Anthony LaLota quits football

Submitted by jerseyblue on

He told Schiano today that he's done. He'll stay in school though. Rutgers was in the process of trying to switch him to OL I believe.

PurpleStuff

August 16th, 2011 at 10:05 PM ^

Have you ever followed recruiting?  Here's how the blue chips (4-star or better) in the 2002 class turned out.  Avant, Breaston, and Gabe Watson were good players and went on to the NFL.  Matt Gutierrez never started a game and transferred.  Larry Harrison got booted for exposing himself.  Darnell Hood, back-up DB his whole career.  Mike Kolodziej, started a handful of game and gave up football before his senior year due to illness.  Quinton McCoy went to prep school for a year, then promptly flunked out of Michigan.  Pierre Rembert transferred to Illinois State.  Carl Tabb had about 200 career receiving yards and zero TD.  Jeremy Van Alstyne never started and made about 25 tackles as a back-up and special teams player.

The 2003 class had more success stories from the blue-chips (Burgess, Crable, Hall, Kraus, Long, and Woodley makes for six), but still had just as many busts/defections with Jerome Jackson (career back-up), Jeff Zuttah (disappeared somewhere), Clayton Richard (left for baseball), McCoy again, Will Paul, Jim Presley, and Ryan Mundy (played a bunch but left with eligibility remaining to finish career at WVU).

And that is with a full 4-5 years to see what the guys could do.  Three quality players and eight duds/flameouts.  Turner, Lalota, and Vlad (injured) are the three total flameouts in the 2009 class.  Tate started for a full season (and was clearly the #3 QB of the future) before he left due to grades.  On the plus side, you already have Denard, Cam Gordon, Lewan, and Roh established as multi-year, quality contributors/starters.  You still have the future upperclass contributions of Campbell, Washington, Toussaint, Stokes, Gallon, and Schofield (at least half of whom look like they will end up being multi-year starters before they leave Michigan).

 

Louie C

August 17th, 2011 at 12:56 AM ^

And that is what has me worried about this great class that Hoke is putting together. As excited as I am for this class, I am not naive enough to believe that there isn't going to be any attrition or people not living up to their potential.

MichiganPhotoRod

August 17th, 2011 at 5:33 PM ^

that every player of every class makes it big, we all know it's not going to happen.  What the ratings system cannot take into account is what's between the ears of the recruits.  While their talents in high school are measured, they cannot accurately predict their heart and ability to get through all of the challenges of college ball and college life.  Injuries eliminate the rest of those who don't make it.

Hell, even NFL teams spend millions on certain talents only to watch them flame out, so it's never a sure thing.  The seventh-round Tom Bradys of the world are an extreme rarity with probably hundreds of players missing their potential before the shining star appears.

The school that makes the most of the highest percentage of its recruits WINS.

M-Wolverine

August 17th, 2011 at 10:14 AM ^

Didn't he just get picked up by another NFL team?  He never really helped Michigan, because the Miami Dolphin's starter beat him out when he was injured, but he's hardly a 4 star bust.

PurpleStuff

August 17th, 2011 at 12:06 PM ^

Point wasn't to blame the guys themselves or the coaches who recruited them because they didn't pan out at Michigan.  Point was simply to show that virtually every class has as much, if not more, attrition than the ones people were bitching about. 

For somebody to say "14 four star guys left from the 2008-10 classes" as if it is a terrible thing while failing to point out/realize that pretty much the same number left from the 2002-04 classes (and that Michigan managed to go to three Rose Bowls despite their departures) is just the kind of stupidity that seems to reign supreme whenever anything about our former coach is discussed.

And just to show I'm not making it up, the list of four-star guys from those 2002-04 classes who left before their eligibility expired, for whatever reason:

Matt Gutierrez (transfer), Larry Harrison (criminal activity), Mike Kolodziej (illness), Quinton McCoy (grades), Pierre Rembert (transfer), Ryan Mundy (transfer), Jim Presley (grades), Clayton Richard (baseball), Jeff Zuttah (apparently illness), Brett Gallimore (not sure), Max Martin (transfer), Alex Mitchell (quit football), and Chris Rogers (transfer).  And that doesn't include the guys who stuck around for 4-5 years making little if any impact on the field.

McCoy actually took up spots in two recruiting classes after failing to make the grade initially, but I've never heard anyone question Lloyd Carr's intelligence or integrity for spending time on his recruitment a'la Mr. Dorsey.

Croatian_Blue

August 16th, 2011 at 8:28 PM ^

I went to high school with his brother and I never really liked him as a recruit.  Word around the area was that he was too soft and going by his older brother, I bought the rumors.

Sorry if I sound like a jerk, but I do wish him the best in his academic career.

WolvinLA2

August 16th, 2011 at 8:30 PM ^

He was always a boom-or-bust type.  He didn't play organized football until he was like a soph in high school or something like that, but people loved his physical tools, he was a big, strong kid. 

 

When he got owned at the AAA game, it was clear he needed a lot of work with the other stuff to go with those tools, looks like he never found it.

bacon1431

August 16th, 2011 at 9:02 PM ^

I remember watching his high school film. Looked like a WWE match - body slamming people everywhere. It was evident he needed work, but a very exciting prospect. Hope everything works out for him.

BRCE

August 16th, 2011 at 9:43 PM ^

Both Carr and RR had remarkable abilities to recruit and sign guys who didn't actually like the game of football from 2005-09.

Seriously, I doubt we will ever have a run of anything that bizarre again. Thank God.