The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game Part 3

Michael Oher had passed his driver's test.  His family gifted him with a new truck.  One day while driving it, Michael and Sean Jr. crashed into another vehicle.  It was not Michael's fault but he was still devastated especially since Sean Jr. had been severely injured and had to be taken to the hospital.  Sean Jr. was riding in the front seat even though he was not tall enough.  Luckily for the Touhy's, he would recover without any major operations.  The doctors called it a miracle.  Soon after this Micahel started to take college visits.  He went to LSU, Oklahoma, powerhouse football programs.  Every coach was trying to get Michael to come take a visit to their campus and it seems like he went to everyone.  Michael wanted to stay near home so he never took officials to the University of Michigan, Ohio State or any school up north.  It was a battle between the SEC schools and Big 12 schools.  Michael was constantly asked for updates on his recruitment.  He was constantly changing his mind.  His top school was the school he visited last.  At one point he said he could really see himself going to Oklahoma.  One wrench was thrown in his recruiting, his former high school coach, Hugh Freeze was hired as an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee.  He was constantly recruiting Michael which put Tennessee near the top.  Michael finally came out with a top three of LSU, Tennessee, and Ole Miss.  During Michael's visit to LSU, he saw some things that scared him.  LSU head coach Nick Saban knew he had some work to do.  He went to visit Michael Oher.  During his visit he was very charming and Michael Oher seemed to like him.  He also promised Sean Jr. his own locker in the LSU locker room.  Michael's one concern was that Saban was going to leave to coach in the NFL.  Saban didn't give a clear answer.  Three weeks later Saban was announced as the new head coach for the Miami Dolphins.  This meant that Ole Miss and Tennessee were left in the mix.  The head coach of Tennessee came to Michael's house one day and made his pitch.  Michael really seemed to like him and talked to him in private.  Michael's parents thought he had committed and Sean, an Ole Miss graduate was not happy.  He said there is no way Michael would be playing for Tennessee.  Michael hadn't committed yet so there was still time for Ole MIss to make their pitch for Michael.  Newly introduced coach Ed Orgeron, went to visit Michael.  Coach O, as they called him had a deep accent and it was hard to understand him.  Again Michael liked what he heard and considered.  Michael eventually commits to play at Ole Miss saying that that's where he o improve he wanted to play this whole time.  A couple problems however still existed.  One, he needed to improve his GPA and he needed to get through an NCAA investigation unscathed in order to play football at Ole Miss.  Leigh Anne hired a tutor to help resolve the academic issues.  Michael worked with this tutor and improved his GPA to 2.05 by the end of his senior year but he still needed a 2.56 GPA to become eligible.  Sean found that if he took online classes and got A's, he could replace his F's with A's.  In order to take these classes and have them count however, he needed to prove that Michael had a learning disability.  They found that he has good memorization skills are really good, but since he wasn't preforming to his potential he had a learning disability.  This allowed him to take these classes.  He replaced his F's with A's and got the required GPA.  The only thing left was getting through the NCAA investigation.  Since Michael committed to Ole Miss and his legal guardians were Ole Miss boosters, the NCAA wanted to make sure they didn't pay him to go there.  They found no evidence that they did.  Michael Oher could play football at Ole Miss.