Sam McGuffie is Gone. Again.

As of this morning, RB Sam McGuffie is no longer a Wolverine. Rivals.

After about a month of speculation and rumors...some of which went both ways, it is final. McGuffie picked up his release papers this morning from the University.

"I just got out of the compliance office and picked up my release," said McGuffie. "They gave me a full release – no restrictions. I will be somewhere else in January."

"It's just been weighing on me for a while," he said. "There are a number of factors that went into [the decision]. It's nothing against the Michigan football team or the university. I felt that I had to what is best for myself and my family."

"I'm looking to stay in or around Texas," he said. "There are a couple of schools that I'm interested in such as Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Oklahoma State and a couple of others."

"They were one of my top teams last year," McGuffie said of the Aggies. "I have a former teammate, Chris Lathrop, that signed with them last year and he loves it. I've talked to him a bunch about it. I know a lot of guys on the team there and I have a bunch of friends from home that go there, too."

Well, seeing as how we saw this coming since before the tOSU game, and saw it in action during a punt return where he was blasted by an tOSU player, receiving his 3rd (or 4th) concussion of the year...not a huge surprise.

Of course this sucks if you look at it from a pure speed perspective. But if you look at it realistically, McGuffie was just not ready for this league. He got hit way too hard way too many times. Maybe he could've put on about 20 pounds of pure muscle during the off-season to make him compete a little better next year. But with guys like Brandon Minor, Carlos Brown, Kevin Grady and Michael Shaw returning, frankly...RB is a very competitive position on this team right now. Not to mention a couple really good 2009 recruits on the way as well.

We wish Sam the best of luck wherever he ends up. It'll probably end up like a situation like Justin Fargas. He'll transfer away to a speedier (perceived) conference...do insanely well, and end up in the NFL one day. Either way, it will be interesting to watch.