While it remains to be seen if/when Michael Dyer resurfaces at the FBS level, there’s at least one big-time football program that appears ready to welcome the talented but enigmatic running back with open arms.
Speaking during an interview with ESPN Monday, quarterback and Heisman Trophy contender Teddy Bridgewater was asked how he and his teammates would feel about adding the former Auburn and Arkansas State running back. “We would] take him in and welcome him,” Bridgewater said.
The question came after a visit Dyer took to the Louisville campus last week, during which Bridgewater was able to spend some time with the player who may very well become his new teammate in the not-too-distant future. Dyer has also visited USF of late as he attempts to restart his flailing football career.
The Louisville angle, however, may have some significant legs. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, "[a]n official with U of L’s registrar office confirmed that the university added Dyer to its system on Thursday, which is often an indication a prospective student plans to apply for enrollment.” Dyer would need to be enrolled at the school no later than Aug. 28, although he would likely prefer to be enrolled well before then as far as the football side of the student-athlete equation goes.
The football program has yet to confirm the addition of Dyer to its roster.
The addition of Dyer would be one of those big risk/big reward/big bust type of scenarios for Charlie Strong and his cardinals coaching staff.
In January of 2011 as a freshman, Dyer was named the offensive MVP of Auburn’s BCS title game win. After rushing for 1,000 yards each of his first two seasons with the Tigers, Dyer was “granted a release from his scholarship” in January of 2012, one month after he was suspended for the Tigers’ appearance in the Chick-fil-A Bowl for failing multiple drug tests. He transferred to Arkansas State that same month in a reunion with former AU offensive coordinator and then-ASU head coach Gus Malzahn; six months later, he was dismissed by Malzahn for “undisclosed violations of team rules.”
In August of 2012, Dyer landed at Arkansas Baptist, where he sat out the football season to focus on academics.
In April of this year, it was reported that Dyer would take a visit to TCU. Shortly after a report surfaced that Dyer “should’ve” been declared academically ineligible for the BCS title game against Oregon, that visit was scuttled. That same month, Dyer expressed an interest in playing for Arkansas, although the Razorbacks did not reciprocate the interest.
During an interview earlier this month, Dyer proclaimed himself “a changed man,” stating he "[wants] a chance to show people my character is better than it was in the past” and that “I’m not the same person I was. I’ve changed. I’ve grown up.”
It’ll be up to Strong to determine just how much growing up Dyer has done... and whether he wants to risk dragging all of that baggage into a program that has its sights set on becoming a major player in the BCS title discussion.