After one of Michigan's final spring practices of the year, head coach Jim Harbaugh had several messages for his team. He was pleased with the effort (for the most part), happy with the competition, but there were still rumblings that several players who either weren't happy with playing time or not patient enough to realize their time was coming soon were at least thinking about leaving.
Receiver/kick returner Giles Jackson was one, bolting before camp even ended and ending up at Washington. Little-used lineman Philip Paea is the latest, having earned his degree and now looking for an opportunity on someone else's line.
Rest assured, there will be others ... and there have already been a lot.
But Harbaugh made it clear to his team down the stretch that the expectation was that guys stick it out, per observers. "We made a commitment to you, and you made a commitment to us" was the gist of it, but there are others still on the fence.
One of them, per impeccable sources in Texas and elsewhere, is freshman receiver Xavier Worthy. He was in Ann Arbor this winter, as we told you, and that helped ease some fears that the four-star signee might open it back up and look to play elsewhere next year. But even offensive coordinator/receivers coach Josh Gattis seemed to indicate there was doubt in a recent podcast with former U-M lineman Jon Jansen while talking about speed at the receiver position.
"Then we are also adding our two true freshmen, Andrel Anthony and Cristian Dixon, and then hope we'll ... you know, this summer we'll get in Xavier Worthy. So we've got speed," he said.
Several sources in the Lone Star State believe Worthy will end up playing for Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns instead. There's too much smoke to ignore the very realistic possibility.
On a positive note, Anthony has been outstanding and looks like he has a great future, one of the steals of the 2021 class. And while it's harder for Michigan to get kids into school and have all their classes transfer, one of the reasons they've lost out on some pretty big names over the last few years, they're still exploring options there and expect to add some defensive help (young and grad transfers are the way they can go) over the next several weeks.
To be clear, nothing has happened yet with Worthy, and nothing is set in stone. Some of the Texas sources are confident, while others are in "we've heard this before" mode. But this is the strong vibe coming out of Austin at this point, and it definitely bears watching.
Receiver/kick returner Giles Jackson was one, bolting before camp even ended and ending up at Washington. Little-used lineman Philip Paea is the latest, having earned his degree and now looking for an opportunity on someone else's line.
Rest assured, there will be others ... and there have already been a lot.
But Harbaugh made it clear to his team down the stretch that the expectation was that guys stick it out, per observers. "We made a commitment to you, and you made a commitment to us" was the gist of it, but there are others still on the fence.
One of them, per impeccable sources in Texas and elsewhere, is freshman receiver Xavier Worthy. He was in Ann Arbor this winter, as we told you, and that helped ease some fears that the four-star signee might open it back up and look to play elsewhere next year. But even offensive coordinator/receivers coach Josh Gattis seemed to indicate there was doubt in a recent podcast with former U-M lineman Jon Jansen while talking about speed at the receiver position.
"Then we are also adding our two true freshmen, Andrel Anthony and Cristian Dixon, and then hope we'll ... you know, this summer we'll get in Xavier Worthy. So we've got speed," he said.
Several sources in the Lone Star State believe Worthy will end up playing for Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns instead. There's too much smoke to ignore the very realistic possibility.
On a positive note, Anthony has been outstanding and looks like he has a great future, one of the steals of the 2021 class. And while it's harder for Michigan to get kids into school and have all their classes transfer, one of the reasons they've lost out on some pretty big names over the last few years, they're still exploring options there and expect to add some defensive help (young and grad transfers are the way they can go) over the next several weeks.
To be clear, nothing has happened yet with Worthy, and nothing is set in stone. Some of the Texas sources are confident, while others are in "we've heard this before" mode. But this is the strong vibe coming out of Austin at this point, and it definitely bears watching.
