Higdon Tweets He is Out For Peach Bowl

Way too many people care about a kid making a decision for his future...

If Higdon wants to pass on a meaningless bowl game, in his opinion, then that's up to him, as a graduating senior, i have zero issue with this...

Seeing Jake Butt drop 3 rounds because he played in a meaningless bowl game changed my opinion on this: Kids have every right to take a pass when there's nothing to gain by playing

Higdon was never that good. I thought it was a joke when he thought about declaring last year. He just looked good because we had nobody decent to beat him out. ZC is going to make everyone forget about Higdon. I’m glad he’s sitting out. Get more reps for the younger guys. Good luck to Higdon. Great kid but just don’t see him being anything in the league. 

Go Blue!!

I'm not overly upset by this because at the end of the day, there are still only a small handful of guys that can pull it off.

If you've put enough on film to be able to skip these meaningless games (like Bush or Gary has), then you've done some great things for your team.  You don't need to show any more.

There are not a lot of guys like that.    

This phenomenon of not playing in bowl games is not going away—to the contrary, it will only intensify in frequency and extent.

Which in turn is going to pose a big marketing challenge to a large percentage of the non-elite bowl games, and to the schools playing in them that have to sell tickets. If many of the best players are sitting out, what is the incentive for fans to attend?

It won't stop with bowl games, though—we'll inevitably start seeing players refuse to play body-bag games early in the season, or late season games if their team has no chance at any kind of title or conference championship.

I think what all this means is that the rotten, hypocritical nature of big-time college football is being exposed, and the whole edifice of sham amateurism will eventually fall apart. Either the NFL will have to set up a meaningful minor league, or fan support for the current system will continue to wane, and eventually you will see minor programs being disbanded.

Congrats to Karan on a great career at Michigan.  But now it is time to buy that baby some new shoes !  

God speed to you and your family.  Go Blue !!!

He'll get the most flack because he's a captain, but at the end of the day, it's his livelihood to consider.

I trust his judgment and wish him a great pro career.

Bowls will be gone within the next decade. 16 or 32 team playoff, where all the games mean something will replace them.  If you don't make the playoffs you're done.

Karan Higdon arrived at Michigan as a relatively unheralded player except for that one-time MGoBlog poster who promoted Karan and who predicted that Karan would be a pleasant surprise.  Karan left his mark on the Wolverines football program and enjoyed a couple of very good seasons.

It would be sad if this incident damaged his reputation as a captain and leader of this team, but that’s the risk he has taken. There's as much risk of suffering a serious injury in a bowl game as there would be in a Senior Bowl practice or a Senior Bowl game.

Regardless of when this new “tradition” started or which player started it, unfortunately, it appears that the days have ended when ALL players who are healthy enough to play in a bowl game will play in that bowl game.  There might not be anything that will fix it, but I’ll offer a suggestion.

Change the name of the Senior Bowl to the NFL Draft Combine Bowl.  Play it at an indoor stadium the week after the Super Bowl (two weeks before the NFL Draft Combine).  Pay the players and offer a financial incentive for players on the winning team.  Give Mobile, Alabama’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium an alternate bowl game to compensate for the loss of the Senior Bowl.

Coaching staffs come from the two teams that lost the NFL’s conference championship games. Practices start two weeks before the game to allow coaches and scouts from all NFL teams to have more time to observe the players. Take 60 players for each team.

Only NFL-draft-eligible players who’ve played in their team’s final game of the season (bowl game or otherwise), unless their absence from that game is due to injury or illness, are eligible to be “drafted” by the NFL to play in the NFL Draft Combine Bowl.  Players who are "drafted" for this game get a jump on their "job interviews" for an NFL career, two weeks ahead of all the other players who've been invited to NFL Draft the Combine.

Maybe football shouldn't have so many career ending injuries?

This is a discussion unique to college football.

In college basketball, nobody is sitting out the meaningless NIT out of fear of a career ending injury.  The worst thing they are worried about injuring is merely their pride.   

So..... 

Before this announcement I saw him getting selected in round 5.  After this announcement I see him getting selected in...………………..round 5.

I have absolutely no problem with a student athlete making the decision to leave school early to pursue a professional career, when their season is over. At that point, they have fulfilled their commitment to their team, and their scholarship ends. 

But I do think it is a signficant issue when these student athletes decide that a game on the schedule, that their teammates are playing in is not worth playing in as they get ready to prepare for the NFL draft. Notice, most of these players are healthy and are NOT citing risk of injury as a reason to not participate. That is because serious injuries that drop the draft status of players in a bowl game are very, very rare. Now, I know that some of you will immediately provide a few examples, and that will go along with the old phrase, "the exception that proves the rule". You remember a few exceptions, but forget the overwhelming number of student athletes who make it through the game without any serious injury and go on to get drafted. 

This is about early preparation for their NFL careers, or hopeful NFL careers. Unfortunately, their teammates, the guys who have blocked, caught passes, made tackles for, thrown balls to, whatever, will be out their competing without them. For many seniors, this will be their last game, EVER. So while for a limited few it is just a worthless game, for the majority, this matters. And that is a terrible way to be a teammate and friend. 

Even more important, THIS IS PART OF THE REASON WHY WE CANNOT WIN AGAINST SUPERIOR PROGRAMS. If you haven't competed at a high level, nor served as a head coach at any level, you won't get this. But at some points, players play for each other. They motivate each other. They sacrifice for each other. Individuals playing for individual goals don't win in team sports. That is reality. Look at the programs where players are are choosing to leave their teams prior to the bowl game. You don't see it with the playoff teams. You don't see it usually with playoff contenders, or consistent conference champions. If a player from one of those schools do happen to leave, it is more of the exception than the rule. For some reason, at Michigan, this program has a me first attitude. Players are more concerned about their draft status than representing their university, and more importantly, playing for their teammates, their friends, and maybe even their coaching staff who has helped developed and prepare them. 

An honest assessment needs to be done with the consistent winning programs in FBS, and those that are pretenders, which right now, Michigan is. We haven't won a conference title outright since 2003. We haven't played in a conference championship game yet. We haven't beaten Ohio State since 2011, and that was with Luke Fickel, and overmatched interim coach. Tressel and Meyer were 16-1 against us. The team, the team, the team means nothing to this program, and that might be a reflection of our current coaching staff, the athletes they choose to recruit, or both. But if a select few continue to leave their team early to prepare for themselves, then perhaps, when things get tough, throughout the spring, the summer, and during the fall, individuals look out for themselves, and that might be why Ohio State, Michigan State, and Notre Dame have held the advantage on us for a decade or longer.  

A great career at M and really enjoyed watching him play but there’s just something about the way he’s leaving that feels cold.