Class of 2024 - TE Michael Smith (GA) TRANSFERRING TO SYRACUSE (1/4/26) | Page 9 | Syracusefan.com

Class of 2024 TE Michael Smith (GA) TRANSFERRING TO SYRACUSE (1/4/26)

sufan59 said:

Jimmy Fallon What GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
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Man, when his 15 followers see this, ••••’s gonna blow up.
 
Playing this rumor out for a moment. I don't really get why Fran would want to hold this particular player to his contract. He quit his team after 4 games, then decides to come here but, now is changing his mind. That's the player you want to commit your $ to when we don't have the seemingly unlimited budget of others?

It's not like he changed his mind and is deciding on another school who might be a competitor of ours.

And yeah, if it's all just a stupid rumor then someone at Syracuse.com needs to have a serious discussion with Javon.
 
Chip said:
Playing this rumor out for a moment. I don't really get why Fran would want to hold this particular player to his contract. He quit his team after 4 games, then decides to come here but, now is changing his mind. That's the player you want to commit your $ to when we don't have the seemingly unlimited budget of others?

It's not like he changed his mind and is deciding on another school who might be a competitor of ours.

And yeah, if it's all just a stupid rumor then someone at Syracuse.com needs to have a serious discussion with Javon.
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I get what you are saying but its not like something happened at SU and he now doesn't want to be at SU. Nothing happened here on our end. He just now decided he may have what he considers a slightly better opportunity after the fact. There has to be a line of what you can let players do. Changing their mind after signing is one of them. There are still some rules in college football and that is one of them. You don't have players commit to a school and sign a binding contract. Then allow them to later change their mind when they see a slightly better thing that comes along. Programs can't operate that way. There are windows and opportunities when players can change their mind. This is not one of them.

Smith clearly wanted to play for Syracuse a week and a half ago when he SIGNED his intent to do so and thought its a great opportunity. Nothing has changed on that front. I assume what he signed is binding like freshman commit papers. He can’t change his mind after that and just go to another school. That is the whole point of signing. SU doesn’t pursue any other TE’s at that point because they know he is now a part of the roster for 2026. And now at this point the pickings for TE's in the portal are very slim.

So then SC didn’t get what they hoped they’d find in the portal at TE and at this point tried to smooth things over and bring him back in. How the heck does the fact that he already signed with SU not come up immediately by either party? That's just dumb on both of their parts. And maybe it did but they are now hoping they can leak some info and find a way to force SU to do so?? If SC wanted him back, maybe they should have worked on that say….any time in the past month and a half! Screw them. Syracuse is the only party who did nothing wrong in my opinion. Why should SU be the one who gets the short end of the stick in this situation and release him back to SC? Smith has to keep to his contract and play ball at SU. This is his doing and nothing Syracuse did wrong. He needs to be positive, make the most of it, hope he loves it and ball out. He's better off having Angeli passing to him at TE than Sellers anyway and he'll put up better numbers here in our offense. If he decides SU wasn't the perfect fit for him after the season he can leave for his Senior season next season.

And reading the SC board and many of their fans complaining Fran would be doing something wrong in keeping him at SU and "holding him hostage" is just bogus BS. This situation just pisses me off.
 
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CbusCuse said:
I get what you are saying but its not like something happened at SU and he now doesn't want to be at SU. Nothing happened here on our end. He just now decided he may have what he considers a slightly better opportunity after the fact. There has to be a line of what you can let players do. Changing their mind after signing is one of them. There are still some rules in college football and that is one of them. You don't have players commit to a school and sign a binding contract. Then allow them to later change their mind when they see a slightly better thing that comes along. Programs can't operate that way. There are windows and opportunities when players can change their mind. This is not one of them.

Smith clearly wanted to play for Syracuse a week and a half ago when he SIGNED his intent to do so and thought its a great opportunity. Nothing has changed on that front. I assume what he signed is binding like freshman commit papers. He can’t change his mind after that and just go to another school. That is the whole point of signing. SU doesn’t pursue any other TE’s at that point because they know he is now a part of the roster for 2026. And now at this point the picking for TE in the portal are very slim.

So then SC didn’t get what they hoped they’d find in the portal at TE and is at this point tried to smooth things over and bring him back in. How the heck does the fact that he already signed with SU not come up immediately by either party? That just dumb on both of their parts. And maybe it did but they are now hoping they can leak some info and find a way to force SU to do so. If SC wanted him back, maybe they should have worked on that say….any time in the past month and a half! Screw them. Syracuse is the only party who did nothing wrong in my opinion. Why should SU be the one who gets the short end of the stick in this situation and release him back to SC? Smith has to keep to his contract and play ball at SU. This is his doing and nothing Syracuse did wrong. He needs to be positive, make the most of it, hope he loves it and ball out. He's better off having Angeli passing to him at TE than Sellers anyway and he'll put up better numbers here in our offense. If he decides SU wasn't the perfect fit for him after the season he can leave for his Senior season next season.

And reading the SC board and many of their fans complaining Fran would be doing something wrong in keeping him at SU and "holding him hostage" is just bogus BS. This situation just pisses me off.
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I get it about holding people to their contract. A broken system just blows up even further if you don't.

But I guess I'd just want to pick my battles or make sure that the pay is really for play. We don't have unlimited resources, so I'd hate to spend the money and then this kid just quit, or not show up, or be a team cancer. If there's clawback of the money for that stuff, then great.
 
Sooooo Javons source is a message board, but its from the VIP message board and was a 247 staff member that posted it. So the information seems to be at least vetted.

However, dont think its cool he is spreading information from a VIP message board that you have to pay to see.

Bad look IMO
 
Chip said:
I get it about holding people to their contract. A broken system just blows up even further if you don't.

But I guess I'd just want to pick my battles or make sure that the pay is really for play. We don't have unlimited resources, so I'd hate to spend the money and then this kid just quit, or not show up, or be a team cancer. If there's clawback of the money for that stuff, then great.
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Well he can't just quit because last season would be considered his redshirt season as he quit after 4 games when he didn't like how SC was using him after his injury when some other ineffective players cut into his snaps. How he would want to go back there after that doesn't make sense to me. He has two more years to execute and make it to the league. He'd be wise to make the most of it.
 
Chip said:
Playing this rumor out for a moment. I don't really get why Fran would want to hold this particular player to his contract. He quit his team after 4 games, then decides to come here but, now is changing his mind. That's the player you want to commit your $ to when we don't have the seemingly unlimited budget of others?

It's not like he changed his mind and is deciding on another school who might be a competitor of ours.

And yeah, if it's all just a stupid rumor then someone at Syracuse.com needs to have a serious discussion with Javon.
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I dont believe its a rumor as the person that posted it on the message board is a staff member for 247.
 
JRHEETER said:
Sooooo Javons source is a message board, but its from the VIP message board and was a 247 staff member that posted it. So the information seems to be at least vetted.

However, dont think its cool he is spreading information from a VIP message board that you have to pay to see.

Bad look IMO
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We also know a lot of the 247 staff members are beholden to specific school fan bases though. So it's always going to slant towards that school. This could be an exaggerated story to quell some dissent with their subscribers.

Smith could've asked if we could let him go back, we said "hey you did sign a contract" and he said okay I'll be there. Easy to inject your own drama in there.
 
bnoro said:
We also know a lot of the 247 staff members are beholden to specific school fan bases though. So it's always going to slant towards that school. This could be an exaggerated story to quell some dissent with their subscribers.

Smith could've asked if we could let him go back, we said "hey you did sign a contract" and he said okay I'll be there. Easy to inject your own drama in there.
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ding ding ding
 
orangepassion said:
The problem with letting him out is SU stopped recruiting other TE's after getting his commitment who have now signed elsewhere. I'm fine with holding him to his contract. If you didn't want to do it, don't sign. It's a 1-year commitment.
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That is basically the sentiment from the South Carolina fans and ironically enough they just did the same thing with one of their players.

A couple are angry but most are like...yeah, I would hope we would do the same thing.
 
JRHEETER said:
Sooooo Javons source is a message board, but its from the VIP message board and was a 247 staff member that posted it. So the information seems to be at least vetted.

However, dont think its cool he is spreading information from a VIP message board that you have to pay to see.

Bad look IMO
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The 247 post was basically saying there’s rumblings that he may want to stay at SC.
There is no indication that he has said anything.
It’s possible that he will stay but all of this is based on rumors. Thats not how to be a journalist.
 
JRHEETER said:
Sooooo Javons source is a message board, but its from the VIP message board and was a 247 staff member that posted it. So the information seems to be at least vetted.

However, dont think its cool he is spreading information from a VIP message board that you have to pay to see.

Bad look IMO
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Even if it wasn’t, it’s a bad look a beat reporter should get a second verified source. Examples of this all over media right now where people run with things that aren’t vetted.
 
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orangepassion said:
The problem with letting him out is SU stopped recruiting other TE's after getting his commitment who have now signed elsewhere. I'm fine with holding him to his contract. If you didn't want to do it, don't sign. It's a 1-year commitment.
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Yeah, Chip's points all make sense to me. This is the counterpoint. And wasn't Smith the first public commit?
 
Cusefan0307 said:
Even if it wasn’t a bad look a beat reporter should get a second verified source. Examples of this all over media right now where people run with things that aren’t vetted.
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That's my thinking also. That's fine if you get clued into the story from a message board. But at least verify it with another source you actually talk to yourself.
 
Cusefan0307 said:
Even if it wasn’t a bad look a beat reporter should get a second verified source. Examples of this all over media right now where people run with things that aren’t vetted.
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I think you know, but second sources in journalism are (unfortunately) an obsolete concept. One source now works, as long as it is direct/first-hand/unbiased. Most editors (and consumers) are worried about zero source/fictitious reporting. The bar has been decidedly lowered, but especially for a "story" like this. Two sources ain't necessary. This is the CFB Portal, not Watergate.
 

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