FL Freshman Safety Jordan Haden to Transfer

Submitted by psychomatt on

UM should take a hard look at this kid. He's fast, has a 3.4 GPA and Florida liked him enough to sign him. So he has to sit out a year. He still would be ready to play for UM quicker than anyone we sign in the 2011 class.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5468302

P.S. I am also pretty sure he has dreads.

UMaD

August 16th, 2010 at 8:10 PM ^

Theres no reason (other than homerism) to consider UofM ahead of any other major program for Haden...and plenty of reasons to consider UofM behind the other local schools.

Allen, OTOH, is a local kid and at a position of screaming need.  Seems like UofM would at least be a realistic option for the kid if the reasons for his FSU exit are benign.

M_Go_Bleu

August 16th, 2010 at 8:48 PM ^

He is not leaving because he is in trouble, but rather because he is stuck behind in the depth chart. He came out of high school with enormous potential, but has been consistently injured since the time he stepped on campus. I don't know if he's still a good prospect or not, but he sure hasn't played much as of yet.

psychomatt

August 17th, 2010 at 2:01 AM ^

Theres no reason (other than homerism) to consider UofM ahead of any other major program for Haden ...

No one said UM was ahead of any other program. I saw the story and thought it was unusual that a freshman would transfer before starting classes simply because he was too far down on the depth chart. I mean, you would think he could have figured out approximately how many safeties FL was going to have before signing his LOI.

After checking the guy's stats (why, I don't know), I thought to myself that he might be a perfect fit at UM. UM could use a couple more quality safeties (and LBs and CBs) and this guy looks like he might be one. And if he really is leaving FL because he was too far down the depth chart, well then he will love it at UM. We barely have a depth chart for the secondary.

The guy also has a 3.4 GPA. That suggests academics matter to him at least a little and makes it unlikely he would have difficulty qualifying for admission to UM.

As for whether local schools will have an advantage when he sits down to decide where he transferring, well, they didn't the first time around. He is from MD, but he picked FL for school/football. If he did not want to play football at MD (who would?), but still wanted at least some of his games to be played close to home, he could have picked another ACC school albeit one with a solid football pedigree (e.g., VaTech, MIA, FSU, NC, BC). He didn't. He picked FL, which is in the SEC.

Needs

August 16th, 2010 at 7:49 PM ^

Article says Allen is a redshirt junior, though, which would mean he would only have one year of eligibility after sitting out. Given the Turner thing and Woolfolk graduating, might still be worth pursuing him.

tpilews

August 16th, 2010 at 9:24 PM ^

However, if his redshirt was of the medical variety, he would be able to redshirt his transfer year and still have two years of eligibility left. The article did not say which kind it was.

Clarence Beeks

August 16th, 2010 at 9:44 PM ^

Article says Allen is a redshirt junior, though, which would mean he would only have one year of eligibility after sitting out.

If he doesn't play this year, wouldn't that mean he would have two years of eligibility left after a transfer?  What am I missing?

This is Michigan

August 16th, 2010 at 10:03 PM ^

The NCAA has a rule that a player has to finish 4 years of eligibility in 5 years. On RARE occasions, after a petition, will an athlete gain a 2nd year of reshirt/medical greyshirt. This usually only occurs when a player has an injury that that takes the course of 2 years to recover or personal reasons. It is less likely to occur when a player transfers and redshirts.

Bottom line, redshirting as a freshman (or any year for that matter), has a catch. That is, if a player is injured or transfers after he/she already redshirted, then they lose another year of elibility.

It may be different for Football. Correct me if I am wrong, but this is going off of personal experience as I was injured my 5th year as a RS senior.  

psychomatt

August 17th, 2010 at 1:09 AM ^

Haden's profile on Rivals shows that the only official visit he took was to FL. And the ESPN article suggests he picked FL because that is where his older brother played. It is possible he really did not look seriously at other schools. It is also possible that some schools that were on his short-list understandably filled their need for a S by signing another player after Haden chose FL and now do not have an open scholarship in the 2010 class to give him. We know UM has one -- JT Turner's (and unless they gave Dorsey's to a walk-on, we probably have two).

West Texas Blue

August 16th, 2010 at 7:57 PM ^

I don't recall Michigan ever being the beneficiary of a high profile transfer, and I highly doubt it's gonna change.  Michigan didn't even try to go after upperclassmen USC players, so I doubt they'll go after Haden or Allen. 

MOC

August 17th, 2010 at 9:02 AM ^

There are 5 Haden brothers - Joe, who's now playing with the Cleveland Browns, Josh, who is a RB that just transfered from Boston College to Florida, Jordan who is a strong saftey that is leaving Florida, and then Jonathan and Jacob, who are stil in high school. 

Earlier this year Joe Haden was asked, "Who's the best football player in your family?" and he was quoted as saying, "My youngest brother (Jonathan), I'm second.  He's probably going to be the first pick in the draft. I already told coach Urban Meyer. Coach Meyer said he was already going to give him a scholarship. He's a running back."

Sambojangles

August 16th, 2010 at 8:15 PM ^

Haden's transferring already? He hasn't even started class yet.

Word on the street is that it's really hard to transfer into Michigan and stay academically eligible because they do not accept many transfer credits. Because Haden is a freshman, it might be a little easier, but it means that it would probably more difficult for Allen.

psychomatt

August 17th, 2010 at 12:21 AM ^

UM does not have a long list of highly successful, high-profile transfers primarily because UM does not often take transfers (including JC players). The only two high-profile ones I can think of recently are Steven Threet and Laval Lucas-Perry. A major reason for the small number of transfers is the difficulty of transferring credits to UM from most other schools. However, in Haden's situation, this is not an issue. Haden has not yet even started his freshman year at FL and has no credits to worry about.

IMO, the UM coaching staff should (and probably will) at least take another quick look at Haden to determine whether he would be a good fit in our program and assess our chances of luring him from MD to the Midwest. Haden is a 4 star safety with good size and speed who had offers from FL, LSU, GA, FSU and other well-regarded programs. On paper, he looks as good or better than most of our realistic 2011 safety prospects. Moreover, as a member of this year's class, Haden will have a 12-month advantage over the safeties we bring in with the 2011 class. Although Haden would not be able to play in games this year, he could participate fully in practices, learn the playbook and work with Barwis to improve his S&C. As a result, if UM were to snag Haden, he would be much further along in his development and far more likely to be able to contribute significantly next year than any of the safeties we bring in with the 2011 class.

meechiganroses

August 17th, 2010 at 12:36 AM ^

I understand Michigan doesn't usually take many high-profile transfers, if any for that matter, because of transferring credits, but if anyone out there could compose a list of transfers from the past 20 years or so that would be awesome.  Of the years following Michigan (13yrs) I never really looked into that or thought about it.  I know Threet, but can anyone name any of the top of their head?

psychomatt

August 17th, 2010 at 1:40 AM ^

Laval Lucas-Perry transferred to UM to play basketball on scholarship. Also, although it did not end up happening, UM was one of the schools that Greg Paulus considered transferring to when he left Duke in his quest to find a school that would let him play QB (he had one year of eligibility remaining). Although he finally ended up going to Syracuse, his first choice was UM and he actually flew to Ann Arbor and met with members of the football coaching staff to discuss the idea (not sure if RR was present). My understanding is that no one at UM objected to the concept of the transfer, but RR nixed the idea of Paulus playing QB because he only had one year of eligibility remaining and he had not played QB since high school. RR was right -- it was a dumb idea.

WorldwideTJRob

August 17th, 2010 at 1:35 AM ^

I can only recall four transfers coming into the football program over the past 15 years. Austin Panter and Russell shaw came in through the JC route, Grant Mason came  from Stanford and Steven Threet was brought here from GT.

And Through that same period only Zach Gibson and Laval-Lucas Perry transferred onto the hoops team.

whyyoumadtho

August 17th, 2010 at 11:18 AM ^

Just throwing this out there. Joe Haden said at one point he almost came to Michigan to play QB. There is a small connection. Doesn't mean much, but it's something.