A couple things…
- As rumored, Kelvin Grady is indeed expected to join the Michigan football team. He’ll have 3 years to play 3, meaning he’s essentially coming in as a redshirt sophomore. He’ll play slot receiver, and will likely be used in all the ways that Rodriguez has used such players (motioning into the backfield, end-around pitches, etc.) in the past. Grady, while he should be in pretty good shape from having continued his D-1 athletic career over the past two years, is going to have to work to change his physique from that of a football player to that of a basketball player. He’ll probably provide depth at slot this year, though we’ve all seen on the basketball court the quickness that he can bring.It’s still unclear whether he’ll rejoin the basketball team, since he’s still around and all. Most news items have not mentioned it as an option, but I don’t see why not. The kid clearly loves basketball (he picked it over football coming out of high school, after all), and with the football career perhaps becoming the main focus, he could play basketball and provide depth at the point guard position for another year or two, without fretting about his overall role on the team.
- The other personnel issue is with a player who has yet to hit campus: Justin Turner, the defensive back out of Massillon Washington, has been the subject of rumors regarding his eligibility to enroll at Michigan. The apparent issue regards the Ohio Graduation Test, and Turner’s apparent failing of it. Before we get into that, I might as well bring up the source of this rumor, the English-teacher’s-nightmare of a blog GBMW (which I shall not link because I think they’re idiots). The rebuttal to their post at WLA, though clearly written in a heat of passion, is something I agree with: GBMW broke either 1) The law, by getting a student’s private records, or 2) Turner’s trust, by throwing this shit all over the internet. Additional shame to them (on top of the shame of illiteracy, of course). Anyway, since the rumor has become fairly ubiquitous, Sam Webb found it OK to mention on the WTKA morning show today, and I feel okay posting about it.As for the test, the state of Ohio requires its high schoolers to pass the Ohio Graduation Test as something of an exit exam. Don’t pass the test, you don’t get to graduate high school (and get automatic admission to Ohio State – no I’m not joking, this policy was around as recently as 6 years ago). Turner, then, did not pas the test, or so the rumor goes. Webb was not particularly pessimistic about Turner’s ability to still get into school, as he’s a pretty good student who’s already met the NCAA Clearinghouse’s requirements for eligibility, except the no high school diploma thing. There are alternative methods to diploma eligbility, and given Turner’s academic reputation, most don’t foresee him having difficulty there.
So, hurray. Enjoy this video of Charles Woodson and Desmond Howard on College Football Live yesterday as a reward for getting through all that:
Posted under Football, Personnel
Tags: 2009, justin turner, Kelvin Grady
10 Comments so far
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Obvs I could give a shit about GBMW, but when does it cross the line from investigative journalism to “they are idiots”?? Is it when they dig up something unflattering about a UM kid?
I only write this because if they had dug up something about an OSU player not passing this test I think we all would have LOZROFL’d and been done with it. It feels like a double standard.
Regardless of the school to which the kid committed, I would certainly hope that we (as fans) would feel the same way about the purported release of confidential academic records.
As for GBMW, I still do have them on my blog reader, although I have moved them far down the list and haven’t actually read it in a while. As stated, the writing is atrocious and, while I at first appreciated their apparent insider insight into (in, in, in!) the program, I do question the voracity (haha) of the content.
Well, we know about a Michigan kid because duh, we are reading Michigan blogs. For me, it has to do with the principle of the thing. First off, they don’t have the guts to stand behind their rumors. They couch all of this in a bunch of weasel words. And why? Because it is illegal to release the information without permission except to a few people in a few instances:
* School officials with legitimate educational interest;
* Other schools to which a student is transferring;
* Specified officials for audit or evaluation purposes;
* Appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to a student;
* Organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the school;
* Accrediting organizations;
* To comply with a judicial order or lawfully issued subpoena;
* Appropriate officials in cases of health and safety emergencies; and
State and local authorities, within a juvenile justice system, pursuant to specific State law.
Note that illiterate bricklayers from Tiffin, Ohio, to allude to on their blog are not on the list.
If they were pulling up dirt about Ohio State players, I would ignore them like I always do.
Eh. I have to agree to disagree. I know if some OSU blog dug up something like this on an OSU player it would be in MGoLiscious, we would all have a good laugh and that would be that. I doubt you would call them idiots because they publiched private information. That is all I am commenting on it. I really don’t care and it is a non story IMO.
…and I’d spellcheck your article before tooling on anyone else about how smart they are.
Typographical errors are not an indication of a lack of intelligence.
Comparing not using spell check to the complete destruction of the English language is laughable. If my 7th grader wrote like that, he would be getting extra help. And these guys, are far as I am concerned, may as well be on the Scout payroll. So the guy that likes to brag about integrity can bite me. This was a piss poor thing to put out there. And then to post it on Scout’s free board to help drive your blog’s counter should be enough to let everyone know what Scout is all about.
I would also make sure that Coach Rod knows who these clowns are, and maybe their ‘secret special insider’ status can be revoked. The comments about Grady were just as bad. If they didn’t have access, this tidbit would be where it belongs, locked up inside the program.
Can he take the test again?