Tate Forcier suffered a concussion, still Michigan's starting quarterback

Tate Forcier suffered a minor concussion one series before he was benched in Saturday’s loss to Iowa, but Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said the injury didn’t impact his decision to play backup Denard Robinson on the Wolverines’ final two drives.

"I didn’t know about it until after the game," Rodriguez said Monday. "I was putting Denard in anyway."

Robinson ran for a touchdown on his first series, then threw a game-ending interception with 46 seconds to play.

Rodriguez said Forcier remains his starting quarterback, and the true freshmen will be on the field Saturday against Delaware State if he’s medically cleared to play.

Forcier still suffered from headaches Monday morning, Rodriguez said.

As he left the locker room Saturday, a member of Michigan’s traveling party said Forcier had “a medical issue.” Michigan’s media relations department later refuted that claim.

Forcier also has been dealing with a sore throwing shoulder he injured on a touchdown run in the fourth quarter of Michigan’s Big Ten opener against Indiana. He’s been limited in practice the last two weeks, and Rodriguez said lack of practice time has stunted his growth as a player.

Forcier has four turnovers in Michigan’s last three games after throwing just one interception (on a receiver misread) during the Wolverines’ 3-0 start.

He has not been made available to the media since after the Michigan State game.

“Sometimes you're a young athlete and you’re pretty talented, you want to make every play,” Rodriguez said. “When you have success doing it, you want to continue to do that even though sometimes better judgment is to not try to create something that is not there.

“But you don't want to limit it. Tate and Denard both, part of their outstanding ability is their ability to create. So you don't want to limit it too much, yet at the same time you have to try to do it within the structure of the offense. That is kind of unique.”

Forcier completed 8 of 19 passes for 94 yards and ran eight times for 26 yards against Iowa. He also threw an interception and lost a fumble.

Robinson had nine carries for 49 yards and was 3 of 4 passing. Most of his plays this year have been designed runs.

“With both those guys, you hope every week that you can not only get them to understand what we’re doing offensively, but understand how teams are defending us," Rodriguez said. "That's the thing that you get in with the season, every defensive gameplan you go against is a little bit different ... so you have to balance that time on OK, this is what we do, this is what they’re doing.

“I get excited when I think about how much they’ll progress when they have some time in spring practice and all that to go with it.”

Rodriguez said Forcier must practice by Wednesday in order to play this weekend.

"Again, I don’t know how severe it is," he said. "After the game you could tell he had a headache, the towel over his head and all that. But I don’t know. Until I see him today or the trainers see him for another 24 hours, we’ll know.”

Dave Birkett covers University of Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at 734-623-2552 or by e-mail at davidbirkett@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.