Wolverine Wednesday: Bye Bye, Boubacar Cissoko

Rich Rodriguez has kicked off Boubacar Cissoko off the Michigan football team. He recently has been suspended but got back on the field against Penn State last Saturday. Michigan was playing him at corner and moving Troy Woolfork back to safety in certain formations.

As you might expect, this is a difficult loss for a secondary that is already very thin. At this point, I'm sure there are conversations about blowing Justin's Turners redshirt this year. Look for JT Floyd to get most of Boubacar's snaps, but even he has been out for a couple weeks with the flu.

Boubacar was the starting right cornerback against Western Michigan but had trouble matching up with taller wide receivers and was often beat deep. He was a five-star cornerback out of Cass Tech Detroit just two years ago.

So why did he get thrown off the team? Boubacar's High School Coach weighs in:

Cissoko's high school coach, Thomas Wilcher of Detroit Cass Tech, said Cissoko was dismissed from the team for missing class, missing workouts, and missing study table.

"That's what he was suspended for in the first place," Wilcher told The Detroit News. "He's upset. He's going to transfer as long as he can meet the requirements."

Wilcher said Cissoko had a difficult time handling the "social structure" at Michigan.

"He couldn't handle it," Wilcher said. "He's always been a quiet kid. (But) he needs to do what needs to be done as a student-athlete. Nobody is bigger than the program."

Don't forget he also got into trouble this summer in Detroit when he was riding in a car with a bunch of his friends and got pulled over.

Seems like Boubacar was a square peg in a round hole. It has to be difficult on kids that come from a urban setting like Detroit and find themselves in Ann Arbor. It must a big change on the academic and social side of life. I hope he finds a program that is a good fit for him as a person.

BTW: This doesn't look good for current 2010 recruit Dior Mathis to come to Michigan now. Dior is similar in size and ability to Boubacar. My guess is Boubacar's experience will sour him on the Wolverines. For what it's worth, I think Michigan needs taller corners anyway.