The case of Marcus Witherspoon perplexes us and also reminds us of the Nate Robinson debacle from a few years ago.
Nate of course became a Rutgers 1000 celebrity in his day. A lauded high school athlete, he had committed to Miami, but when it turned out he could not manage an 820 on his SATs (math + verbal), Miami rescinded its scholarship offer. Schiano swooped him up, which led the old Rutgers 1000 to whooping about how Rutgers took in academic discards from Miami (which, incidentally, ranks much higher than Rutgers in the US News & World Report rankings; so much for our right to laugh). Robinson, who apparently disliked Schiano’s coaching style, quit Rutgers, too, wound up at Akron and last we heard was trying to hook up with an NFL team and in that pursuit we wish him the best.
Which brings us back to Marcus Witherspoon. A South Jersey prep star, Witherspoon committed to Michigan — but was ruled ineligible by the NCAA. He took a summer course hoping it would restore his eligibility, but to no avail, at least not according to Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez, who said Witherspoon was ineligible and would never play for Michigan.
Enter Rutgers. Two weeks into the academic year Rutgers found a seat for Witherspoon in its freshman class and a scholarship to boot.
Rutgers leadership has offered no coherent explanation of how it might be that Witherspoon is ineligible at Michigan but good to go at Rutgers.
That is why we remain perplexed.
This booster thread attempts to offer some clarification.
Note: as always we wish nothing but the best to the young men involved. We would like nothing better than for Marcus Witherspoon to wind up a Rhodes Scholar. Our questions revolve around Rutgers leadership and what the community is not told.
September 16, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Hi Rutgers 1000 …
Not for nothing, but the report about Witherspoon in the Star-Ledger seemed to make it pretty clear about the player’s eligibility.
He’s behind academically. He has to take classes to catch up. If he catches up, he’d be eligible to play.
I’m not one of these Rutgers 1000 haters. I respect your concerns about academics at the school.
September 17, 2008 at 6:40 pm
if he has academic problems without football what happens when his “life” is football? who are they trying to fool? the kid comes in two weeks late probably taking a minimum FT load and they expect him to get academically eligible before spring practice. The Michigan coach says “he will NEVER play at Michigan!” Red flags all over the place. Schiano should worry where he will be next year and not take on more academically challenged players.