Michigan wide receiver and return specialist Dennis Norfleet has been suspended but not kicked out of the program, according to ESPN. Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Michigan wide receiver and return specialist Dennis Norfleet has been suspended but not kicked out of the program, according to ESPN.
MLive.come reported Tuesday that Dale Harvel, Norfleet’s high school coach in Detroit, said the Wolverines senior was removed from coach Jim Harbaugh’s team. However, multiple sources told ESPN that Norfleet has been suspended from all football activities due to academic issues, rather than dismissed from the program.
Michigan has said only that it is an internal matter.
“There’s no finality right now to what’s going on,” Terel Patrick, an assistant at Detroit’s Martin Luther King Jr. High School, told ESPN. “He didn’t have the best semester academically. He’s working through some issues right now. He’s been suspended from team activities, but it’s not final as far as his position.”
Norfleet set Michigan career records for most kickoff returns with 94 and kickoff return yardage with 2,203 in three years. At the end of spring practice, Harbaugh indicated that he might use Norfleet on offense, defense and special teams in 2015.
Norfleet has two years to use his final year of eligibility, which means he could be reinstated by Michigan or transfer to another school an potentially sit out a year.
–Michigan cornerback Blake Countess announced on Instagram that he will play his fifth year of eligibility at another school. He would be eligible to play immediately as a graduate transfer.
Countess wrote on Instagram along with a graduation photo: “My past four years here at the University of Michigan have been great! Nothing but love and appreciation for Ann Arbor, the faculty, the coaches, the support staff and the great fans but after many sleepless nights and much prayer I have decided to play my final year of eligibility elsewhere. I truly thank those that have been there for me and hope you would continue to do so. #ForeverGoBlue”
Countess, 5-feet-10 and 185 pounds, started 10 games last season and 30 in his Wolverines career, compiling 114 tackles, six interceptions and 13 passes defensed.
The Wolverines added Stanford graduate transfer cornerback Wayne Lyons, who is expected to compete for a starting job opposite Jourdan Lewis.
