Michigan's Tate Forcier on track to play against Delaware State
Tate Forcier was expected to practice Wednesday, and appears to be on track to play against Delaware State.
"Talking to the trainers this morning and today, he felt a lot better," Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said before practice Wednesday. "We'll see how he does today. I think (Tuesday) he felt a lot better. I don't think there's any issues or many issues at all with his shoulder, it's just with those concussions, no matter how severe it is, you want to be 100 percent sure it's cleared up."
Forcier suffered a minor concussion on his final snap of last week's loss to Iowa. He also has been battling a sprained throwing shoulder the last two weeks.
Rodriguez said Forcier was set to undergo some final tests today and did not know if he was medically cleared to play this weekend. On Monday, Rodriguez said Forcier had to practice by Wednesday in order to play against Delaware State.
Forceir has started the first six games for Michigan (4-2), and Rodriguez said he won't do anything to jeopardize the true freshman's health.
"We like to be careful with (the guys that aren't 100 percent) all the time," Rodriguez said. "From a medical standpoint, the trainers and the doctors will tell us who can play and where they're at, and that's all we ask. We go through it every day."
Running back Carlos Brown (concussion) also was expected to return to practice Wednesday. Brown, who did not travel to last week's loss to Iowa, did not take part in contact drills Tuesday.
Rodriguez said Brandon Minor (ankle) will start Saturday if he's close to 100 percent.
"Brandon is such a tough guy, he'll always tell you he's 100 percent and he'll tell the doctors the same thing," Rodriguez said. "You got to really look at him in pre-game warm-ups and on Thursday practices to see how's he running this week or how's he feeling."
Comments
OSUbeBetter
Thu, Oct 15, 2009 : 12:42 a.m.
Michigan is quickly becoming "Concussion U"
rensational
Wed, Oct 14, 2009 : 6:07 p.m.
Um, like I've said before--no taking games for granted with the things that has happened to Michigan the past couple years. Toledo was so bad last year their coach got fired, and well...you know what happened in that game. Forcier just needs to back off with the running for the rest of the season. Brown, Minor and Robinson are more than capable in that department. This is one of the things I don't think RR understands about Michigan, i.e. what it's like to play Big Ten opponents (he's still insisting our conference is not bigger/more physical than anywhere else, which is crap). RR's guys are too small for it, and Forcier needs to hit the weight room during the offseason--Robinson, too. I seriously cringed almost every run Forcier did against Iowa. If he plays at all against DSU, I hope he does "play smart," which includes limiting runs. He can rest all he wants this one game, but it won't mean beans if he doesn't stop acting like Superman on the field. It's a matter of time before he gets worse than a sprained shoulder and a mild concussion.