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Posted on Tue, Mar 23, 2010 : 8:12 p.m.

Injuries will limit Michigan spring football game, more practice notes

By Dave Birkett

With injuries a concern, Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez said Tuesday the Wolverines' April 17 spring game will be more of an offense vs. defense scrimmage than a Maize vs. Blue game.

“What I’d like to do, and I’m sure the players and the fans would like to do, is have a full two teams that go after each other and keep score and all that,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t think we were going to be able to do that anyway, simply because of a lack of numbers at certain positions. But I do think we’ll be able to do that in the future.”

Rodriguez said Tuesday safeties Vladimir Emilien and Jared Van Slyke, receiver Je’Ron Stokes and defensive end Anthony LaLota all suffered minor injuries last week.

Several other players are out for the spring or limited to no-contact drills as they recover from offseason surgeries, including center David Molk, defensive tackle Mike Martin, receiver Junior Hemingway and running back Vincent Smith.

Molk, who tore the ACL in his right knee last October, is jogging lightly and taking snaps during individual periods.

"He and all of our guys that have had surgeries are certainly on schedule and probably ahead of schedule as far as their rehabs," Rodriguez said.

Briefly

Rodriguez said Michigan will hold two scrimmages leading up to the spring game, most likely this Saturday and April 10. ... Rodriguez on Michigan's spring game partnership with Mott Children's Hospital: “It’s a win-win situation for us to have an atmosphere similar to what we did last year, which was tremendous, especially for our young players, and a chance to be able to help the hospital, which is very dear to many of us in the community. I think it should be a great day." ... Indianapolis Colts running back Mike Hart, Michigan's all-time leading rusher, attended Tuesday's practice.

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.

Comments

AMaizeNBlue

Wed, Mar 24, 2010 : 10:06 a.m.

OK, I have been reading these articles and comments for a long time. I am sick and tired of the haters! Yes, RR is a great coach and he has had one heck of a rebuild here at Michigan. The first year should be completely thrown out because of losing the entire offense and when you change DC's every year it is impossible to have a cohesive unit. Last year we saw significant improvement on Offense. This year we will see more of that with an older more experienced unit. The defense will have 2 years of the same DC which will translate into a better unit. The talent pool there is still very young, but should be better as the year progresses. As a whole this should be considered RR's classic second year turnaround. As far as "practice gate" Goes... That is just BS from the internal and external RR haters! This is a mess of epic proportions caused by the old school UMers and Carr leftovers. We all called for a change after the App State debacle. Well, you get what you ask for but don't expect change to come without setbacks or mountains to climb!

trigg7

Wed, Mar 24, 2010 : 9:56 a.m.

M will finish 8th in the BIG TEN. Thats if everything goes right.

BornInA2

Tue, Mar 23, 2010 : 10:50 p.m.

I'm so tired of hearing "...in the future..." from and about this dude. He's got more excuses than Ferris Bueller. The future is NOW coach. Win now, without (any more) cheating.

NoBowl4Blue

Tue, Mar 23, 2010 : 8:59 p.m.

Don't worry about practice time RR will find a way to get them extra practice

Terry Star21

Tue, Mar 23, 2010 : 8:30 p.m.

May we come to the pre-scrimmage practices on April 3 & 10... pretty please.... I for one would sure like this... love this... please, please..... Injuries always bite me in the rump... the one and the only one thing that will keep us from the National Champs this year. Here is faith and hope that we all heal and stay injury free.