Tate Forcier will remain Michigan's starting quarterback, if healthy
11:52 a.m. Rich Rodriguez, on what Brandon Minor brings to the offense:
"We're different when Brandon is in there," Rodriguez said. "He just brings that hard-edge attitude, and I love the passion he plays with. ... We're different when he's in there because of his physical presence. We think he's one of the most physical runners in the country."
________
11:45 a.m. Punter Zoltan Mesko, on the failed fake punt on fourth down against Michigan State:
"I'm pretty good at cussing myself out, and I did take it hard," he said. "You have those games where it's just like on the golf course. Sometimes you're amazing and get lucky, and sometimes you're so bad you want to jump off a cliff. That was one of those jump-off-the-cliff games for me." _________
11:42 a.m. Iowa hadn't allowed a rushing touchdown in 33 quarters entering Saturday night's game, and Michigan rushed for three of them on the Hawkeyes.
"That's a badge of honor," center David Moosman said.
_________
11:40 a.m. Running back Carlos Brown is "fine" and is expected to play against Delaware State.
_________
11:33 a.m. David Moosman talking now, about the difference between playing center and guard:
"The guy is about six inches away from my face. ... I've got one hand between my legs, and they're hitting me in the face. It's fun." _________
11:28 a.m. More thoughts from Rodriguez on Tate Forcier and his injury: "We made a few mistakes, as freshmen will make," he said. "Tate's got a little concussion - I didn't know that at the time - he got it on the last play he was in. He got hit pretty good. Those concussions are day to day, and I don't think it was a severe one."
Rodriguez said Forcier would probably need to practice by Wednesday this week to see action against Delaware State this weekend. _________
11:25 a.m. If Tate Forcier is healthy Saturday, he'll be Michigan's starter at quarterback. _________
11:23 a.m. Rich Rodriguez on the quarterbacks and his decision at the end of the Iowa game:
"Denard was going in the game. I’ll be patient here. What we did in the game is what we did in the game, and that’s what happened. He did a nice job on that first drive, and then on the second, he didn’t and they won. Tate made some decisions and some that I thinkm he’d like to have back." _________
11:21 a.m. Boubacar Cissoko is practicing on the scout team during his suspension. Rich Rodriguez says the reason for his suspension is not only academics-related, but that there are "some other things" too.
_________
11:15 a.m.: Tate Forcier has a mild concussion. His status is day to day.
Comments
azwolverine
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 8:45 p.m.
Treetown, I love it!
Pete Bigelow
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 3:18 p.m.
Lon, just to clarify: Rich said today that he didn't know about Tate's concussion at the time he made the decision to remove him from the game. His decision was purely based on performance.
jeremy
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 2:43 p.m.
pcar....but the flip side to your point is you are also just a couple plays from being 2-4. But as a college football fan it is fun to watch michigan's competitiveness. I think the defense really blows and that Obi Ezeh has been overhyed for the past 3 years. Still looks like he did as a freshman out there
treetowncartel
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 1:54 p.m.
We could have won that game, I think that is the emotion RR displayed that everyone is mentioning. Also, I do believe there are Walmart Sparties, where else could you get a couch you were only going to burn that cheap?
Champswest
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 1:38 p.m.
RichRod made the correct QB call except he probably should have gone to Denard sooner. Tate can't pull every game out of the fire in the final minute (remember MSU in OT?). He wasn't on his game and could easily have had a couple of more picks. It was a tough loss, but not unexpected and it could have been a big win. I am feeling very good about this team, much like the BB team of last year.
heartbreakM
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 1:22 p.m.
It is a well known thing in college football that upsets start happening in the 5th-6th weeks of the season, and that players, particularly the young players, just start to fade. I posted this a few weeks ago. I expected Tate, and all the other frosh to start to do the same, and I see that happening. Adding to the normal tired-ness (school midterms, 2 1/2 mos of intense practice and lifting, grind of season) is that in RR's offense, the QB tends to get a beating because so much of the offense flows through the QB--i.e. runs, etc. I think Tate will not be the same for the rest of the year because of these factors. I would expect next year the same to happen to Gardner and that TF and laces to be better conditioned and used to the grind. That is one of the reasons that teams begin to lose games they shouldn't in early October. I do find it interesting that in the first half, TF was doing things he was obviously coached to do to protect himself--diving in the middle of the field to avoid being tackled; running out of bounds, etc. I also think in his case, the adverse weather conditions will be a downfall because he is not used to playing at game speed in such conditions. Practice last year does not count because it's not 3-4 hrs of intensity, loud crowd, fast. This is not a criticism of RR per se, just the nature of the beast. I'm glad to see RR and QB coach coaching TF up to avoid the big hit. But the nature of RR's offense is for the QB to take off and get hit.
pcar1178
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 1:18 p.m.
Michigan will be fine, we are essentially 2 plays from being 6-0. To the State fans, you are a joke, if you went 1-11 and beat Michigan you would consider it a good season. Truth is Michigan just doesn't care about your game as much as we do ND and OSU. Michigan would have alot more alumni fans too if you needed a 1.5 GPA to get in there, like State. Go Blue, next year will be huge and the rest of the Big 10 knows it.
Salinegoblue
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 12:45 p.m.
RR does need to control his emotions, the players will lose confidence in him if he can't handle the pressure and loses control during games like he did last week. That is what cost him the National Championship at WV, he couldn't handle the pressure against Pitt when the game was closer than he expected.
oldmanblue
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 12:41 p.m.
I love when Michigan State fans use the term Wal-Mart Wolverines. Look buddy it's a free country and College sports make huge amounts of money off their athletic programs. Do you have to show a college ID to get into Spartan stadium? I know it only hold like 30,000 SPARTANS. It's not Michigan's fault that they have fans that aren't alumni. It's not Michigan's fault that the only fans that State has are people that went to school there. They are a boring team to watch historically and have been at the bottom of the big 10 for the last 20 years. Even in the national title run you pretend you had last year you lost 3 games by more then 30 points. Enjoy your 2 wins for the first time in your lifetime and get ready to go back to the way it has always been. Michigan football will be a national powerhouse once again.
81wolverine
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 12:37 p.m.
I still don't believe Denard was the man for the job on that last drive, with 1 1/2 minutes on the clock and no timeouts. His passing ability just isn't there yet. Coach Rod was ticked off at Tate, plain and simple. It had nothing to do with a "slight concussion" which he admitted he didn't know at the time. It just seemed to me that Rodriguez kind of lost his composure a little in the 2nd half of the 4th quarter. It probably didn't cost us the game, but it didn't help Michigan, Tate, or anyone.
Salinegoblue
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 12:20 p.m.
We are 4-2 with some big games coming up. Six games remaining with 4 of them home. We won't run the table, if you think so, your drinking kool aide. We will surely beat Delaware State and Perdue at home and should beat Il on the road. Which will put us at 7-5. Let's face it, we're still young and we play Wisc away, Penn State and the buckeyes at home. We'll probably lose those games. At least we'll go to a bowl this year, may be the Motor City or whatever they call it but it will be a bowl. It will be interesting to see how Tate handles RR actions from last week, what it does to his confidence and how he responds. Tate will definetly be looking over his shoulder from here on out.
letsgoblue
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 11:54 a.m.
RR says that he didn't know about the concussion at the time....so it had nothing to do with Tate being benched.
jeremy
Mon, Oct 12, 2009 : 11:49 a.m.
ok....now im going to rewatch the game....I dont remember him getting hit hard enough for a concussion...but it does explain why he wasnt in the game