Recruit says he feels ‘used’ after Jim Harbaugh rescinds scholarship offer

(Patrick Semansky/Associated Press, File)

With National Signing Day just around the corner on Feb. 3, Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh has been a busy guy on the recruiting trail, climbing trees and sleeping over at prospects’ houses and whatnot. Fun stuff.

He also found time to rescind a scholarship offer to a recruit who had been orally committed to the Wolverines for more than two years. That seems less fun.

Erik Swenson, a tackle at Downers Grove South High in suburban Chicago, announced this week that he was reopening his recruitment after Michigan pulled his scholarship offer. Swenson, who’s 6 feet 7 inches and 310 pounds and is seen as the country’s No. 30 tackle recruit by 247sports, gave his non-binding pledge to the Wolverines as a high school sophomore in November 2013.

But Brady Hoke was Michigan’s coach then, and Harbaugh is the coach now. Apparently, the interest just isn’t there anymore, even though it was about a month ago.

The Chicago Tribune’s Bob Narang talked to Swenson:

Swenson, whose room at home is adorned with Michigan posters, said he spoke with Wolverines offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Tim Drevno about a month ago.

“He said, ‘Get ready to play for us and keep working and getting stronger and faster. We’re looking forward to you playing for us.’

“Fast forward a month,” Swenson continued, “they called me last week saying I should re-open my recruitment and take other visits. My family and I were shaken by it. That’s when the whole mess started.”

Swenson said he called Drevno twice this week, asking if he still had a scholarship to Michigan. The first question was answered with a maybe.

“I called again (Tuesday) and was told that there were no spots left by Coach Drevno,” Swenson said. “I tried to talk to Coach Harbaugh, but he didn’t want to talk to me.” …

“I fully intended to play there. I was nothing but loyal and was committed over two years. I helped them recruit several guys that are still there. I just felt used.”

Michael Spath of Michigan’s Rivals.com site tells a slightly different story, though it has the same ending:

Two weeks ago, when we began dropping major hints in our Inside The Fort columns, we were told that Swenson was no longer a Michigan commitment. We have also been told by multiple sources (though admittedly one of those sources on the Michigan side) that the Swensons were told back in November that he no longer held a committable offer.We were also told by a source out of Downers Grove that the Michigan coaches asked Swenson to camp at U-M over the summer so the staff could properly evaluate him (he refused) and we were told that it was understood that Swenson’s senior year would serve as an evaluation period because this coaching staff had never seen him in-person and wanted to know if he was a good fit for the program. …

As we always do with Michigan recruits, we talk to opposing coaches for a feature and when we spoke to Swenson’s opponents we were told off the record that the coaches were surprised by how less aggressive the 6-5, 300-pounder was and how their defensive linemen no longer feared playing him.

We’ve been told the same from our sources in Downers Grove, who said it was a major frustration for the coaches this year that the kid played not to get hurt instead of playing to show that he was dominant and the best player in the state.

No matter which side you believe here, Swenson’s story is hardly rare: Because commitments aren’t binding until recruits sign their name on a piece of paper, college coaches are free to tell them to look elsewhere and often do. That doesn’t make what Harbaugh and Michigan did any less classy, and shouldn’t diminish Swenson’s hurt feelings. It’s just the Way Things Are Done, thanks to a recruiting process that drags on well past when a prospect’s senior football season is over.

But it’s certainly a PR hit for Harbaugh, who was doing a pretty good job controlling the message with his well-publicized, fancy-free recruiting trips. But because NCAA rules prohibit coaches from publicly talking about recruits until they sign, he’s prohibited from giving his side of the story, instead tweeting out cryptic head-scratchers like this:

"They said" artificial sweeteners were safe, WMDs were in Iraq and Anna Nicole married for love" ... "They said"

— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) January 22, 2016

As for Swenson, Northwestern, Illinois, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Colorado, Washington State and Central Michigan had already offered him scholarships by mid-afternoon Wednesday, with UCLA, Penn State and Arkansas also possibly interested, according to Narang.

Read the Post’s series on Harbaugh at Michigan: