According to media reports, Michigan kick returner Dennis Norfleet has been kicked off the football team by coach Jim Harbaugh.
The Wolverines declined to confirm or deny the report Tuesday afternoon. A spokesman for the football program said "This is an internal matter" in reply to an email from FOXSportsDetroit.com.
Dale Harvel, his high-school coach at Detroit Martin Luther King, told MLive Tuesday that Norfleet had been thrown off the team.
"Evidently he was dismissed from the team, Dennis informed us he was no longer on the team," Harvel told MLive. "Something about a disciplinary thing between him and coach Harbaugh. Whether it was academics or something internal, I'm not sure. He just said they had a disagreement and he was let go."
Norfleet would be a senior this season, and has been Michigan's kick returner for the past three years and spent last season also returning punts. His 94 kick returns and 2,203 kick return yards are both career records at Michigan, but he never returned a kick or a punt for a touchdown.
He also failed to make an offensive impact, despite being a highly touted running-back recruit. In three years, he only carried the ball 15 times, usually on end-around plays, and caught 21 passes.
This spring, he was tried at cornerback, a position he had excelled at in high school, but at 5-foot-7, he struggled in the spring game against bigger receivers.
"I think you are looking at the possibility of Dennis being a three-way player this year," Harbaugh said after the game. "Offense, defense and special teams. I'm excited about that."
Apparently, that's not going to happen.
