Bloomington Herald Times sports editor Chris Korman reports that Jerimy Finch, once a highly touted recruit from Warren Central in Indianapolis who took a circuitous path to Bloomington, is leaving the Indiana football program. Finch, a five star defensive back, initially verbally committed to Michigan before a surprising change of heart that led him to commit to IU. On signing day 2007, however, Finch made a last-minute switch and signed with Florida. At Florida, Finch saw the field immediately, and intercepted a pass in the Gators' third game of the season, against rival Tennessee, before suffering a season-ending leg injury later in the game. The next spring, Finch decided to transfer to IU. He had family reasons for the transfer (a young child in Indiana, if I recall correctly) and the NCAA allowed him to play immediately. IU's on-again, off-again, on-again relationship with Finch seemed like quite a windfall, but for whatever reason, Finch did little more than play special teams at IU. Bill Lynch received a fair amount of criticism for not playing Finch more, but as much as I have criticized Lynch for other things, the idea that he was overlooking Finch, the highest-ranked recruit to enroll at IU in the last 10-15 years, never made sense to me. I hope we learn more about what happened, but there may not be a clear answer. At schools like Ohio State and Texas and USC, schools that stockpile five star recruits, some of those recruits become top NFL draft picks, and others never break into the depth chart. On the rare occasions that IU lands such recruits, it's easy to presume that they will be the former, while forgetting that plenty such recruits don't pan out. (But, he was good enough to start at Florida! I know. But there had to be something, and absent some uncharacteristic gut-spilling by Lynch, it will remain a mystery).
In any event, it appears that Finch's departure is voluntary, and hopefully he will land on his feet.