“UM's Sam McGuffie flexible, reliable” — Detroit Free Press

“McGuffie has plenty to say on field” — The Ann Arbor News

“Wolverines’ McGuffie graces YouTube — again” — Toledo Blade

Each of those headlines appeared in the last three weeks, but freshman running back Sam McGuffie doesn’t like his fame one bit.

“I hate articles about me,” McGuffie said. “I don’t know why."

“It’s just one more thing to me where people ... think they know me better and stuff if they read about me instead of talking to me.”

The self-described “shy guy” spoke matter-of-factly and didn’t sound like he was complaining.

“I guess I just want to try to be me,” McGuffie said. “If people don’t like it, I don’t know what to tell them. Sit and talk to me, I guess. Give me a chance.”

Football beginnings

McGuffie loves playing football. He loves it for the usual reasons — the competition, being part of a team, the honor of representing his school. But he has another reason, too.

“It’s just an escape from everyday life,” the Cypress, Texas native said. “You kind of get stressed out with school a little bit. School and being in a constant schedule, when you’re playing in a game, it kind of takes you away from that. You don’t have to worry about everything that’s going on in the world.”

McGuffie competed in gymnastics when he was about 10, and started playing football in fourth grade as a quarterback. That year, his team basically ran three plays — quarterback sweep right, quarterback sweep left and quarterback up the middle.

McGuffie said football was an escape in the fourth grade too, but he didn't want to elaborate.

At Cy-Fair High School, McGuffie made the varsity team as a sophomore and took over the starting running back spot midway through that year.

He started hanging out with junior teammates Travis Bradshaw and Corey Chance, who took McGuffie with them wherever they went. McGuffie often spent entire weekends at Bradshaw’s or Chance’s house, but they rarely came over to his.

“Sam, he didn’t really have the greatest life at home, I guess,” said Bradshaw, who now plays safety at Rice. “And he really didn’t have that really great family support, I guess you could say.”

Bradshaw said he didn’t know specifics about McGuffie’s family situation, admitting he was speculating a bit. But he saw how happy McGuffie was on the football field and knew it was more than a distraction.

“The kind of gifts he has," Bradshaw said, "that probably has something to do with it."

At the highest level of high school football in Texas, McGuffie rushed for 3,121 yards (8.7 yards per carry) and 44 touchdowns his junior year. Michigan running backs coach Fred Jackson first watched him at non-contact practice as he prepared for a playoff game that year.

“You could see the quickness and the balance and the ability to make somebody miss, those kinds of things, see him catch the ball,” Jackson said. “Stuff you see him do here pretty good, he was good at that then.”

McGuffie’s supreme athletic ability made him a four-star recruit, according to rivals.com. McGuffie’s dad ran track and his mom was a gymnast. Jackson called him a combination of the two.

McGuffie verbally committed on a local Houston TV show the July before his senior year. With Notre Dame, Michigan, Southern Cal, Texas A&M and Florida hats on the table in front of him, the host of the show told him to make his choice. Many recruits take hats or shirts away until their college choice is the only one left. But McGuffie’s only nod to the dramatic was a slight pause before picking up the blue hat with a maize block 'M’.

Not long after that, Jackson first sat down with McGuffie.

“A lot of people say he was quiet,” Jackson said. “But when I got to talk to him and got to meet him stuff like that, after a period of time, he became a person you could carry on a great conversation with because he likes to talk about football.”

Near signing day in February, McGuffie was talking football with California coaches. He visited Berkeley and was very impressed.

“I really liked (Cal's) offense,” McGuffie told the Houston Chronicle. “And (California) coach (Jeff) Tedford was a great guy. I haven't met too many people like him in my life. Plus, California was beautiful. I had never been there before, and it's a great place."

Michigan had changed coaches, hiring Rich Rodriguez, who brought in the spread offense.