Poor recruits show stripes

If Michigan’s football team ever is invited to play at Kelly/Shorts
Stadium, Mike DeBord might want to coach from his home in Ann Arbor.

Because DeBord, CMU’s former football coach and current U-M
coordinator, should never be allowed back on Central’s campus.

It’s not because DeBord resigned in December 2003 after leading the
Chippewas to a paltry 12-34 record after a four-year tenure.

It’s because of the players he has recruited.

CMU and the Mount Pleasant community have spent two years wondering
if several of DeBord’s recruits were involved in the beating death of
DeMarcus Graham.

While some of those recruits — namely Jerry Seymour and James King —
were tremendous football players, their off-field issues severely
damaged the team’s morale.

Jonathan Nelson, Demond Petty, Michael Thomas, Richard Kiel, Anthony
Rogers, James Cooper, Terrance Robinson, King and Seymour, who all
played and were recruited by DeBord, all were implicated in the Graham
murder. Most are serving jail or prison sentences.

And many other current and former players, again, recruited by
DeBord, including Anthony Tyus, Leython Williams and Derrick Holoman,
were on the trial’s witness list.

And, to stir the pot more, while the Graham case mercifully is
boiling down, another high profile case against a DeBord recruit is in
the works.

Former wide receiver Justin Harper, who led the Chippewas in
receptions last year, found out Friday he will go to trial for an
alleged role in raping three CMU students.

Harper is being charged with six total counts of criminal sexual
conduct for an alleged incident that occured March 20.

Meanwhile, while coach Brian Kelly gets all the heat, DeBord is
comfortably sitting as U-M’s offensive coordinator.

DeBord wouldn’t even comment about seeing some of his old players
before last Saturday’s Michigan game.

Luckily for CMU, Kelly has done an exceptional job averting his
team’s attention from controversy to contention.

It’s just too bad he had to go through it in the first place.