Photos of Downers Grove South's Erik Swenson, who had his offer to play at Michigan pulled.

The Showtime series "The Affair" splits its episodes into segments with individual perspectives. It goes like this … Part One: Noah. Part Two: Allison. The "same" scenes are shown, but the characters' dialogue, actions and even clothing differ wildly based on their recollections. What actually happened? The viewer decides. In the case of this story, the reader can decide. A little more than one year ago, Erik Swenson thought he was headed to Michigan to play football. A four-star recruit from Downers Grove South, Swenson was the No. 6 prospect in Illinois and rated among the nation's top 30 offensive tackles. When he verbally committed to coach Brady Hoke as a sophomore in 2013, he became the first member of the Wolverines' 2016 recruiting class. In the end, there was no scholarship. What happened? Below are recollections (and perhaps a few #alternativefacts) from Swenson, Downers Grove South coach Mark Molinari and Jim Harbaugh. Yes, Harbaugh. I fully expected the Michigan coach to duck comment, given how harsh I had been to him in a column about the Swenson situation last year. The fact Harbaugh called me within hours of the request, from the recruiting trail, showed a certain thickness of skin. It also spoke to his comfort in how Michigan handled this. Part One: Erik Swenson Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune Downers Grove South offensive lineman Erik Swenson, during a team practice on Aug. 17, 2015. Downers Grove South offensive lineman Erik Swenson, during a team practice on Aug. 17, 2015. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) At the end of a 30-minute conversation with the Tribune, Swenson offered this, unsolicited: "If I saw Coach Harbaugh I'd say, 'Thank you for making my life easier.' I'm not mad at him anymore; I'm thankful. I got what I wanted. And he got what he wanted." Swenson ended up at Oklahoma, where he had a terrific experience on the scout team last fall, highlighted by a trip to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. "It's so competitive," he said, "every single practice feels like you're playing for a championship." He trimmed 16 pounds of fat from his 6-foot-5, 317-pound frame. He made friends, going on hunting trips with roommate Devin Montgomery, a running back from Maryland. And he impressed his coaches. As a redshirt freshman next season, Swenson will vie to become the backup left tackle for the defending Big 12 champs. "He's a really smart kid and tries to do everything exactly how you coach it," said Sooners offensive line coach Bill Bedenbaugh, a native of St. Charles. "I think he will be a really good player." Said Swenson: "If you'd told me a year ago that I'd go to Oklahoma, I would have laughed in your face. I didn't know about 'em. When I started looking at campus and the facilities, I Google-imaged." Swenson has family in Michigan and grew up loving the Wolverines, visiting the campus or Michigan Stadium nearly 20 times by his estimate. Not even an offer from Alabama and a visit to Nick Saban's office with its infamous remote-control door ("The door closes slowly, but no one is closing it") could sway him. After committing to Hoke — whom Michigan fired in December 2014 — Swenson had strong interactions with Harbaugh, Hoke's successor, and offensive line coach/offensive coordinator Tim Drevno. Swenson ventured to Ann Arbor the night Michigan fans stuffed the Crisler Center for Harbaugh's welcome greeting during halftime of a basketball game against Illinois. The date was Dec. 30, 2014. "Within 24 hours," Swenson said, "he calls and says: 'Listen. We watched your film, you're a great player. We want to keep you on scholarship and want you to be part of the class.'" Swenson said Drevno would text and ask him to "make friends" with other potential members of Michigan's 2016 recruiting class. Downers Grove South went 3-6 in 2015, and Swenson was not the same player who at one point had been rated among the nation's top 15 offensive tackles. "I think I did all right," he said. "I tore my labrum (in his left shoulder) freshman year and played with that for two years. Then I had surgery, so (senior season) was a recovery year." Swenson said he had no inkling Michigan was souring on him. Drevno visited Chicago in December, dined with the Swenson family and then called a week later with an odd request, suggesting Swenson visit other schools to make sure he liked Michigan best. "It came out of the blue," Swenson said. "I thought maybe he was just trying to be nice." The next time Drevno and Swenson talked, the message was stark: There were "no spots left" in the class. "I was confused," Swenson said. "I always did what they told me to do and helped them out (with recruiting). I was not connected by paperwork, so they could (drop me). But it was weird." Swenson said he never heard directly from Harbaugh that Michigan had pulled his scholarship offer. "He called my coach (Molinari), and they exchanged words," Swenson said. "Coach Harbaugh was making up stories. My coach said: 'Look, Erik doesn't want to take this to the news. If you stop (leaking negative allegations), we won't go to the news.' Coach 'Mo' was pissed, more than I was." Still, Swenson stayed home from school for two days. He buried his Michigan gear in the family basement, tweeted news of his decommitment Jan. 20 due to "unforeseen circumstances" and turned down interview requests. "I had ESPN calling me every day," he said. "I'm not really a media guy." Why does he think Michigan dropped him? "Honestly, I didn't care to know," he replied. "I just wanted to find a new school." Oklahoma would become his new home. While in New Orleans, Swenson watched the Orange Bowl in the hospitality suite of the team hotel. Some teammates razzed him as he rooted for Florida State to take down Michigan. After the Seminoles did just that, Swenson said he was "super happy."

As for that Michigan gear? "I'm on the border of 2XL and 3XL, and I have a lot of stuff," he said. "I'm never going to wear it. If anyone wants it, they can go downstairs to the basement and take it." Part Two: Mark Molinari Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown Downers Grove South head coach Mark Molinari during a game on Aug. 26, 2016. Downers Grove South head coach Mark Molinari during a game on Aug. 26, 2016. (Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown) (Gary Middendorf / Daily Southtown) Molinari knows college football can be a tough business. He sent two offensive linemen to Illinois in 2003. Martin O'Donnell became a first-team All-American. Kevin Gage, Molinari said, earned his Illinois degree, but coach Ron Zook ran him off the team after Zook took over in 2005. Still, it wasn't immediately obvious to Molinari what was happening last December, when Drevno began recommending that Swenson take other visits. "When I told Erik's dad, he said: 'Get the heck out of there — otherwise (Michigan) will run him out after one year,'" Molinari recalled. After word spread that Harbaugh had pulled Swenson's scholarship, some Michigan backers said it was no big deal because other coaches do the same. Not true. "In the first three or four hours, my phone rang 50 times," Molinari said. "(College) coaches were blown away by it. They said, 'There is no way that this happens.' Some said, 'That's why we hate Michigan.' Or Harbaugh." Some prominent coaches are known to oversign, stretching their rosters past the allowable 85 scholarships. They get down to 85 by resorting to dirty work — pushing players to transfer, accept a medical hardship waiver (allowing them to remain on scholarship as a non-playing student) or grayshirt (requiring them to pay their way for at least one semester). What happened to Swenson is exceedingly rare: a high school player in good academic standing, who remains loyal to the school to which he verbally committed, getting dumped within weeks of signing day. There is a term for a school dispatching a player it no longer wants: "processing." Connecticut coach Randy Edsall got crushed last week by national media figures Paul Finebaum ("total disgrace"), Mike Greenberg ("How you go to sleep at night, I have no idea") and the Washington Post's Sally Jenkins ("No one is more committed to Randy Edsall than Randy Edsall") after his scurrilous actions regarding a high school linebacker from New Jersey named Ryan Dickens. After taking the UConn job last month, Edsall, according to the Newark Star-Ledger, told Dickens he would honor his scholarship offer. Less than three weeks before the Feb. 1 national signing date, Edsall reportedly called Dickens and said, "We don't have a spot for you." Said Finebaum: "This is a terrible look for UConn, and I think they will pay for it." Perhaps. Michigan, meanwhile, is expected to sign a top-five class next week flush with four-star players. Molinari said he worried about Swenson last year because "it was so late in the game." "Iowa and Wisconsin were full — no spots left," he said. "Some people were offering a grayshirt." Molinari got steamed when coaches peppered him with questions about a report on Rivals.com's Michigan website that, according to unnamed sources, Swenson had refused to appear at a Michigan summer camp to allow for a live evaluation by Harbaugh's staff. The piece also had this: "Our sources in Downers Grove ... said it was a major frustration for the coaches this year that the kid played not to get hurt instead of playing to show that he was dominant and the best player in the state." Said Molinari: "I got pretty upset seeing, 'Erik didn't work hard,' 'Erik didn't do this or that.' (College) coaches were calling me and saying, 'What is the truth?' "Coach Harbaugh called me. It started out pleasant but did not end that way. I called him out. I said: 'You're lying, you know you're lying and you're not going to get away with it. When you shut your mouth and not get in the way, I will shut mine.' He didn't like that very much." Molinari acknowledged that Swenson had "an average senior year." "We weren't a very good team," he said. "He didn't get pushed, and we didn't really have someone to go against him (in practice)." Still, Northwestern, Illinois and Purdue wanted to sign Swenson after Michigan said no. Virginia and Missouri also pushed, as did Arkansas coach Bret Bielema. Swenson chose Oklahoma after bonding with coach Bob Stoops during a visit to Norman. "He was able to overpower everybody in high school," Molinari said. "This was the first year he lifted seriously with the right people. Down the line, he has NFL potential." Part Three: Jim Harbaugh Jamie Sabau / Getty Images Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh argues a call on the sideline against Ohio State on Nov 26, 2016. Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh argues a call on the sideline against Ohio State on Nov 26, 2016. (Jamie Sabau / Getty Images) (Jamie Sabau / Getty Images) A year ago, Harbaugh was not free to comment on Swenson, per NCAA rules. He responded to the intense criticism with this tweet: "'They said' artificial sweeteners were safe, WMDs were in Iraq and Anna Nicole married for love … 'they said.'" Now "they said" can be "he said." "From our perspective, the first time I met Erik was in the spring of '15," Harbaugh told the Tribune. "I had just gotten the job and introduced myself. He was a committed player for more than a year to Brady Hoke and his staff. I said: 'Great to meet you and, hey, we have camps coming up. There's a camp in June, and we really want you to come so we can see you.' It ended up, after a couple of conversations, that he wasn't going to come to camp. "I said: 'We're going to be in Indianapolis in the beginning of June for a satellite camp. It's closer to your home.' He said no. I said, 'We really need to see you for ourselves.' He said, 'Just evaluate my senior tape.' 'OK, that's what we will do.'" In evaluating that tape, Harbaugh saw what everyone did — a sinking level of play. At the same time, Michigan's recruiting class was soaring, with massive talent flowing in from New Jersey and California. "In October I asked Coach Drevno: 'Talk to the high school coach and find out: Is (Swenson) hurt? Is he full strength?'" Harbaugh recalled. "The feedback we got was that he needed to get stronger. We said, 'He needs to pick it up.' "By the end of the season, December was rolling around and all we had to evaluate him was the tape. I said, 'This class is going to be tight.' We could not guarantee that we'd offer him aid. I said: 'There's still a good chance we'll have a preferred walk-on spot. That we can guarantee. But we can't guarantee a letter of intent in January.'" What's unclear is how much of that Harbaugh, or Drevno, relayed to Molinari or Swenson.