Michigan Football: Benjamin St. Juste transfer ends weird situation

Michigan football said that Benjamin St. Juste was going to medically retire. However, that didn’t happen and now he is pursuing a graduate transfer.

Michigan football has a lost a lot of players to the transfer portal the past few months and it looks like the Wolverines are losing another in cornerback Benjamin St. Juste.

However, St. Juste was already supposed to be leaving the program. At least that is what Michigan football claimed before spring practices when he wasn’t with the team.

The former four-star corner missed all of last season with an injury after appearing in 12 games as a freshman. While there was talk that he could be in the mix for playing time this season, he never joined the team and the University said he was going to leave the program and medically retire.

It seemed like a sad end to a once-promising career.

Now, it appears that career is not over yet as St. Juste put his name in the transfer portal Tuesday. And like quarterback Brandon Peters, who also put his name in the portal this week, St. Juste will be leaving as a graduate transfer and will have three years of eligibility, which he can use immediately.

St. Juste, who enrolled early back in 2017, earned his degree from Michigan in just 2.5 years and now is free to play anywhere next season. In terms of his medical retirement, it’s hard to know exactly what happened, but here is what St. Juste wrote on Instagram according to Nick Baumgardner of the Detroit Free Press:

“To clarify things on my situation, I never retired from playing football,” St-Juste wrote. “I had no power in that decision so stay tuned to my next announcement this week.”

St. Juste is a 6-foot-3 defensive back that offers elite size. He also showed some promise during his short Michigan football career and played in 12 games during the 2017 season.

Unfortunately, injuries stopped him from contributing last season and while it looked like he could work his way back into the mix, he will now have to try and revive his football career somewhere else.

St. Juste is the second cornerback to transfer this spring as the Wolverines also lost Myles Sims. Peters also made his intentions clear, while former five-star Aubrey Solomon left for Tennessee this past winter.

In terms of the medical redshirt, there was obviously some disagreement and maybe that led to the decision. We may never know what happened and with Jim Harbaugh at the helm, it’s likely we won’t.

Update: The University put out a comment Tuesday night that said St. Juste was not medically cleared for play football at Michigan. He will try to play and get that clearance somewhere else.

All we know definitively is that St. Juste believes he can play next season. We will find out if he’s right and where he winds up.