Michigan Football: Is 4-star WR Xavier Worthy as good as gone?

One of Michigan football’s verbal commitments, Xavier Worthy announced a decision date of Dec. 16 and with Alabama in the mix that’s bad news.

Not a ton of recruits carry their decision into signing day but when Xavier Worthy makes his decision between Michigan football and Alabama, there will be hats on the table.

After announcing his verbal commitment to the Wolverines back in July, in what was a huge recruiting victory for U-M, the four-star receiver will now decide on Dec. 16 between Michigan football and Alabama according to a Tweet sent out Tuesday.

So at this point, Worthy is a Michigan football commit in name only, because if you are deciding between two schools, you really aren’t committed to one.

And truly, there is no way to view this other than Michigan has lost ground. That much is clear. He wouldn’t have visited Alabama and announced this “top two” if that wasn’t the case.

Generally, when this sort of thing happens, it ends up being a flip. Worthy did say more than once that he was 100 percent committed and he told 247 sports, “There is no chance of me decommitting from them.”

That was back in October. This is part of what he told Brandon Brown of the Wolverine Digest this week who asked if he was still solid to Michigan:

"When I asked if he intended to stick with Michigan, he simply responded with the date of National Signing Day, which is Dec. 16. Then I said, “Uh oh, I know what that usually means. I’ve been doing this a long time and dudes who are solid have no problem saying so,” to which he replied, “I’m different. I’m not dudes, I’m Xavier Worthy.”"

Obviously, things don’t really look great at this point for Michigan, because recruiting is often about momentum and in this battle, Alabama has it. The Crimson Tide also have the pedigree of turning of first-round wide receivers, plus all the talk about Harbaugh and the staff won’t help.

Josh Gattis played a key role in Worthy’s recruitment and obviously, if Harbaugh is gone, Gattis will be gone too. I think if Michigan made a change at head coach, it would lose Worthy for sure, but without a sign in the next two weeks than an extension has been done, this is going to be an uphill battle for the Wolverines.

Why Michigan could still have hope

If the team plays Saturday against Maryland and puts together a positive showing, that will help. Heck, even playing a competitive game against Ohio State wouldn’t be bad.

I’m not saying that a moral victory is acceptable in any way for Michigan football. Not at all. But if the Wolverines could somehow perform well on offense and have a shot at the end, it would at least be better than another blowout.

The other reason I believe Michigan still has a shot in this thing is five-star quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

McCarthy is one of the reasons Worthy and other recruits were able to get together for their self-guided visits to Ann Arbor and McCarthy hasn’t shown any signs of wavering.

As EJ Holland of Rivals points out in this piece, these recruits know how good McCarthy is and as far as Worthy goes, it’s the one thing you can really point to as in Michigan’s favor.

Since he didn’t come right out and decommit, it seems like there is still a chance for Michigan to save this recruitment, but it feels slim, at least with the way the current trajectory is headed.