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Posted on Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 2:07 p.m.

Ready to be hit: Michigan quarterbacks will be live in practice beginning Friday

By Dave Birkett

Michigan’s quarterbacks will be gently live once full-padded practices begin later this week, coach Rich Rodriguez said.

“But I say live, if Brandon Graham’s coming unblocked for some reason - gosh, I hope that doesn’t happen - but if for some reason he does, I’ll probably blow a quick whistle and say hold up,” Rodriguez said. “It may not be enough to stop him, but hopefully we won’t have too many of those vicious hits going on.”

Rodriguez said he wants to mimic true game situations as much as possible early in camp in order to prepare his quarterbacks, especially untested freshmen Tate Forcier and Denard Robinson, for the season.

Forcier took part in spring practice, but was off-limits to defenders once Nick Sheridan fractured his leg. Robinson arrived on campus in June.

Sheridan, who started four games last year, is fully recovered from his injury and running well, Rodriguez said.

“Our guys I think will be smart,” Rodriguez said. “When they have an unmolested hit, maybe they’ll pull up a little bit. But we’ve got to let them get hit a little bit and then after about a week and half, two weeks, once the guys have separated or identified if they’re ready to play, then we got to limit their getting banged around somewhat.

“But we’ve got to try to put pressure on all those freshmen, in particular those quarterbacks, to see if they can react to that. As much pressure as we can put on them in practice, and then if they react well to that then we think they’ll be ready for the game.”

Comments

RWBill

Wed, Aug 12, 2009 : 6:35 p.m.

Metric, really? A little bit premature, eh? but I like your enthusiasm anyway. getting excited now for the season.

uminks

Wed, Aug 12, 2009 : 12:27 a.m.

Injury is a risk for Tate but I think he will make it through practice. I hope he's smart enough not to run through DT or LB like Tebow. My worry is more for the season where a bigger team like ND may try to take him out. Fourcier needs to know when to run out of bounds or slide into 2nd!

NoBowl4Blue

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 8:50 p.m.

Sheridan could wind up 1st team after a few hits the Freshmen get.

tater

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 6:19 p.m.

In DRob's case, you can't hit him if you can't catch him.

VickisueBlue

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 3:37 p.m.

I'm REALLY looking forward to watching these QB's mature and gain the confidence they need. Go Blue! I can't wait!

MetricSU

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 3:09 p.m.

TateRob is just too fast to get hit anyway, and the rest of college football will find that out VERY SOON. And Tressel will be looking for a license plate number on November 21!! THIS is going to be one heckuva season. Go Blue!!

Kubrick66

Tue, Aug 11, 2009 : 1:58 p.m.

Scary thought riskng injury in practice. But it's necessary to prepare them for game speed... get knocked around a bit by guys a hundred pounds heavier. That's football.