Tay'shawn Trent Has Decommitted
As the insiders have been warning for months now, WR Tay’shawn Trent announced he won’t be in Michigan’s 2022 class.
— Smøøve (@TrentTayshawn) October 26, 2021
Trent is a part of the 7v7 group that Will Johnson trains with, but he was also a guy the scouts thought might have to transition to linebacker…or something in college. Here’s a scouting report on Trent by a 247 expert chosen at random:
The rumors split on whether it was athletic or academic benchmarks that were causing Michigan to keep pursuing receivers like they only had one (Chicago’s Tyler Morris) in the class.
Trent has fallen pretty far in the composite since his commitment and transfer to Harper Woods, slipping from a four-star just outside the top 247 to the #400 player and #56 receiver. 247Sports dropped him to the 74th WR and #19 prospect in the state. Rivals has held fast with a 4-star rating and #34 WR ranking though they’re also the ones beating the drum for a transition to tight end. ESPN almost never re-grades, but moved him down to the #51 WR and #9 in the state when he was originally in their top-200. He recently picked up some low-confidence crystal balls to Louisville from 247's Midwest scouting director Allen Trieu and national director Steve Wiltfong, because he took a visit there.
Update: His former coach has some details in the board thread announcing Trent's departure that goes into some detail about the academic issues. Short version is Trent (like LOTS of high schoolers) did not do well with online attendance last year, and Michigan was doing all they could to get that remediated.
Michigan continues to pursue rising Notre Dame commit CA 3* Amorion Walker, a leapy type who seems likely to flip sooner or later, and would love to pull a state to state flip for speedy 4* Dane Key, a Kentucky legacy announcing his destination this Thursday, out of Lexington, though UK insiders seem pretty confident he’ll stay home.
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October 26th, 2021 at 5:34 PM ^
Man, it’d better be either academics or something they saw on tape because I’ll be peeved if it turns out he could get open and got the cold shoulder just because of how he’s shaped.
October 26th, 2021 at 5:39 PM ^
I don't know specifically with this player but I bet it had to do with his speed/quickness and the build is just the explanation for that. Because every recruiting service doesn't significantly drop your rankings based on just shape. His early physical maturity was probably what caused him to be ranked so highly initially.
October 26th, 2021 at 10:12 PM ^
Per a former coach in one of the board threads - it IS academic (progress) related and has been known since his commitment (placed a lot of blame on the school not providing guidance fwiw..). Bellamy and Hart have been assisting/mentoring as much as the rules will allow, and the young man has been busting his butt trying to catch up on the required work. It must have became clear that he wasn't going to make the require benchmarks for M and both sides have moved on. I wish him the best of luck.
October 26th, 2021 at 5:37 PM ^
This new staff has been ruthless about processing guys. I dunno how it'll pan out, but I like the impulse to be picky and not take guys simply because they're convenient and/or adequately ranked
October 26th, 2021 at 5:50 PM ^
The transfer portal provides a decent safety net when there are questions coming out of high school. It's a good backup plan that we should expect to see used regularly to fill gaps on the team.
October 26th, 2021 at 6:10 PM ^
This is just an ignorant comment. This has been news for months, and refer to Qmatic's comment in the message board thread for further details -- https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/tay%27shawn-trent-has-decommitted-state-wide-receiver
Also, when a kid is processed, he usually doesn't go out of his way to thank individuals / position coaches
October 26th, 2021 at 6:11 PM ^
Seems like academic issues. Too bad, he has a great WR name lol
October 26th, 2021 at 6:18 PM ^
Wish him luck. I am not shocked he decommitted and I could see perhaps the staff also agreeing with the assessment that he needed to change positions. We'll see how it goes.
Edit: Also, I usually don't like to throw in "academic issues" because it can be insulting to kids but per Qmatic in the board thread it does seem like he wasn't going to qualify due to issues related to academics/attendance. And that tracks with the couple of rumors you heard about "work to do". I do wonder if that means he's going to have to go the JuCo route, since I thought NCAA Clearinghouse rules apply to everyone in FBS. Again, wish him luck.
October 26th, 2021 at 6:27 PM ^
PSA- This is not processing!!
All the posters speculating, are doing a disservice to Tay'shawn as well as the UM coaches. This is an academic issue that has been known for months now. All manners of insiders (24/7, Rivals, etc.) have been saying that there was "work to do" on the academic side and the chances of that being accomplished in time for him to be a part of that class were low.
From poster Qmatic - "Former player of mine. A lot of things going on here, and all added up to this commitment not happening. My former district really failed him academically; wasn’t enough time to turn it around"
https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/tay%27shawn-trent-has-decommitted-state-wide-receiver
No need to bash the player or the coaches, just wish the young man well and move on
October 26th, 2021 at 6:44 PM ^
Academic shaming, weird comments on the body of a child, and more in a post speculating about a bad thing happening to the child. I guess I do not like recruiting news.
October 26th, 2021 at 9:48 PM ^
If I had read your comment before the article I would expect the article to be atrocious. It is not.
October 27th, 2021 at 1:57 AM ^
I don’t think it’s intentionally creepy or mean, but I described it literally, and its content is inherently dubious IMHO. “The school seemed to cool on him” is plenty of information. Signal boosting speculation on this teenaged child’s body shape and its relation to his decommitment is orders of magnitude grosser than covering the rumors about where our missing zone coach (an adult apparently on the public dole who did not seem to be doing his job) was last year would have been. I’m not necessarily saying this blog should have been willing to do the latter, but I don’t like the former at all.
October 27th, 2021 at 8:14 AM ^
Jon you always do find the absolute worst framing for anything we post. I really do care about these sorts of things but I can't take you seriously because you find everything creepy.
For the rest of you, the point of that screengrab is that it's ridiculous and weird from a "totally random" Spartan247 reporter.
If anyone is taking recruiting opinions from the spartan247 weirdo seriously please do not do that.
October 26th, 2021 at 7:16 PM ^
Right before the MSU game too. Bet he ends up there.
October 26th, 2021 at 7:35 PM ^
Depends on how significant the academic issues are. Sparty has academic standards that must be met, too. Their bar is not as high as Michigan’s. But it’s still a bar.
October 26th, 2021 at 7:35 PM ^
Depends on how significant the academic issues are. Sparty has academic standards that must be met, too. Their bar is not as high as Michigan’s. But it’s still a bar.
October 26th, 2021 at 10:45 PM ^
Interesting about the academics. I personally experienced that myself. I'm currently putting school on hold and working a very not career-based job because holy crap was it difficult to remain focused, engaged, and attentive with online courses. I can't imagine how much worse it would be in high school where you're not even choosing your discipline. I didn't feel like I was learning anything or getting adequately prepared, so when my specific program gets back to in person, which I thought was this semester until it wasn't, I'll bolt back in. I have a lot of sympathy for someone like Trent who had what seems like a lifelong dream shattered (possibly over-dramatic, I don't know) because of the difficulties surrounding online only school.
October 26th, 2021 at 10:57 PM ^
If he's oddly shaped I'd hate to hear someone's analysis of my body
October 27th, 2021 at 1:50 AM ^
Think about how much you’d have liked it when you were a teenager having to announce that you don’t get to go to the school you chose.
(Go ahead and downvote me more, people who think this post is ok.)
October 27th, 2021 at 7:49 AM ^
That sucks for him. My daughter killed online classes and actually liked it better since there was no social anxiety associated with not being one of the cool girls. My sons, who have zero social anxiety, struggled to put it mildly. However, the grade inflation was ridic to make up for it they had no business getting the grades they did. But my kids are white in a white district getting all the white privilege so when i say it sucks for Trent, it really sucks for Trent especially in relation to kids who got a support system or live in a school district with white parents on the school board taking care of their own.
Rant over sorry.
October 28th, 2021 at 1:47 PM ^
White guilt much? Gawd, nauseating.
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