Ahmir Mitchell, Ex-Wolverine

Ahmir Mitchell (image via MLive)

Freshman wide receiver Ahmir Mitchell announced on Twitter that he plans to transfer. Mitchell was a class of 2016 signee who enrolled early at Michigan in January.

Mitchell is 6’3″, 204-pounder who could play wide receiver, safety, or outside linebacker in college. He was recruited to Michigan as a wideout, but there was a lot of speculation that he would end up playing defense. At one point during his recruitment, it looked like he would end up at Ohio State if they wanted him, but that didn’t really pan out. He was running with the second team in the spring – partially because of some injuries – but there was a good chance that he could have played this fall. Unfortunately, he got into some trouble during the summer, and he was going to be suspended for the year. Instead, he has chosen to transfer.

Hit the jump for more.

This hurts Michigan in the sense that the Wolverines needed reinforcements at wide receiver, and now two wide receivers (including fellow Garden State product Brad Hawkins, Jr.) out of the five they signed will not be playing in Ann Arbor. Mitchell is a physical specimen, not to mention that he was the #9 athlete and #167 overall player in the 2016 class. The future is/was bright for him, but he was in the doghouse and needs to clean up some things before he becomes a contributor on the field. Though he said in his announcement that he’s “re-opening his recruitment,” he will now have to sit out the 2016 season while he finds a new place to play, since he had already enrolled in classes.

There’s a lot of negativity around the blogs, message boards, and recruiting sites because of the recent decommitments and things like Mitchell’s departure. I think it’s important to keep in mind that August is rarely, if ever, a happy month. The optimism comes in the off-season. Good recruiting news happens in the summer when kids take visits, coaches hold camps, etc. Once August hits, the coaches are busy with practices and the kids are back to two-a-days, scrimmages, and games. The impending football season leads to news about injuries, non-qualifiers, transfers, etc. August is a bad-news month, and that will be the case in 2017, 2018, 2019, and beyond. So while it’s disappointing that Mitchell won’t be a Wolverine, it’s par for the course. Every class has some attrition, and especially with a class of five wideouts, chances were very, very slim that all five would become seniors or fifth year seniors. I will be very disappointed if this class gets whittled down a lot further, but this opens a path to playing time for Kekoa Crawford, Nate Johnson, and Eddie McDoom. And when they see that they have a chance to be standouts, starters, and leaders, one or more of those guys is likely to step up to the challenge. The cream always rises to the top.

Mitchell is the third commit of the 2016 class to depart, joining linebacker Dytarious Johnson (who should be joining the team in January after spending this fall at a prep school) and the aforementioned Hawkins.

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