Friday, May 22, 2015

Michigan Friday: The Year Of The Transfer

Graduate transfers have become the hot item this year.   Michigan will probably have Iowa's former starting QB taking snaps against Utah in the Wolverines Opener and Everett Golson who was a Heisman candidate starting for ND last year, will spend his final year at Florida State.   Both of these transfers happened with in their own conference.   Will these guys be Russell Wilson at Wisconsin or the other many failed QB transfers. Failed graduate QB transfer examples include:  Danny O'Brien Maryland to Wisconsin, Jeremiah Masoli Oregon to Ole Miss, Jake Heaps Kansas to Miami, and Dayne Crist Notre Dame to Kansas.  Ohio State has 3 good QB's on the roster and many college football experts expect that one of them will be transferring somewhere else this summer.

Just this off season, Michigan has taken a graduate transfer punter and a starting DB from Stanford.   When I first saw that Jimmy was taking transfers in at a rate I had never seen before, I just thought it was his strategy to try to save the 2015 season.  Then I started to look around,  graduate and regular transfers seems to be the norm now in college football. 

Just look at today's two headlines:

  • Remember Kenny "Thrill" Hill who took the college football world by storm in his first game  for Texas A&M?  Well, he is transferring to TCU and will have to sit out a year.
 
  • Oklahoma RB Keith Ford will be transferring to Texas AM this summer and will also have to sit out a year.

Michigan usually hasn't been the team taking the graduate transfers they were the program that was losing them.  Here are some recent/notable examples: 

  • Safety Ryan Mundy went from Michigan to WVU in 2007 and got drafted by the NFL the next year. 

  • RB Michael Cox went from Michigan to UMASS in 2012.  He was drafted by the NY Giants in the 7th round the next year.

  • RB Thomas Rawls transferred from Michigan to CMU last season and had a head turning year on and off the football field.  He was charged with stealing a purse out of a Casino and was signed as a free agent by the Seahawks.

  • CB Blake Countess graduated from Michigan and now is looking for a new program to play his 5th and final year.  He is visiting RR and Arizona. Will the guy that recruited Blake to Michigan get the former All Big Ten corner for one year? 

Here is an NCAA Chart Tracking Division 1 Graduate Transfers and it's clear that most football players are there to play football and don't intend to finish their graduate degrees, as 68% withdraw within 2 years: (chart is from November 2014)


NCAA


 
Transfers have always been a part of college football but when you include the immediate eligibility of a graduate transfers, this trend will continue to be a big part of college football's off season.   Michigan now has a coach that is willing to take them in to better the Wolverines and fill holes in the roster.


Have a great holiday weekend!  A new post will be up on Tuesday morning.

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