Justin Feagin Dismissed Comment Count

Brian

So I got an email yesterday predicting the departure of a quarterback from Florida and thought to myself "oh God, not Denard Robinson."

Well, it wasn't Denard Robinson. Sophomore-to-be slot receiver Justin Feagin is no more:

"Justin Feagin was dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules Thursday evening," head coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement.

That's ambiguous as to whether the dismissal or the violation came Thursday, but I'm guessing it's the former.

I'm of two minds about the departure. On the one hand, it would be hard to pick out a player on the roster whose departure would be less likely to impact Michigan's performance on-field both this year and going forward. Feagin was a late flier Michigan took on the off chance he might be a viable quarterback. He was not and got bounced to slot receiver, where he wasn't a factor. With the spring emergence of Roy Roundtree and availability of freshmen Terrance Robinson (a redshirt), Jeremy Gallon, and Je'Ron Stokes, he didn't figure to be a factor in the fall. And it's not like slot receiver looks like feagin-signinga thin spot going forward; enough bits have been spilled about Michigan's receiver-mad recruiting class to fill all the tubes of the internets.

On the other hand, Feagin is the first Rodriguez recruit to leave [UPDATE: forgot about Taylor Hill, who left almost before he arrived] and did so in inauspicious circumstances. The email yesterday provided some murky detail on the violation of team rules and it's the sort of thing that is a no-BS immediate seeya type of thing. I'll let the actual journalists ferret out the details, as one anonymous, if prescient email does not a solid story make. I'd be surprised if it didn't end up in the papers eventually.

Though this kind of thing happens at a certain rate to all programs, it's another opportunity for evil bad PR gnomes to stroke their beards and mutter sagely about What Is Going On In Ann Arbor. And I (baselessly) liked the kid. How could you not, given the picture at right?

Also: you can subtract at least one additional point from Michigan's APR, which isn't going to be fatal or anything but it ain't good. Also also: I have Michigan at 20 scholarships for 2010 now, assuming that Cone and Wright don't get fifth years.

Comments

Quail2theVict0r

July 25th, 2009 at 8:10 PM ^

It's been a while since I got to sit at a Michigan game and not wonder if the team we were supposed to throttle wasn't going to pull off the upset. I would like a nice, exciting, day at the stadium for once. The ONLY advantage to scheduling a cupcake is seeing the impending blowout and having a guaranteed win. Those two things haven't happened recently.

casmooth

July 25th, 2009 at 7:02 PM ^

Seems like Brian is talking about the APR a lot lately, which is not a good trend these days. Hope things start to turn around with the new recruits.

brown

July 25th, 2009 at 7:03 PM ^

Must have been something pretty bad. Grady was kept on the team after his drunken shenanigans.

I was rooting for him because he wanted to get on the field no matter what.

jamiemac

July 25th, 2009 at 7:14 PM ^

The description of the event Brian gives has me bracing for news of a rotten event.

No Fulmer Cup points without an arrest. But, it doesnt take much to imagine something like that given the vague, ominous description above.

Why not turn the email over to the new VB reporting guys and see what they turn up?

jamiemac

July 25th, 2009 at 7:16 PM ^

Why not have some fun. I dont care if I get dinged the wrong way.

But, I set the eventual (if any at all) Fulmer Cup points at 1.5.

Place your bets.....

Ryan

July 25th, 2009 at 10:11 PM ^

That's free money (points) my friend. The under is your routine 'driving without valid registration' type of offense, hardly worth a boot from the team.

I'd put the house on the over.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

July 25th, 2009 at 7:17 PM ^

So does this count as "getting Rodriguezed" over at Spartan Tailgate, also known as your unhealthy obsession center for things Michigan? Or do you have to voluntarily transfer for that?

Garvie Craw

July 25th, 2009 at 7:47 PM ^

I picked this up from another site: "From what people who have been on the Rivals board have been saying, there might be multiple transfers coming in the next week or so."

Can anyone confirm this?

joeyb

July 26th, 2009 at 7:27 PM ^

I have heard rumors about this, but it was on the grapevine, so I haven't said anything. But, I have heard that a starter on defense and one of the players who enrolled early are struggling academically.

I don't want to say names to monger fear but I think there may be some substance to this.

joeyb

July 26th, 2009 at 7:27 PM ^

I have heard rumors about this, but it was on the grapevine, so I haven't said anything. But, I have heard that a starter on defense and one of the players who enrolled early are struggling academically.

I don't want to say names to monger fear but I think there may be some substance to this.

RockinLoud

July 25th, 2009 at 8:00 PM ^

I agree. There is a clear distinction between getting booted due to something you did and choosing to leave for whatever reason.

I'll be interested to see how the media spins it to still make it out to be RR's fault. That is, if indeed it was purely Feagan's fault; we still don't (and perhaps never will) know the specifics.

AMazinBlue

July 25th, 2009 at 7:57 PM ^

running a tight ship. It's his way or the highway, on the field and off. Grady and Slocum are cases of kids being kids. This smells of something much more serious. In the end it will probably look good for RR to have done this.

Until Brian started all this APR talk, I had never heard of it before. Now it seems to be a growing problem(unlike an enlarged prostate), but still a problem.

What I don't get is how Nick Satan, er Saban can sign 26-28 guys two years in a row and UNC signs 28. Logic would suggest that those schools would be having some serious turnover issues as well, especially Bama.

With the number of guys that have left and graduated and those leaving unexpectedly, we would have more than 20 scholies available. Does it make any sense that if your APR is going down because of guys leaving early, then shouldn't the number of schlarships increase inversely proportional to the APR?

philgodrink

July 25th, 2009 at 9:58 PM ^

Not too related to your post, but Central Michigan managed to sign 30, read: THIRTY!!! players last year due to graduation/finished eligibility attrition alone. Some teams do manage to sign more than your typical amount of players without resorting to shady, shitty, scummy tactics like Saban does.

MichFan1997

July 25th, 2009 at 10:46 PM ^

because he's only been around for what, was that just Year 1? But I'm a JRN major at Central and there do some to be some shady things going on in other capacity's...(nobody does know quite what happened with that frat fight involving the football team last year, but some believe the athletic department covered for players). I'm also not 100 percent confident that Brian Kelly was the most clean coach around, but I really have no proof of that. Either way, to respond to what you said, Michigan ball is first for me, Central second.

Magnus

July 26th, 2009 at 2:03 PM ^

"Kids being kids" doesn't include drunk driving. "Kids being kids" is getting in a fight at a party or getting an MIP or stealing a candy bar.

Having a BAC that was something like three times the legal limit is adult stuff when you decide to drive. Just because he didn't kill someone (a la Leonard Little) doesn't mean it wasn't serious.

GNM

July 25th, 2009 at 9:26 PM ^

On the two deep or not, I just can't imagine pissing away a free college education. What a shame for all concerned parties.