One Less Wide Receiver/Cornerback/Receiver On Roster

News broke late last night that redhsirt sophomore wide receiver Mike Chambers is leaving the team because he wasn't happy with playing time.

This is the same Mike Chambers who began camp this summer as a wide receiver before the coaching staff moved him to cornerback. Chambers, if memory serves, played in the first game of the year against Bowling Green at corner. The coaching staff then moved Chambers back to wideout for the Miami (Ohio) game. He looked impressive in that game, running an end-around for 30+ yards and catching three other balls. But Chip Scoggins reports that Chambers was moved to the third team after that game. That move seems strange to me.

With the Gophers' young and shallow wide receiving corps, Chambers seemed to be an acceptable option to for an offense struggling to find enough receivers to run the spread.

Here's what Chambers told Scoggins: "I felt like I was going nowhere," he said. "It just seemed like a lot of politics."

Ouch. One thought here re: politics. I would imagine Chambers felt slighted when he was moved to the third team, behind true freshman and new Brewster recruits. I'm guessing Chambers wasn't feeling the love and felt slighted when Brewster's personal recruits were moved up the depth chart.

It's hard to tell in these situations exactly what has transpired. But it would seem that jerking around Chambers from wideout to corner and then back to wideout didn't help matters. It's troubling that Chambers cited "politics" as a reason to leave.

The biggest concern here isn't why Chambers left but is how it appears to the general public and future recruits. And players leaving midseason can never be spun as a positive development. No matter the real reasons, the Gophers now have one less receiver, even if it is a receiver the coaching staff for one reason or another decided was third-team material.