No App. State for Feagin
Didn't see this part of the story posted anywhere...sorry if its a repeat.
ESPN's Joe Schad reported Friday that Feagin had planned to transfer to Appalachian State and could play for the FCS school this season if he's cleared academically. However, an Appalachian State source told Schad that Feagin will not be admitted at the school due to academic concerns and the details of the Free Press' report of Feagin's alleged drug activity.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=4388152
Not really that surprising...
August 10th, 2009 at 10:08 AM ^
Tough break for Feagin, but it's completely his fault, so I don't feel too bad.
At least, this should put an end to some of the App State jokes from OSU and MSU fans.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:31 AM ^
The jokes will now be "Michigan took a guy even App State wouldn't let into their program. LOLZ".
If the words "App State" and "Michigan" ever occur in the same article, rest assured, it is NEVER good.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:13 PM ^
but true. I went to a wedding in Ohio last fall, and saw at least 20 App St. t-shirts in the hotel I was staying at. This will be rehashed for years and years.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:14 AM ^
Who is app state? Have we played them before? My memory has no recollection.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:15 AM ^
I'm with BlockM. Hard to feel bad for the kid. It's not just a bad decision, it seems like a pattern. Hopefully he'll get things figured out and turned around. He may be able to play for a community college for a year or two and then get picked back up by a team.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:17 AM ^
Well I can't say I'm that surprised to hear this.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:33 AM ^
Surely they need more coke in the foothills....
Note that the App State program now looks like complete fools. "Sure, you can come. Wait, you got seriously kicked off the team? For blow? Uh....hold please....."
August 10th, 2009 at 10:33 AM ^
Oh this young man has had a very trying freshman season, with the litigation, the notoriety, his subsequent dismissal and transfer to Appalachian State and that university's refusal to accept him, well, I guess that's more than most 19-year-olds can handle...
August 10th, 2009 at 11:02 AM ^
Slap Shot, very nice.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:40 AM ^
I have a feeling someone will give this kid a chance (Kiffin maybe) I am not sure if he deserves another chance, but I hope he gets one. And I hope for Feagin's sake he taks advantage of that chance and gets his degree.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:49 AM ^
There was a reason he saw way, way less action than "Death" and Threet last year. He was not very good on the field. Add slow learner, cant throw well, and felony drug trafficking to the mix.... even Delaware State will take a pass.
August 10th, 2009 at 10:48 AM ^
Appy State lists "academic concerns" as one of the reasons he won't be admitted there. There has been no mention of "academic concerns" in relation to his departure from UM. There's a gigantic void of information here, but since nature abhors a vacuum, people are going to fill in the blanks themselves, however inaccurately. They're obviously going to ask how a kid at the University of Michigan who's ostensibly (key word) in no trouble academically can suddenly be not academically qualified to enter Appy State.
If your response is "well, it's reasonable to assume he was in bad shape academically at UM, too" (a reasonable assumption, IMHO), how is it then that he was apparently eligible to compete on the team in 2009?
I understand that confidentiality issues may prevent RR or anyone else at UM from commenting publicly on this issue, but that won't prevent people elsewhere from drawing their own conclusions, however wrong they may be, and it's highly unlikely those conclusions are going to be in RR's or Michigan's favor.
IMHO, this episode involving Feagin has the potential of being much more damaging to RR than a 3-9 season, simply due to all of the as-yet unanswered questions, on top of the notion held by some already that RR ran a wayward program at WVU. I've felt all along that on-the-field performance, however bad it might be, won't be bad enough to prevent RR from coaching through at least three seasons, at the minimum. However, if Bill Martin and/or the upper UM administration come to the conclusion at any time that insufficient attention is being given to so-called "character issues" by RR or his staff, I have no doubt whatsoever that he could be gone in a heartbeat. That may not be fair, given the variety of things that have happened under preceding UM coaching regimes, but life ain't fair.
That being said, I think this thing with Feagin will prove to be an isolated incident that RR and staff have already learned from.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:10 AM ^
Academic Concerns means ANYTHING that would keep him from being in good standing academically there. If Feagin WEREN'T on the team, he'd have been dismissed from the university itself for the same issues. Can't be an active drug-related criminal and a good student, as far as a university is concerned.
August 10th, 2009 at 11:20 AM ^
Feagin played last fall as a true freshman in his first semester at UM. Thus, he couldn't have been in trouble academically at UM until the Winter semester (when his first semester grades were reported), and even then, he would be given probation status (the same as with all students) for that semester. This Spring/Summer is when it really would have come to a head, if he were indeed having academic issues.
As for vetting, since he apparently was not convicted of anything before, Federal privacy laws make it very difficult for any university to find out that much about a high schooler's off-the-field issues.
It won't be spun this way, but there's very little any university could do differently in this situation.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:24 PM ^
FWIW, as a parent of a kid who was in college just a few years ago (she turned down UM to attend Wisconsin), I was appalled to learn about the extent of the Federal privacy laws at the parent/freshmen orientation session. The fact that I as a parent had basically no right to learn of any information about my child, health or otherwise, from the university I was paying a ginormous amount of out-of-state tuition to, rubbed me the wrong way in a major fashion, especially since I was paying for a daughter who was not yet even 18 when she started. I can understand preventing access by the outside world, but preventing parents of dependent children from having access is nuts.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:31 PM ^
He can go to JUCO for a year and play his way onto a team.
August 10th, 2009 at 12:51 PM ^
I believe that the kid deserves a second chance. Obvoiusly what we did was very bad but I hope the kid comes to his senses at another school and gets his degree and a chance to play football again.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:26 PM ^
Well the guys a drug dealer with a history of drug dealing dating back to high school so it does not appear that he has learned much of anything. I say throw him into the volcano and be done with it.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:52 PM ^
on a slightly brighter note, the departure of Mr. Justin Feagin frees up a scholarship for some other, potentially more talented, player.
August 10th, 2009 at 4:38 PM ^
This is excellent news. Of course if we Saban'd this team as it stands we could probably free up like 15 more spaces.