Harbaugh Pressures Pipkins to Retire
Should be interesting going forward. It is one side of the story, but we have seen these instances (OSU had a similar situation a few months ago I believe).
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/13154115/ondre-pipkins-s…
"I don't want to sign the form. I wanted to play for my seniors and for the team. Coach Harbaugh said, 'I recommend you take the medical.'"
"College football is a business. New coaches have to win games. They want to go with guys they think can win. If I'm a victim of making room, so be it. But if there is no concrete reason to disqualify a player. He should have the right to keep playing."
"I feel bad I wasn't able to complete this journey with my classmates," Pipkins told ESPN. "I feel I am healthy and without pain. I believe Michigan wanted to free up the scholarship. I felt I was practicing well and could compete at a high level at the nose tackle and tackle positions."
"All I want to do is play football," Pipkins said. "I tried to finish my career at Michigan but I wasn't given the chance."
"Schmidt told me, 'Call it quits. Hang it up.' He said, 'You've had a good run'," Pipkins said of the Wolverines' head athletic trainer.
"I need you to sign this," Pipkins said Harbaugh told him of the medical form. "It's not fair to your teammates. Let's get it done."
Bye Felecia ...take your toys and go home because
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Some of you really need to calm yourselves. Seriously. Those who are saying this is a total dick move needs to think about these things:
- Pipkins is a senior. His scholarship is done with at the end of the upcoming year. Therefore they are not making room for anyone in the 2016 class
- Even if they were bringing in someone for THIS year to be included in the 2015 class, we still wouldn't be over the limit.
- Putting Pipkins on Medical does NOT "help" anything.
So why are some of you doom and glooms pointing fingers at Harbaugh calling him Saban, Urban, telling everyone that they're hypocritical? If Pipkins had 1+ years, I could see your point about this stinking as if something was rotting in Denmark,. Bottom line is that this move does NOTHING for Michigan. When you you're left with the only logical conclusion then you may just have your answer: He isn't medically sound to continue to play football.
In all seriousness, we won't ever know the whole story and truly what is wrong with Pipkins medically.....but given what we know and learned, the logical answer at this time is obvious.
How dare you?
+1 to you for making me laugh today. I need that :)
You can't possibly know whether taking the medical hardship would have helped with Michigan's scholarship count or not, because you don't know how many player Michigan may be trying to lure as transfers at this very moment.
And even if it doesn't help the scholarship numbers, that still doesn't mean that the move was made based on legitimate medical reasons with Pipkins' best interest at heart. According to Steve Lorenz, there have been rumblings for a while that Pipkins didn't really get along with the new coaching staff. For all we know, Harbaugh wanted him gone because he didn't want him in the locker room, but (hypothetically) had been told by the AD that scholarships were for 4 years at Michigan, so he literally couldn't just cut the kid.
We just don't know.
I personally don't find anything particularly underhanded about this situation. I'll be much more interested to see how it all shakes out when the blatant oversigning starts, which IMHO is likely to be with the class of 2016.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
If they don't care about the scholarship... why bother medicaling him?
Just let him keep his athletic scholarship and never play.
The only reason to try and force a medical - is because you want the scholarship. If your concern is him getting a degree, you can keep him on athletic scholarship even if he never plays or practices.
That would mean that they DO care about the scholarship.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
This is the sort of thing it takes to be on an even playing field with other title contenders. I'm okay with it, because I have to be if I want Michigan to be competing on the same level as osu, fsu, and the sec teams.
You can have a successful season doing things the right way all the time, but if you want to be a contender every year, you have to work the loopholes in the system. I'm not saying we need our own group of bag men, but signing 22 - 25 recruits each year, suggesting transfers, and issuing questionable medical hardships is practically required to keep up with the powerhouses of college football. I may be wrong, but watching guys like Urban Meyer and Nick Saban hoist the trophy at the end of every season makes me think doing things the right way just isn't enough.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
CFB coaches and staff are all under a gag order. It's called FERPA.
So unless a consistent pattern emerges over time, it seems best to withhold judgment when it's not even possible for outsiders to know the whole story.
it's for its own good and I hope it works out for him. It's not hard to imagine this situation and the best from both side happenening, even though it won't.
The thing is if we all just accepted the fact that college football is a big business plain and simple than oversigning and things like this wouldn't matter to us.
We don't get mad when teams cut players in the NFL over an injury so why do we get upset when it happens in CFB? I think it's beause a part of us want to believe that CFB is pure but it's not.
It gets confusing though because the one thing pure about CFB is gameday. From the students, to the fight songs, traditions and the rivalries, etc.... No other sport comes as close to perfection as a CFB game.
Don't get me wrong I wished it weren't like this (in fact I'm for paying the players but that's talk for another day) but this is the way CFB is played nowadays. I don't agree with it but I have accepted it and it's why I refuse to rip other schools for the way they "run their business".
Could've lost 50lbs., rehab'd at UM medical and absorbed everything from he could Harbaugh and the staff over the next year and a half. Than maybe he's able to get back up to playing weight with a fully repaired knee and fully healed head; than, since he would have made a powerful ally with the 68th most influential person in the NFL, he would've had plenty of help getting a camp tryout. Maybe in.............., I don't know, lets say Baltimore? Just spitballing /s
Thats all great sir but how do you explain the doctors initially clearing him than the coaches send him back to the doctor and he is told to rest for 6 months? if the staff was so worried about his knee's why did they allow him to participate in spring practices? Its safe to say this happens everywhere for a multitude of reasons.
In the case involving Jamel Dean and the defending national champions, is similiar in several ways yet entirely different in eligibility.One is a senior the other a incoming freshman early enrollee. Both were top prospects with multible injuries. Both were offered medical hardship scholarships. Neither agreed with the doctors. Thats where the similarities end. Both transferring to continue their football careers.
Jamel Dean committed in the beginning of his junior season and shortly thereafter tore his ACL. rehabbed the rest of the year and played his senior season. Dean chose to participate in a HS all star game in January and tore his meniscus in the same knee. He enrolled early and shortly thereafter TOSU doctors did not clear him medically eligible and offered him a medical hardship scholarship despite the fact he hadn't even practiced let alone play in a game. He has transferred to Auburn and was re-examined by Dr James Andrew and wasn't cleared. Andrews recommended rehab and a re-examination before he can resume football ativities. There's no gurantee Andrews will clear him. Another case of a one sided story.Furthermore Dean was DQ'ed in january. TOSU signed Damon Arnett on Febuary 2nd to replace Dean in the class. Dean was not shoved out, he was medically DQ'ed. Pipkins was cleared and then miraculously DQ'ed after he refused to retire. So you see these 2 cases couldn't be more different.
Just to be clear I don't think Harbaugh is a scumbag for trying to free up a scholarship for your early enrollee's in 2016. Its just an ugly situation thats not going to play well on the recruiting trail. If a player that has been in your program going on 4 years and wants to play after being cleared medically I think its in poor taste not to let him give it a go. One scholarship isn't going to make or break your program going forward. Bad move by Harbaugh.
This is a cake walk compared to what SEC tells its players.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
If they continued to let Pipkins play and he gets another concussion... he could also sue the program for failing to look out for his health and well being. Hard decision for the staff to make and hard decision for Big Pipkins to accept.... wish he would have taken the high road instead of making the ball coach sound like a used car salesman.
So awesome of Pip to sandbag the university and the UM staff. Kid was a bust-- just like Grady, but to Grady's credit he didnt throw the university under the bus with his issues. Point blank, Pipkins sullied his teammates and the school. Sorry you busted dude. Thanks for getting Hoke fired!
For the sake of argument, what if the story is that while a technical case can be made for a med DQ, that's just a smokescreen for wanting to weed out soft under performers, according to the coaches opinions, regardless of roster management, simply not wanting guys like that around?
Would that be ok with you guys or not?
Aside from being ok ethically or not, if you think a guy has no heart or no fight in him, but he doesn't accept that and fights to have a chance to prove you wrong and fight for a position, does that in itself show a fight in him worth giving him another chance if you're truly not going to otherwise use his scholarship?