The Justin Feagin Chronicles

It was reported by us that former Michigan QB/turned slot WR Justin Feagin who announced his intention to transfer a few weeks ago, would transfer to Appalachian State...of all places. Well, some new stuff has come to light in the past couple days that have ended any such transfers.

An investigation by The Detroit Free Press has uncovered some new information about Feagin and his dealings with some shady characters during his first year on campus. Turns out Feagin had some run-ins with the law even before he came to Ann Arbor...for admitedly dealing drugs and being arrested twice for battery and trespassing. According to the Freep article, Rodriguez knew about this before he was enrolled.

Two things really bother me about this. First of all, is there anyone else enrolled at Michigan as an undergrad who had openly admitted to drug trafficking, had a criminal record for battery and trespassing...and still been allowed to enroll? And secondly, is this the type of player that we should be expecting at Michigan under the Rodriguez administration?

However, back to the story...

...via the Freep article...
Feagin said he had not sold drugs in Michigan. But fellow student T.J. Burke, who had met Feagin through Michigan walk-on receiver Ricky Reyes, told police “it was common knowledge that Feagin sold marijuana” and that Feagin “hung out at our house lots of times smoking pot.”

In Feagin’s first semester on campus, he and Burke hatched a plan for a cocaine deal.

“I was talking to him one day about how broke I was and somehow this idea came forward,” Burke told police. “I had heard about Feagin possibly making deals for people but never witnessed anything firsthand.”

Feagin told investigators that “when I first started going to (Burke’s) house he had three big jars of weed up in his room. … One day T.J. was talking to me about some illegal stuff. He was under a lot of pressure because of his financial problems.

“I told him that I knew someone who could get him some cocaine. A few days later he asked me if I had talked to the person yet. I called right then and set up a deal.”

Feagin arranged to send $600 to a friend in Florida, whom he identified only as “Tragic.” In exchange, “Tragic” would send an ounce of cocaine to Ann Arbor.
The story goes on from there...but you get the point. Feagin was not exactly a model citizen...or a model student athlete. No question he had to go.

But due to the new information dug up by the Free Press, Feagin's admittance into Appalachian State has since been revoked.

But this brings me back to my point about the quality of individual that Michigan should allow to enroll, or play for the football team. There is no question that without certain abilities on the football field/basketball court/ice rink/baseball diamond/etc...certain individuals would not be given the chance to get an education from the University of Michigan. This is true of almost every college and university in America. And whether this is right or wrong is way above this humble blog's jurisdiction.

But what does bother me is that Feagin was brought in as a QB in Rodriguez's first recruiting class. After it was clear that Terrelle Pryor was going to The University of Ohio State, Feagin was supposed to come in and contend for the starting role. Whether it was a desperation move by Rodriguez to get a guy geared more toward his style of offense than Threet or Sheridan...and Feagin was the last warm body on the recruiting board is not quite clear. But it irks me that such a shady character, with a checkered past of arrests and drug problems could make it into this program and infect it the way he did.

Hopefully this is just a random case of desperate recruiting gone awry, and is not an indication of how this program is being run.

1 comment

  1. He only admitted to this as part of the recent investigation into the arson event.

    The previous arrests did not likely leave any record as indicated 'nothing ever came of it' meaning there were no convictions. No conviction, no record. Furthermore, records for juveniles are sealed and would not be available to someone doing a background check.

    Wait to see if this is a long-term pattern endemic to RR's philosophy before jumping to conclusions.

    A recuit messed up badly. RR dismissed him, no cover up, no attempt to mitigate, etc., even though there would be a strong incentive to do so given the knee-jerk reactions by many such as yourself that want to condemn him, but he simply terminated him.

    He did exactly what i would want any coach at UM to do.

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