, you'd know exactly who he is.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:40 PM ^
What do you mean by "maybe" Sypniewski? Is there something you might know that we don't, like is he getting a grayshirt?
November 6th, 2012 at 6:50 PM ^
there's some speculation on whether he was offered a scholarship or not. I haven't heard much about it lately, but I know that possibility had been brought up around here before.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:12 PM ^
It was an idea created by fans and/ or media that I believe Sypniewski debunked himself in an interview. He has a full scholarship.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:44 PM ^
He's earned a degree in Political Sciene in only 3 years?
I be like dang....
November 6th, 2012 at 9:01 PM ^
Technically 3.5 since he enrolled early, but impressive nonetheless.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:49 PM ^
Didn't he move to Ann Arbor from Florida for his senior year of high school just so he could be closer to the program? It's a shame things didn't work out. Best of luck to him.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:02 PM ^
That and to take AP classes if I remember correctly. Then Pioneer turned him into a TE because their option offense doesn't have receivers, so I figured that plus who scouts Ann Arbor games was why he dropped in the rankings. One of the reasons we were so hip on him was the All Star academics/personality.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:37 PM ^
Maybe they moved him to tight end because he wasn't fast enough to play receiver. It was pretty obvious that he didn't have very good speed. He ran like an average high school tight end, even though he was only about 200-210 lbs. He was not a Michigan-caliber receiver. Rodriguez's final full class (2010) is now down to 14 players after originally being 27-strong.
November 6th, 2012 at 9:16 PM ^
I don't know if his speed was receiver-level or not (if you met the receiver corps of Groves High School circa 1998 you'd have a low opinion of "receiver speed" for high school too), but the team ran a dedicated zone-read and option offense with this little QB. The MGoCreeper van did the Saginaw Hill and Inkster games, which ended up being a lot of blocking and getting open for passes that were overthrown or underthrown or never thrown. On the other hand he didn't look like a blue chip there.
He wasn't TE sized in high school. He was just bigger than the other kids they had playing receiver (there were a couple of small buggers with jetpacks) and Miller was bigger and stronger so they made him a TE.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:54 PM ^
Too bad. I hope things work out for him where ever he may land. He always seemed like a good guy.
November 6th, 2012 at 6:54 PM ^
I'll be out on the ledge again.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:02 PM ^
not sure why you got negged and "trolled"... tough board lately.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:05 PM ^
November 6th, 2012 at 7:07 PM ^
Just curious, but why do you say "Maybe Scott Sypniewski?" I had thought that it was a full scholarship offer.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:15 PM ^
Michiganman and Cold. Total disbelief wow what a shocker I thought this kid would easily play with his desire to be a Wolverine.
November 6th, 2012 at 8:33 PM ^
It takes more than desire to be good at football.
November 6th, 2012 at 9:43 PM ^
But but but, Rudy!!
November 6th, 2012 at 11:48 PM ^
He did say good...
November 6th, 2012 at 7:18 PM ^
He was our gung-ho for Michigan, highly regarded (initially at least), class-opening recruit from the 2010. Sucks it didn't work out
November 6th, 2012 at 7:34 PM ^
Took the exact words out of my mouth. That was my exact thought when I read the headline.
I always rooted for Ricardo and loved seeing him on the field in the Spring Games. I definitely consider him a true Michigan Man.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:19 PM ^
Best of luck Ricardo. Hope things work out the best for you.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:25 PM ^
Best of luck to him and Congratulations for graduating in three years. Hopefully he uses his football skills to earn a great graduate degree.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:27 PM ^
Quality kid. Handled himself with class, was a big supporter of the program and got his degree early. Well done Ricardo.
Hope he finds a good fit where he can play more.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:30 PM ^
Any time a player graduates in three years and leaves the program with a degree, that's a success story AFAIC. Good luck in grad school, Ricardo.
November 6th, 2012 at 7:42 PM ^
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