Most dissapointing transfer?
The recent posts on McGuffie and Fargas got me thinking about former transfers. What former Wolverine were you most dissapointed to see transfer? I based my opinion on performance as a Wolverine, overall potential, and success after transferring. Although I was just a young adolescent, I really liked Justin Fargas. I was at the game, I believe it was against Wisconsin, where he got injured and if I recall, never saw the field as a Wolverine again. He went on to be productive at USC and play in the NFL. I really think he could have been something special had he stayed.
Boren, for two reasons. One, he was a pretty decent player. Two, he transerred to that school down south.
Three, he launched the Family Values meme.
August 8th, 2010 at 12:14 PM ^
... that will be completely dispelled by Brock Mealer in less than 4 weeks.
Hands down, Don't get me wrong I get why he transferred, but he's one of the most remarkable athletes I've ever seen. There's a reason they called him the white Reggie Bush.
There's a reason they called him the white Reggie Bush.
His family got to live rent free in a palatial condo, too?
[/ kidding]
August 8th, 2010 at 11:06 AM ^
There's also a reason they call Bush the black Sam McGuffie
August 8th, 2010 at 12:05 PM ^
gonna tear it up at Conference USA powerhouse Rice?
Mallet was a huge loss because we were stuck with SheriThreet.
Trevor Pryce was a transfer I always hated to lose when I was a young kid.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:25 AM ^
Losing Mallet was terrible. I know in the current form of RichRod's system we are running the spread option offense, and Mallet looked at what Coach Rod did in WV with Pat White and did not think that he fit. When Coach Rod was in Tulane and Clemson though the spread was used as a pass first attack. Can you imagine what Mallet would have been able to do if they would have set him back in the shotgun and spread it 4-5 wide. He would have thrown 40+ times a game. It would be interesting to see how that would have played out.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:30 PM ^
Given our LB play, in retrospect maybe the most disappointing transfer is Cobrani Mixon. He's tearing up the MAC at Kent, but I'm sure many would say he would have been our best LB the last couple of years. You wonder how many wins that kind of upgrade might have been.
The decimated defense piece showed the attrition and Mixon might be the most productive of all the departures on that side of the ball, so I'll give him the nod here. It's too bad it didnt work out at MICH.
Do the circumstances around him leaving really matter to answer this question?
August 8th, 2010 at 11:22 AM ^
he didn't think he would play at the Big Ten level...
How could Admissions have had anything to do with Mixon transferring? He was already enrolled at Michigan for a full year. Thus ends his interaction with Admissions.
Then he transferred.
I really do enjoy your responses. And touchthebanner.
RR would definately have have shapened the offense around Mallet to fit a top 5 NFL draft pick. That might have paved the way for more elite QBs and WRs to be interested in the program than they are currently.
Side note: Watching ESPNU right now and its the '88 game of Neb v. UCLA and I had no idea the story behind Aikman going to UCLA. Apparently Aikman was supposed to go to OU but then had a leg injury and OU switched to the wishbone offense and told Aikman to go elsewhere. Still to this day OU doesn't have a QB that has taken a snap in an NFL game (obviously that won't last much longer with Bradford).
aikman was at OU, he was their starter. then they play miami and they broke his leg. he then lost his starting position. THAT is why he transferred.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:01 AM ^
...Barry Switzer himself advised Aikman to transfer b/c his skills didn't match the system. Switzer believed Aikman should be in a pro-style offense that would throw it more. That was pretty selfless by Switzer.
Yeah...it's too bad we can't lure elite QB's. I guess we'll just have eek by with the #1 dual-threat qb in the country for the next four/five years, who, by the way, will likely be readshirted this year because of two other potentially superstar qb's on the roster. Maybe RR will someday figure out how to lure elite qb talent to UM. Damn you Ryan Mallet.
/sarcasm
Jason Forcier. He was a pretty good QB recruit, a better fit for Rich Rodriguez's offense than Mallet, and would have be an upperclassman at a position that almost always benefits from experienced leadership.
Plus his transfer to Stanford was painful for both of us. We were left with Threetsheridammit and Forcier was left sitting on the bench.
sat out a year after having his knee destroyed by wisky, i was at that game also... he came back the following year and moved to D because i believe there was a log jam at RB... after that season he transfered to USC... i wasn't a fan of him leaving at all, i just remember all of the stories about how fast he was and that he might be faster then wheatley... but he never really lived up the hype, i think he only had one 100 yard rushing game and that was against northwestern in the rain... pryce would be another one that hurt when he bailed... i remember the first time i saw him up close, he was the biggest person i had ever seen...
part yet, but I was really disappointed about Brandon Smith leaving. I loved the way he played on special teams and I thought given time to learn the defense he would have been a really solid player.
Brandon Smith would have been perfect for one of the Spur/Bandit positions that I continue to confuse to no end.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
Couldn't agree with you more Lutha
August 8th, 2010 at 11:03 AM ^
...but I thought he was way too slow. I thought if he could add some more weight that Will backer might be better for him.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:15 AM ^
I remember seeing him get embarrassingly turned around on kick coverage. Even for an LB, he wouldn't have had great change-of-direction skills.
Jason Forcier. Jason would have been great in this offense. His transfer is more foresight than anything. He could have never predicted that when transfered under Lloyd's watch, we would have hired a spread option coach. Oh well.
I don't remember all the details, but he seemed to appear out of no where and then just as suddenly returned to that place. I was only around 10 or 11 at the time, but I remember him being a dominant DE (looks like he started 11 games as a sophomore in 1996). Would have loved to see him star on the '97 defense.
He was a phenomanal DE, but his problem (I believe) was that he was declared academically ineligible and thus left the program for Western Illinois.
I was an undergraduate when he was at UM and I remember a Daily article where he was discussing how he was spending too much time partying with his high school buddies and couldn't get his grades up. It was too bad we lost him but I was glad to see that he eventually got his act together, finished out his career at NIU, and then played in the NFL for a while.
But, I definitely agree that we might have more hardware from the '90s in Schembechler Hall had we been able to hang onto Bowens and Pryce.
Both of these were mentioned by other posters. It seemed twisted that two uncommonly good pash rushers (at a school not noted, at least in those days, for producing large numbers of the breed) didn't work out at UMich.
Obviously the two most highly contentious recent transfers in Boren and Mallet rank right up there for me for obvious reasons.
Other transfers like William Peterson (James) in the late 90s and Fargas would come in behind those first two simply because of the impact Boren's and Mallet's transfer had on the results on the field.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:00 AM ^
Epke Udoh
August 8th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^
I have to give you a point merely because of your sig. Jim Schwartz is awesome.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:11 AM ^
Mallet. He's going to win the Heisman this year.
August 8th, 2010 at 10:47 AM ^
Most dissapointing transfer?
August 8th, 2010 at 10:52 AM ^
Broke my heart two ways. Thought he could have been the best QB ever at Michigan (he had one, maybe even two years left) and then he washed out as a hitter.
Still cant figure out how he couldnt make it in the NFL, given some of the stiffs we see playing.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:49 PM ^
Ryan Leaf wonders the same thing.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:13 AM ^
....we only discuss players who actually play for Michigan?
We are on the verge of a very important and exciting start of the season. Looking back is not moving on. It's standing still.
August 8th, 2010 at 12:11 PM ^
But still disappointing nonetheless is Ryan Mundy. Actually transferred to RR's WVU team using the grad school rules to make it so he didn't have to sit out a year. He ended up doing pretty well there and you would think he could have really helped us at safety in 2007, especially in the Horror and against Oregon.
I'm pretty sure his eligability as an undergrad was up after 06. He played at WVU because of the Graduate waiver.
Ryan Mallett. At the time I wasn't that sad to see him go, but looking back it's hard not to wonder how different the 08 and 09 seasons would have been.
The transfer didn't cost us the most on the field, but it cost quite a bit.
It also caused a storm of a PR nightmare.
McGuffie had a decent freshman season, but he wasn't as good as Brandon Minor. Things would have been different with Mallett, but our receivers in '08 and '09 weren't that great (assuming that both Manningham and Arrington still would have left for the NFL prior to '08). The Bowens transfer was disappointing, but the team was still good without him.
I think if McGuffie stayed, we would have went to a bowl last year and we would feel a lot more comfortable about this season. (Biggest ? mark on the offense is RB, IME)
McGuffie would not have helped us on defense last year, so I don't think his presence would have affected the W-L record.
Also, I am not even sure where McGuffie would have fit onto the depth chart at RB, but he certainly would have been behind Minor and probably also behind C. Brown.
I realize McGuffie made some great plays in high school and had that really good game against ND in 2008, but headed into this season I think Shaw and Cox are the the front-runners, and I would probably still feel that way if McGuffie was on the roster.
I guess I just never really understood what people saw in McGuffie. I suspect there may be a little confirmation bias seeing as he came in as a 5-star.
I think you're way off base. As someone else said, he wouldn't have helped our defense. Freshman running backs (just like rookie running backs in the NFL) have a relatively easy time adjusting to college ball, and McGuffie wasn't better than Minor as a freshman; therefore, he probably still would have been worse than Minor as a sophomore.
McGuffie would have been a better backup than Vincent Smith (IMO), but Vincent Smith didn't cause us to lose any games in 2009.
You are not a Vincent Smith fan at all..... Why? I know he is undersized and lacks top end speed but his agility on the field makes up for some of that IMO. He probably will never be our every down back but I think this kid will make some big plays this year.
It's not that I think he's a bad player. It's just that he's a) overrated by many Michigan fans and b) got better backs ahead of him. He's not big and he doesn't have great speed. He has a role, but it's not as a Big Ten starter. I'd like to see him return some punts at some point, too. Maybe he'll get a chance once Rodriguez figures out that he's not starter material.