Tate Forcier may be a freshman, but he acts and plays nothing like it

ESPN was on Tate Forcier’s television in the preseason and the freshman paid attention, couldn’t stop listening. Over and over again he heard it, how a freshman would make a lot of mistakes at quarterback and that Michigan would have to wait a little bit longer to return to prominence.

If he rolled his eyes and shook his head, well, could you blame him? He was the guy they were talking about after all. And all Forcier wanted was to be not like anyone else.

“I was like ‘Nah, I’m not going to be that freshman. I’m going to be different,’” Forcier said. “That’s my goal, just to be different. I don’t want to play like a freshman. I want to play like I’ve been here two, three years.”

Not a problem. After Saturday, that’s been done. If last week was the poise display of Tate Forcier, this week showed his guts. Never mind that he is sore, that there were hits he felt he shouldn’t have taken.

He got up.

Michigan, with him, got up.

His final drive, taking Michigan down the field for a game-winning touchdown that moved the Wolverines up in the national consciousness.

What Forcier did in that drive, completing six of seven passes with the game-winning touchdown, is what makes legends in college football. He kept glancing at the clock, knowing he had time left, the timeouts left. He slithered between Notre Dame defenders and through a scheme that was designed to throw everything possible at the young quarterback. Heck, Irish defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta said as much this week.

He survived. Playing in front of his father for the first time at Michigan, he thrived. And he even shook off a sack and a dropped pass by LaTerryal Savoy that he threw on the run and into the middle of his No. 82 jersey to scramble out of the pocket and find wide receiver Greg Mathews for the game-winner.

Two games in, Forcier seems headed down that path. Teammates are stunned how he plays, how he acts, how not much fazes him. He said he feels like he's already been in Ann Arbor for years, not months.

And well, how he doesn’t play anything like a freshman.

“Tate’s a unique individual,” Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said. “Some guys, when everything’s going crazy around them, you can see them change their personality and Tate’s just the opposite.”

What might have rattled him the most Saturday had nothing to do with football. After he finished talking with the media, he jogged outside to try and point out his parents for a visitor. He walked outside, saw the sea of people and went ‘Whoa.’ And he couldn’t find him.

On the field, he’s as calm as can be. He makes jokes in the huddle. Doesn’t take himself too seriously. Sometimes, it seems to others that he doesn’t take much seriously at all.

But he’s taking his football seriously. And he’s made some serious strides to removing the ‘freshman’ from his usual description.

“It just motivates me,” Forcier said of hearing the freshman talk. “If somebody says I can’t do it, I’m going to do it. It’s a motivation thing. It keeps pushing me.”

And it’s what he’s going for, especially since it’s obvious to everyone now that he is Michigan’s starting quarterback.

He wasn’t perfect Saturday. He threw his first career interception. He missed a couple of receivers. He forced another throw or two. But he finished 23-of-33 passing with two touchdowns, one interception and 240 yards.

And he also left with something else, with something much more important.

He left with another win.

“Probably the greatest game of my life,” Forcier said. “But I’m young, so I’m sure there might be a better one.

“But it couldn’t get any better than that.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for Annarbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow on Twitter @mikerothstein.