Exit Kaleb Ringer Comment Count

Brian

14817[1]As caught by—prepare yourselves for a username—MGoUser "Every Roh Has Its Thorn," Redshirt freshman-to-be Kaleb Ringer has put an "FSU" in his twitter handle and adorned his page with that bulldog hockey fans know and no one else does. Usually this means the guy in question has left the team, though in this case Ringer does still have some Michigan stuff around.

The handle change from "Ring_RingUM" to "Ring_RingFSU" is pretty indicative, though. Further supporting data: his brother is at Ferris and he tweeted "big brah I'm on my way" recently. That could mean anything, sure. This not so much:

image

I put my internet sleuth hat on. I declare he's outie, as the kids said like ten years ago. I have taken the hat off. I feel bereft.

Ringer sat out last year with an undisclosed injury that I've heard was a knee issue. If that robbed him of some of his athleticism he may have chosen to keep playing instead of taking a medical scholarship. Whichever it was, I'd heard that there was a possibility he wouldn't make it to year two a while ago.

The on-field impact should mainly be felt on special teams. Ringer wasn't going to be on the two deep at ILB with Morgan, Bolden, Ross, and Jenkins-Stone ahead of him and probably wouldn't have gotten many snaps this year.

This does bring Michigan down to 85 even if they bring back suspended punter Will Hagerup. Hagerup recently said something on Facebook that suggested he'd learned he would be reinstated; it wouldn't surprise me if the two events were related. IE: Hagerup got booted down to walk-on and now has to get in line. Just speculation, that.

Michigan currently has 15 scholarships for their next recruiting class, and with normal rates of attrition should get to 18-20. Ringer is the first member of the 2012 class to leave; it stands at 24. Here's Ringer's recruiting post if you'd like to reminisce.

UPDATE: Official.

Comments

gwkrlghl

May 6th, 2013 at 3:45 PM ^

It seemed like he got buried on the depth chart right away and that was with a lot of talent coming in in his class and the one behind his. Just seemed like I could see the writing on the wall for him. Good luck to you at FSU young sir

Michigan248

May 6th, 2013 at 3:49 PM ^

Good luck to the young man, but Michigan had to get to 85. It is always better to lose a young player who might not play, rather then an upperclassmen who won't play

xxxxNateDaGreat

May 6th, 2013 at 8:34 PM ^

I would have to seriously reconsider my Michigan fandom if Hoke was found out to be Saban 2.0, like you are implying. Considering that literally every sign seems to point to that being completely untrue, I would say your "Ringer was booted off the team to make room for scholarships" theory is flat out false.

HAIL-YEA

May 6th, 2013 at 11:39 PM ^

If you take off your U-M goggles for a minute, there is no denying that Hoke oversigned. The fact that we did eventually get down to 85, and had multiple options available to get there does not change anything. We had to eliminate 1 scholarship player, be it a 5th year senior, a punter who has been in trouble, a transfer, or a medical hardship. I honestly have no problem with it as long as it's only 1 spot. If it was 3 or 4 spots I would be upset but I can't think of an offseason in recent memory where we didnt lose at least 1 kid. Brian has always said that Alabama being over the limit is what caused transfers and medical hardships. It's hypocritical to say that our situation is different, and that our attrition would have happened anyway. it is what it is, at least our kids aren't admitting they took money on twitter or posting pics with stacks of cash.

BlueRecruitFan

May 7th, 2013 at 9:25 AM ^

What, the "problem" that is legal in multiple states?  Geez, what a society we live in right now where possessing and/or using a plant will get you more jail time than beating your wife.  So what, he smoked a little.  Frank Clark was arrested... if anyone he'd be worried (though big deal, he looks like he's going to be a very good player and it was a crappy laptop).

Commie_High96

May 6th, 2013 at 9:13 PM ^

It would be insideous, but it may also be the truth.  It might not be as flagerant as it is in the SEC, and I bet our staff of coaches are likely up front about playing time with these young men.  That being said, the idea of 4 year scholarships at UM does not seem to be the case.  So maybe we are somewhat less bad-guyish than LSU with our oversignign?

Randy Marsh

May 6th, 2013 at 3:59 PM ^

I'll just throw this out there but he might mean "fuck shit up." That's something the hip young kids like to say and they often put FSU just like that.

Wolverine 73

May 6th, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^

When I read it, I thought--Florida State?  Really?  And as I read on, the name Ferris State came up and it made more sense.  I guess the bulldog was supposed to be a tip-off, but it was only confusing.   Hope he has a nice career, but this doesn't surprise me. 

Real Tackles Wear 77

May 6th, 2013 at 4:17 PM ^

Best of luck to him. A number of BCS conference-->D2 transfers have ended up in the NFL after very productive careers at their second school. I will be rooting for Kaleb if this is true.

CRex

May 6th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^

Hopefully everyone is parting ways on the best terms as possible.  If injury recovery was the issue it must have sucked to have to tell Kaleb that while he was running around again, he wasn't recovered to the level of being a BCS starter and they'd have to give him a medical hardship.

TTUwolverine

May 6th, 2013 at 4:34 PM ^

In my mind, a medical hardship was designed for a player who is injured to the point that playing football again would be medically unsafe... NOT for a player who may have lost a step or two, but would otherwise still be "safe" to play.  When I see players offered medical hardships going to play at other places, even if it is at a lower level of competition, that strikes me as an oversigning red flag.  Should I be thinking otherwise?

justingoblue

May 6th, 2013 at 4:56 PM ^

But do we ever hear about that? I feel like even in the crazy number of cases Alabama has there still aren't a whole lot of quotes out there, and I don't think any former player has actually said Saban offered them a medical hardship scholarship before going to play at UAB or whatever.

WolvinLA2

May 6th, 2013 at 7:25 PM ^

I'd bet it's pretty split, with the biggest factor being age. 

When these kids leave Michigan, they aren't just leaving a Michigan degree.  They are leaving their friends, their girlfriend(s) their favorite restaurants, etc.  Their whole comfort zone.  

For a guy like Ringer who was only here a year, that's not as big of a deal, so I would imagine a lot of those guys transfer.  It's a lot easier to still have NFL dreams when you've only lost one year.  But for a guy who has been in the program for 2 or 3 years, it's a much different deal.  Not only do they have more of the comfort zone I mentioned above, they have also seen starters, maybe multi-year starters, get cut from NFL rosters after a week and they start to at least think realistically about a back up plan if the NFL doesn't work out.  

WolvinLA2

May 6th, 2013 at 5:51 PM ^

Yeah, I don't think it's all that fishy. Cutting players is fishy. But telling a player, "hey look, we really don't think you're good enough for this team, so you can transfer elsewhere, or if you'd like to stay at our school and not play football, we'll still cover your tuition." I can't get all that mad about that.

WolvinLA2

May 6th, 2013 at 6:38 PM ^

I guess it just depends on what the schools really owe the guys they recruit. I think they owe them four years of scholarship, and everything else is gravy. If the player isn't good enough to be a member of the team, the team is not required to keep him on the squad, but has to uphold their end of the bargain and pay their tuition.

This is less strict than an academic scholarship. If you get an academic scholarship and you don't turn out to be a good student, your scholarship is pulled.

TTUwolverine

May 6th, 2013 at 7:09 PM ^

If a coaches were allowed to do the above, they should not get a reprieve from the scholarship cap.  So, if they don't want the kid to suit up, fine, but his scholarship will continue to count against the cap.  In this case, there really wouldn't be any downside to keeping the player on the team.  I think there should be exceptions made in cases where a kid is injured to the point where playing football is clearly medically unsafe or not physically possible, but not for guys who just won't be good enough to start.  Otherwise I think it offers too great of an incentive to kick a kid off the team.

WolvinLA2

May 6th, 2013 at 7:18 PM ^

Yeah, we just totally disagree on this then.  I'm of the opinion that if a kid isn't good enough to be on the team, he shouldn't be able to be on the team.  The program has the responsibility to uphold their end of the deal made during recruitment (tuition) but this isn't little league where every kid who signs up gets a spot.  

What good does it do the team or the player if the coaches keep a kid around they have no intention of playing just because they have to?  

I see it like an employee under contract, like an NBA coach because most people know about that.  If the coach turns out to be no good, the team can keep him or let him go, but either way they have to pay him what they agreed to.  That coach can then sit at home and collect his pay, or go coach somewhere else if he can. 

Ringer had the same options.  He could either collect his pay (complete his degree for free) or coach somewhere else (transfer).  

PM

May 6th, 2013 at 7:51 PM ^

but that completely undermines the entire premise of having a scholarship cap.  It's also a point that in the past has been used to distinguish between UM and oh, maybe Alabama or LSU. If (and we don't know) it is what's going on, you have to admit we're playing for keeps now.