Mark Snyder

Detroit Free Press

Michigan’s off-season roster attrition is beginning.

Running back/defensive back Ross Taylor-Douglas and cornerback Terry Richardson are transferring.

Both have eligibility remaining — Taylor-Douglas two years, Richardson one — to spend at another school where they expect to play more, as outlined in the statements they posted on social media Tuesday.

As graduate transfers, they should be eligible to play immediately, under NCAA rules.

Taylor-Douglas wrote: “Business never personal, excited for my next phase of my life.”

Both were four-star cornerbacks coming out of high school — Richardson at Detroit Cass Tech, Taylor-Douglas in Avon, Ohio — but neither was able to crack the U-M lineup. Taylor-Douglas even switched to running back but that didn’t help much.

Taylor-Douglas initially was verbally committed to Penn State but switched to U-M after the NCAA handed down a four-year bowl ban in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. For Richardson, he was part of an influx of Cass Tech players but didn’t develop as some of the others did. He was passed by a Cass Tech corner a year younger, Jourdan Lewis.

Yet he said in his statement that his “experience as a student-athlete exceed my expectations.”

These likely are the first of a number of off-season departures by upperclassmen. Michigan needs the scholarships open for the 2016 recruiting class and established a policy last year that fifth-year players, as Richardson would be, are not guaranteed roster spots.

Pundits picking U-M for next College Football Playoff

Tryout: Michigan announced it will be holding a open student tryout to join the football team at 10 a.m. Jan. 23. Details are available on mgoblue.com.

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