Andrel Anthony Jr.’s Friday did not go as planned.
The Michigan three-star receiver commit posted a message on Twitter this afternoon that he would be an early enroller at Michigan in January after playing his senior season at East Lansing High this fall.
By the time East Lansing practiced in the afternoon, Anthony’s plan was put on hold.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association became the 14th state to announce that it was moving the football season to the spring due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The decision affects four Michigan commissions and four Michigan State commissions in the 2021 class, among many more perspectives that each school is targeting all classes.
East Lansing coach Bill Feraco briefed his team from the news to the practice.
“Besides being emotional and crying, my teammates were around me and telling me that everything would be fine,” Anthony said in a telephone interview with MLive. “It’s just different. This is my last year. That really hurt me with a lot of flashbacks of games, drills, training that I was doing my second year and now can not even play for the coaches anymore. That is what makes me really emotional. “
While Anthony, the No. 530 player in the country and no. 12 in Michigan, per 247Sports composition system, still planning to register early, he has several pressing questions that need answers.
The Big Ten canceled its fall football season on Tuesday night, and a spring season has been reported on the table. However, would incoming newcomers, who enroll early, be eligible to play in the spring and fall of 2021, while only burning one year of eligibility? The NCAA Board of Directors is expected to vote next Friday, August 21, on the eligibility of student-athletes who have postponed their fall seasons due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Board of Division I has made a recommendation to give an extension of the five-year entry clock and an extra season of competition for fall student-athletes, but it is still a murky situation.
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Remember, under current rules, NCAA football charter programs are allowed 85 scholarships. If the eligibility for clock is extended and more current players choose to return for an additional season, that could mean fewer spots for real freshmen to register early, unless the NCAA also decides to increase the support tribune.
Plus, three Power Five conferences – the SEC, ACC and Big 12 – are still busy playing a fall season. If teams in these conferences can play this fall and conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12 are unable to play a spring season for some reason, that’s a recipe for disaster regarding eligibility issues.
“The whole recruitment process since the closure of the virus has completely changed with everything and everything,” Anthony said. “I just need to find out more with my parents and my coaches. We’ll see.
“I just want to know how everything will work here. Will people be eligible to stay in college? If you graduate this year, how will it work with your qualification and redshirting and all that? I just want to hear everything finalized. That’s why I’m just giving it time. “
Anthony’s high school teammate, Ethan Boyd, is in the same boat. The three-star offensive lineman is Michigan State’s top-ranked commit in the 2021 class. While early enrollment could be an option, he said there are too many unknowns at this point. There is also no guarantee that a spring season will be played either with the uncertainty of COVID-19 and if so there will be an easily available vaccine.
“I’m not sure what else I will do,” Boyd told MLive over the phone. “I’m waiting to see, even if I can. With players turning them down, I’m not sure they will have enough spots anyway. But we’ll see.
“I hope they will be able to play in the spring, but I do not know. Sure, when it all started, I did not see it affecting the football season, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”
Transfer from state where football is likely to be played in the fall is another option for Michigan players.
Michigan five-star quarterback commit JJ McCarthy was transferred from Nazareth Academy in Illinois to IMG Academy in Florida in May. Illinois has postponed its season from then until spring.
But Anthony, who caught 54 passes last season for 954 yards and nine touchdowns, said he has no plans to transfer. One of them is accompanied by Michigan Xavier Worthy, a four-star receiver from California, whose senior season has also been moved to the spring. Although he has not visited Ann Arbor yet, he said he plans to move into the spring season to sign up early.
With how tumultuous the entire season has been because of the novel coronavirus, Anthony said he takes a day-to-day approach.
“You just have to adapt to everything so fast all the time,” he said. ‘You think one thing is set in stone, and boom, there’s something else. It’s just a lot. ”
