6:49 PM
ABDUL SABOOR
Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez said his program did its homework on top recruit Demar Dorsey and the elite defensive back was a good fit for Michigan on and off the field.
Rodriguez, during a news conference Wednesday to tout his latest recruiting class, defended his decision to recruit Dorsey. Speaking in generalities and exhorting journalists to focus on the positives of a top-20 class, Rodriguez provided no details regarding his biggest recruit’s legal history, which has spread through fan message boards in recent days.
The Free Press found a Demar Dorsey who was charged with two felonies a month apart in Florida’s Broward County in 2008. According to online circuit court records, the young man was arrested July 21, 2008 and charged with robbery with a deadly weapon. He was 16 at the time but was charged as an adult. Bond was set at $50,000. Dorsey went to trial that November and was acquitted.
Records also show the same person was charged Aug. 22, 2008 with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling. He had turned 17 five days earlier. Bond was set at $3,500. Prosecutors dismissed the charge that December but records did not indicate why.
“I don’t think it’s fair to the young man and his family to pass judgments on something before you know the whole story,” Rodriguez said. “As a coach we get a chance to go visit these kids at the school, at their home and have them come up here and spend a weekend. You get to know them; certainly you get enough time to research and learn the whole story, not just what somebody’s written out there.”
Rodriguez was referencing the message boards and blogs that had been speculating about Dorsey’s past and how that might affect his future.
“Sometimes people are too quick to judge on something they read on the Internet,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s dangerous to do that.”
The coach went on to say that every recruit had to meet certain standards. He said that current players were consulted after they hosted potential players.
“We ask our players: ‘Would he be a good teammate, be good for the program, will he be a good guy, be a good fit for Michigan?' "
Dorsey’s prep coach said yes.
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mark James said of Dorsey’s legal troubles. The football coach at Anderson High in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., said his defensive back had recently been the victim of negative, even vindictive recruiting.
James would not name the school he thought turned on Dorsey. But his past became the subject of message board chatter only a couple of weeks ago, after he de-committed from Florida.
“It’s a shame that schools play that game,” James said. “If he had gone to a certain school, none of that would have came out. He’s done his due penance.”
On the field, James described Dorsey as the best overall athlete in the nation. He said he ran a blazing fast 40 and 100 and had a ton of interceptions. He can play offense or defense.
James said Dorsey really connected with the U-M staff.
Rodriguez said it was important to view the entire context when recruiting players who had been accused of wrongdoing.
“You have to look into why he was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said. “But you don’t pass judgment on him when he did that as a juvenile.”
Rodriguez wouldn’t elaborate on what he found while investigating Dorsey’s background. But he did say this about his team and the recruiting process in general: “There’s nobody on this football team that we’ve signed that has a felony conviction. There’s nobody on this football team we signed that has a misdemeanor conviction.”
Herbert Bynes, Dorsey’s defensive coordinator in high school, said U-M would be good for his former player.
“It was a good choice,” Bynes said. “He needed to get away. The kid has been through a lot.”
