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Former Pro Bowler Greg Jennings was burned by Michigan before signing day
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Greg Jennings has nothing to be bitter about.
He spent 10 years in the NFL, which included two trips to the Pro Bowl and one Super Bowl victory. Currently, Jennings is trying his hand at broadcasting with Fox Sports.
But once upon a time, Jennings didn’t have it so easy.
On Fox Sports 1’s “Garbage Time,” he shared the story about when he was a high school recruit out of Kalamazoo Central (Mich.).
As Jennings said, he committed to Lloyd Carr’s squad when he was a junior in high school. He didn’t look at any other schools, but was wondering why he hadn’t heard anything from the Wolverines 2-3 weeks before National Signing Day.
“I’m like, ‘Man, should I call them?’ I don’t want to really call them but I call them,” Jennings said. “(Michigan told me) ‘Hey Greg, you know, we ran out of scholarships. But we’d love it if you’d come on as a preferred walk-on.’
“No. 1, I was disturbed. That’s a polite word I’m gonna use. But I was hurt.”
RELATED: Randy Edsall pulls scholarship two weeks before signing day
Yikes. It sounds like Carr pulled the Randy Edsall move on a future Pro Bowl receiver.
As it turned out, Jennings scrambled at the last minute and landed at Western Michigan. There, he set a school record with over 5,000 all-purpose yards. After three straight 1,000-yard seasons, he was a second-round pick by the Green Bay Packers.
Jennings might’ve missed out on a couple Rose Bowl teams, but he did get to catch passes for Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers in the NFL. And at the time, Michigan did have arguably its best receiver in program history in Braylon Edwards.
Needless to say, things worked out just fine (go to the 7-minute mark to hear Jennings’ story).
.@RichEisen joins the panel to talk Michigan, the first time he met @katienolan, & 40s (the drink and the distance) https://t.co/sbQpW4FJb2
— Garbage Time (@GarbageTime) January 31, 2017
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Tradition. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.