Wolverine Wednesday: Duck and Cover

Michigan does well in recruiting Detroit's Cass Tech football program.  Even Rich Rod and staff recruited there and did well.   The notable Wolverines on the current roster from Cass include:  Delonte Hollowell, Thomas Gordon and Big Will.   We all know about Boubacar flaming out and Michigan has two players coming in the 2013 class with David Dawson and Jourdan Lewis.   That is a pretty good Maize and Blue pipeline right there.  Of course, Cass Tech is coached by former Wolverine Thomas Wilcher.

One of the players that got away from the Wolverines was 4 star DB Dior Mathis.   His recruitment seemed pretty strange from the start.  He had a Michigan offer but really never seriously considered the Wolverines.   It's fine if players want to get  away from home and go to another school, what was strange in Dior's recruitment was he barley gave the Wolverines a second look.  Some Michigan fans were a little concerned about Dior's recruitment because of Boubacar's trouble on and off the field and how he had trouble covering the ND WR's due to his height.  Dior is 5'9 and 170 pounds.  

Dior was the 12 ranked CB in the country by Rivals and ranked the #4 player in Michigan for the 2010 class.  He had offers from Michigan, Tenn, Florida, FSU, Miami, Oregon, MSU and others.
In January of that year he verballed to the Oregon Ducks.  Case Closed, right?  Nope.

Many high school athletes visit Oregon and feel like it's Nike World University.  They have great facilities and of course all the state of the art Nike gear.   Some guys just love that and travel far from home to play for the Ducks.   Is that the best way to rate a football program or University?  Probably not but you can't question the success they have had on the football field lately.  

Then the NCAA came knocking and found this:
 
The University of Oregon paid more than $28,000 to two men with ties to multiple recruits who signed letters of intent with the school, Yahoo! Sports has learned.

According to State of Oregon expenditure records, the university paid $25,000 to Will Lyles of Complete Scouting Services in Houston, and $3,745 to Baron Flenory of New Level Athletics. Lyles is a former athletic trainer who recently was serving as a mentor to highly touted Ducks running back recruit Lache Seastrunk. Meanwhile, Flenory runs the Badger Sports Elite 7-on-7 football camps which have featured several celebrated Ducks signees including running back DeAnthony Thomas, defensive back Cliff Harris, defensive back Dior Mathis and wideout Tacoi Sumler. Flenory had a personal training relationship with recent Ducks signee Anthony Wallace.

Funny how things work out in the end.  Dior had 6 tackles in limited action last year and there were also reports he was moving to WR.   The Ducks recently came clean on the above payments and said they were guilty of having an extra coach out recruiting as well.