Michigan Football: Time to worry about Xavier Worthy?
The Xavier Worthy saga continues as there are rumors that the Michigan football signee may not end up in Ann Arbor after all.
This new era of college football, with the transfer portal, is going to be interesting and Michigan football might feel the sting sooner than expected.
It’s true that Michigan football has already seen a number of players hit the transfer portal this offseason, including notable names such as Zach Charbonnet and Giles Jackson.
Charbonnet transferred to UCLA and just a few days ago, Jackson announced his transfer to Washington. At the time of Jackson leaving, you had to wonder if it was going to impact Xavier Worthy, who has been tight with Giles throughout the recruiting process.
Well, according to Chris Balas of The Wolverine (subscription required), it looks like Worthy, one of Michigan’s top recruits in the 2021 class, could be on the fence.
You’ll have to subscribe to read the entire update from Balas, but it’s not really anything new about Worthy. There have been questions about him after he committed and they have persisted even after he signed.
Worthy wanted to enroll early and he wasn’t able to which was part of the issue. Things did seem to calm down and he was expected to arrive in the summer, but now that seems like far from a sure thing.
Texas is the school being mentioned once again, which isn’t really a surprise either. Worthy nearly spurned the Wolverines and flipped his commitment to Alabama, while Steve Sarkisian was the offensive coordinator.
That means there’s a natural connection there and if Worthy has soured on the Wolverines that would make it a reasonable destination.
Plus, with the NCAA passing its rule that will allow players to transfer one time without penalty, even if Worthy wasn’t let out of his letter of intent, he could probably just transfer and play right away anyway.
Hopefully, the Wolverines are able to keep him because Worthy would be a game-changer in Ann Arbor, but it seems there is once again reason to worry.
Phillip Paea hits the portal
Speaking of departures, Michigan football did lose another player from its current roster to the portal and that’s Phillip Paea, a defensive lineman who suited up in only a few games during his career.
This is one of those situations where he wasn’t going to be on the two-deep, so it probably made sense for him to move on. He’s also a graduate transfer.