Another loss for Michigan football team
When it rains it pours in Ann Arbor, where it seems nothing is going right in Coach Rich Rodriguez’s first season. The bad news hasn’t stopped even though the season is over.
One of the Wolverines’ better young players is leaving the team as freshman tailback Sam McGuffie was given his release by Rodriguez and plans to transfer to a school closer to his Texas home.
McGuffie played in 10 games in 2008 and was UM’s second-leading rusher with 486 yards on 118 attempts with three touchdowns. He was the team’s third-leading receiver with 19 catches for 175 yards and started six games for the 3-9 Wolverines. But most of the production came early in the season, including 100-plus-yard rushing games against Notre Dame and Toledo.
McGuffie was the first true freshman tailback to start a season opener for Michigan in the modern era and started the first six games before being replaced by junior Brandon Minor. His departure makes six players who have left UM since the end of November. If McGuffie goes to a Division I school, as expected, he will have to sit out a year.
Questions about McGuffie’s future with the team began being raised when he decided he was too hurt up to play in the final home game after practicing all week and participating in warmups. In the Wolverines’ season finale, a loss at Ohio State, McGuffie suffered a concussion on a kickoff return, the only time he ran the ball that game.
“I’ve talked to Sam before the [Thanksgiving] break and after the break,” Rodriguez said. “We have several concerns. Sam has concerns at home, and we have concerns because he’s had multiple concussions, three of them, so there’s a lot of concerns there.
UM running backs coach Fred Jackson said concussions were not a factor in McGuffie’s decision to leave.
“The kid wanted to be here,” Jackson said. “It’s just that things happened with his family that weighed heavy he couldn’t concentrate.”
McGuffie told Rivals.com that he’s considering transferring to Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU or Oklahoma State. He said he considers A&M his front-runner.
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