Antonio Kinard headed to prep school or junior college; Demar Dorsey signs with Louisville
Michigan has lost another member of its 2010 recruiting class to academics.
Jeff Whittaker, the coach at Youngstown (Ohio) Liberty, said Sunday that linebacker Antonio Kinard is weighing three options for this fall, playing football at prep schools Fork Union or Hargrave military academies, or signing with a junior college in Kansas.
"He’s looking at it like it’ll be his redshirt year," Whittaker said. "It just won’t be at the university and then he’ll be able to get it in order and finish this test and get back on track coming up."
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Kinard was considered a long shot to qualify when he signed with Michigan in February. At the time, Wolverines coach Rich Rodriguez said Kinard still had work to do in the classroom.
Whittaker said one holdup with Kinard's eligibility was passing a portion of the Ohio Graduation Tests, a requirement in the state of Ohio. Still, Kinard hopes to attend Michigan in 2011.
“T.K. loves the University of Michigan," Whittaker said. "The only goal in his life right now is to get through this and play at the University of Michigan. He’s had other Division I programs, which I’m not going to name, call him and want him to look at their universities. Big-time programs. They wanted to set him up with different schools and what not. His focus has not deviated one bit from the University of Michigan. He truly loves Coach Rodriguez and the University of Michigan."
Earlier this month, Michigan denied admission to defensive back Demar Dorsey over academic and off-field concerns.
Dorsey, the highest-ranked member of Michigan's 2010 class, was released from his letter of intent and committed to Louisville on Sunday, according to multiple reports.
Louisville head coach Charlie Strong and defensive coordinator Vance Bedford helped recruit Dorsey to Florida, the school he originally committed to before signing with Michigan in February.
Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
Comments
Robbie Webb
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 11:33 a.m.
Threet was aweful.
Sean T.
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 1:29 a.m.
Threet was a 4 star athlete before going to G-Tech but they chnged the offense to a option scheme. So we know what happened at UofM!
Robbie Webb
Wed, Jun 23, 2010 : 3:34 p.m.
Uhhh, there are a nice handful of guys who I certainly would not consider West Virginia talent.
GoblueinNE_PA
Wed, Jun 23, 2010 : 3:14 p.m.
I think the talent Rich Rod has gotten at Michigan is EXACTLY like the talent he got at WVU. Only difference is the shade of yellow and the emblem on the helmets. To me, that's the biggest problem with him.
Robbie Webb
Wed, Jun 23, 2010 : 1:04 p.m.
While I somewhat agree they shouldn't have gone 3-9 I'm not surprised it happened, either. I mean, youth was a big problem and look who was at quarterback. A walkon from Saline High School and Threet were their go to guys. So with those two alone aside from everything else, I'm not surprised one bit. Rich Rod's kids have gotten older and more expereinced, and hopefully they stay healthy this year, if all goes well with the roster, we'll see what happens. I don't see them having a bad season and I don't think he needs years to get to where he wants his team to be. Maybe at West Virginia, but they don't get the talent Michigan does, so I think this will be a fun season for our Wolverines.
GoblueinNE_PA
Wed, Jun 23, 2010 : 11:58 a.m.
Robbie It certainly isn't me that's saying that first recruiting class isn't RichRod's. It's all the folks falling all over themselves supporting him that make that claim. It's the standard refrain around here to say "That first class wasn't RichRod's kids. He's only got two classes in, he needs a full 5 years to show what he can do." If I've seen that once here, I've seen it a hundred times. My point still stands, his recruiting classes have continued to slide, year over year, and he's not produced on the field. I also think the crutch that there was no depth and/or leadership on the team when RR got here is bunk. As I've pointed out here before, there were 7 returning starters on defense from that bowl game and there was a potential of 3 starters returning on the offensive line. Here's a Wikapedia link for those that want to take a look see. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Michigan_Wolverines_football_team Was the talent available after the 2008 Cap One bowl national championship caliber? No, it wasn't. Was it a 3-9 squad. NO WAY.
Robbie Webb
Tue, Jun 22, 2010 : 9:19 p.m.
GoblueinNE_PA, you have to understand that his recruiting classes are obviously his. I don't see how anyone can say they weren't his kids when he recruited them. But they are young. Along with no depth, key injuries, walkons at key positions, and little veteran leadership, success is hard to come by.
GoblueinNE_PA
Tue, Jun 22, 2010 : 7:41 p.m.
I'm glad to see Dorsey land on his feet. I hope he does well at Louisville. As for Kinard, this is yet another blow to the 2010 recruiting class. With the loss of Dorsey, it was no better than a 20 to 25 class. I doubt Kinard has that much of an impact, probably still around 25, but that's 2 other kids that could have been brought on board that we'll never see at the University. When RichRod first was hired, all that was said about his was, "Oh boy, what's he going to do with that system now that he can get those top 10 classes at Michigan" Instead, what's happened is we've found out what will happen when RichRod brings both his system and his recruiting classes from WVU. RichRod's best class so far was his first one, the one that everyone says we have to discount since it "wasn't his kids". Declining recruiting classes, poor results on the field. I just don't see how he survives.
Michiganiac
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 5:19 p.m.
He said in the signing day press confrence kinard was going to be a long shot. and it was just two weeks ago the UM released a statment saying dorsey was denied strickly on academics. David bin brandin even commented on the dorsey thing, so he signed with louisville.He wasn't getting in Michigan, and aparently they don't care about real high school transcripts there. And asfar as Kinard he still sounds pretty commited to michigan and richrod to me..
DetroitChris2010
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 11:02 a.m.
This would have been a really great article had there been some insight into the number of offers that are extended and the whittling down process to those who show up in the fall to attend school and play ball. I don't know if you could get the actual data for a specific school, but you might be able to get some watered down averages from the NCAA. Mr. Birkett? I thought the fact that Louisville had accepted Dorsey was the more interesting part of the story as clearly they are not aspiring to academic excellence or character, at least not in their athletes. Another reason they are not in the conversation about Big Ten expansion, I'm guessing.
OSUbeBetter
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 8:38 a.m.
You must run away from the Fork Union kids!
81wolverine
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 8:36 a.m.
3 And Out: I don't know how you came up with those conclusions about Michigan's recruting strategy. Do you personally know the coaches and have some inside information about how hard they work to research kids' backgrounds? Somehow, I doubt it. From what I've heard from others close to the program and read is that these coaches work far more hours than you and I. College football recruiting (in case you weren't aware) is HIGHLY competitive these days. You MUST, as a program talk to and offer scholarships to a very large number of athletes to be able to eventually receive the target number of commitments you need. I think Tater laid out the math pretty well. And due to the volume of kids being considered, sometimes, someone slips through the screening process and gets an offer who can't qualify. It's not a big deal. I can guarantee you if you research most other major football programs, they ALL get occasional non-qualifiers. Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill.
azwolverine
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 8:23 a.m.
What kind of effect do all of these kids not making the grade have on the ranking of our recruiting class? I would have to imagine that whatever ranking we had would have been inflated now that these two players won't be on the team.
Freemind42
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 7:55 a.m.
For all those out there who thinks that RR is just offering too many scholarships, that's part of the game of recruiting. Some kids don't get in after all is said and done. I also just want to put out a tidbit of info for everyone. The Admissions office does the same thing with every freshman class. They admit more people than spaces available because of attrition. Every year there is attrition in football too. This is normal, it's only getting attention like this because it involves Rich Rod and people look for reasons to hate him.
NoBowl4Blue
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 6:52 a.m.
Can't help but wonder if there will be more. With Rich Rod it wouldn't surprize me. A Notre Dame grad who lives in Columbus e-mailed me a story about a recruit but the interesting thing was at the top of the page it read 2,402 days since Michign beat OSU. 6 1/2 years. With the program the way it is now it may be another 6 1/2 before that changes.
Blue Marker
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 6:16 a.m.
redceder1...the kid isn't from Ohio, he's from Florida. Stick to your own thug program and don't worry about Michigan. Maybe RR should have given the kid one of Dantonio's famous "second chance" so he could raid a dorm or something.
Jarhead
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 5:45 a.m.
"RR has no extra pull". "Even slick Ritchie couldn't pull this off" What are you saying? You want RR and Mich to bend rules. Its insane to me that everyone wants Mich to have higher standards, have the most integrety and then are mad when the coach and the university follows those standards. "toss out too many offers"? How many are too many? Every school puts out more offers than they can actually give. Why? Because every other school is offering to those same kids also. Just 'cause you give an "offer" dosen't mean you get the player. Lots of those offers are not scollies, they are offers to come to Mich. In 2007 we had 36 freshmen. They all didn't get a scollie. There has to be 2500 names, stats, film clips come in to the University every year. Of which the position coaches pare it down to about 250 in hopes of signing roughly 20 to 25. Ya, we're gonna do dilligent true research on every one of these. When the head coach of any University has some free time, he goes out and plays detective. Now I'm "laughing out loud"!
15crown00
Mon, Jun 21, 2010 : 1:11 a.m.
there will always be a school that will take a kid that a major university rejected.that's the way it's always been and it's not going to change anytime soon.the kid that's the long shot probably shouldn't have been recruited at all. RR strikes again.
A2D2
Sun, Jun 20, 2010 : 9:54 p.m.
the one thing that we have learned about the current state of affairs with UM football is that RR has no extra "pull" or influence over who's in or who's out. I'd say that his is one more masterful "shortening of the leash" by DB.
3 And Out
Sun, Jun 20, 2010 : 9:38 p.m.
this is what happens when you just toss out too many offers to just about any decent athlete... you get them bouncing out and you are left with nothing... a very FLAWED recruiting strategy and one wonders if it is based on laziness and a desire for the "quick fix" as opposed to doing do diligence and true research in to the players background, academically, athletically on the field, and personally at home. Either way...that strategy reeks, regardless of the reason. Hey Robbie, did you get your Rich Rod scholie offer in the mail yet?