Michigan cornerback J.T. Floyd lost for season with ankle injury
J.T. Floyd
In the latest blow to an already-decimated secondary, Michigan cornerback J.T. Floyd will miss the remainder of the football season after injuring an ankle during Tuesday’s practice.
X-rays taken Wednesday morning revealed no broken bones, but the junior sustained ligament damage that will be surgically repaired.
Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez did not know whether Floyd, the team’s most experienced member of the secondary, will recover in time for spring football.
Rodriguez described the injury as a “freak thing.”
“A guy fell down in front of him, and I don’t think he saw it and got rolled up,” Rodriguez said. “The unfortunate part is it’s practice, and we’re not even tackling in practice.”
Courtney Avery, a true freshman from Mansfield, Ohio, will take Floyd’s spot in the starting lineup. Avery is one of six true freshmen to play in the Michigan secondary this season following a rash of injuries and departures that grows more disconcerting each week.
In addition to Floyd, the Wolverines lost cornerback Troy Woolfolk to a season-ending injury during summer camp.
Cornerback Justin Turner transferred to West Virginia in August and safety Vlad Emilien departed in September. Recruits Adrian Witty and Demar Dorsey never made it to the field because of academic obstacles. Top cornerback Donovan Warren left the team as a junior to enter the NFL Draft, only to by bypassed through all seven rounds. Backup safeties Jared Van Slyke and Mike Williams both sustained season-ending injuries in the preseason.
Michigan (5-3, 1-3 Big Ten) plays host to Illinois (5-3, 3-2) at noon Saturday (ESPN).
Pete Bigelow covers Michigan football for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2556, via email at petebigelow@annarbor.com and followed on Twitter @PeterCBigelow.
Comments
Blu-n-Tpa
Thu, Nov 4, 2010 : 7:45 a.m.
I used to read about Michigan football because they played the game on the national scene. Our games meant something and people wrote and talked about how well our teams competed aganist Big Ten opponets and how Michigan suffered in the post season. Another contributer stated "we were embarrassed" by Texas and USC. Now, our national press coverage is about admitting four violations of NCAA rules, all of which are the responsibility of the current head coach. Coaching is making players perform to their best all the time. It's really an unfair goal because most human beings aren't able to focus that completely for that long. But that's the coaches job and I'm not seeing it in Ann Arbor these days. If I recall correctly, the year we lost to Texas, by one point on a last second FG, lead by a great college QB, Michigan lost the starting QB one week before the season started and the TB the first or second game. That team, TEAM, went on to lose only two games, won a share of the league championship, and played in the Rose Bowl, with a true freshman QB and TB. It's what coaching is all about and I'm sorry to say, that's whats lacking in the Big House.
amaizenblueballs
Thu, Nov 4, 2010 : 6:10 a.m.
It will matter that JT is lost. I believe I recall games where he was leading tackler. Our best players (for example Martin and Floyd), those that work the hardest, are getting hurt while leading and trying to fill the gaps. Unfortunate for them and the team. If we can now win a game or two the remainder of the year then it will mean some improved coaching is taking place. My expectations are now much lower, so a "W" will actually be a pleasant surprise.
Dave
Thu, Nov 4, 2010 : 1:21 a.m.
Rich Rod's tour is coming to an end! It will be Good-Bye in Columbus, Ohio on November 27th. We won't have to put-up with Rich Rod's lame excuses for his lack of Coached defense! Fire the whole staff! Hello, Jim Harbaugh!
GoblueinNE_PA
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 9:16 p.m.
The loss of Floyd won't make a difference. Whether it's Floyd or Cullen or one of the other freshmen, the result will be the same. What's the worse that happens? We give up 45 instead of 42? The next to last Ann Arbor stop of the RichRod farewell tour happens this weekend! Keep your chins up Michigan Alums and Fans, a change is coming!
JBizzle81
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 7:39 p.m.
They should fire G Rob and bring back Ron English. He may not be a good head coach at Eastern but we all know that he is one hell of a good D coach. I wish he would come back, maybe our D would be just as good as before RR. Does anybody know what D we ran before RR? Wasnt it the 4-3?
RudeJude
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 6:43 p.m.
@ Theo Losing by a last-second field goal to a Vince Young-led Texas squad that would be the National Champs the following year isn't what I would call embarrassing. I would define embarrassing as losing to Toledo, surviving a close one against UMass from the FCS, struggling to win more than one game in the Big Ten annually and failing to reach bowl season. Michigan's offense is a proven winner, against small-time teams and a defunct ND. Maybe you didn't watch the last three games, but Michigan's offense didn't come up on top. Offense AND defense AND special teams win football games. Your king fails to recognize this, or else Michigan's defense would not be dead-last in all defensive statistics and we would not have had that special teams "what do I do, coach?" moment in the Iowa game after the missed field goal. Now THAT was embarrassing. What we need is a head coach, not the offensive coordinator we have in Coach Rod. I'm not feeling confident in Michigan's chances in reeling in a great defensive recruiting class considering they may be firing their DC in the next few weeks. Unless Coach Rod can pull a rabbit out of his hat and finds a DC kids get excited about (Greg Robinson and Scott Shafer REALLY exemplified excitement!), what quality recruits are going to sign up to play for a new DC that probably will be blamed for next season's defensive misfortunes and fired by the end of next November? I guess it's about time for Coach Rod to get out there and hire next year's scapegoat! BTW Did Ron English leave on his own accord or did your king decide he wasn't up to snuff for his defense? The kids seemed excited to play for him.
Ryan
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 6:34 p.m.
I mean you can't expect much from this team, Lloyd really left the cupboard bare with all of those four and five star recruits he stuck Rich Rod with. On any other team Will Campbell would be a star, on Rich Rods team he doesn't even play.
racer
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 6:05 p.m.
Theo212, just curious. When the Executioner (Brandon) decides to use the guillotine on "Our King". Will you be a tyrant and go into exile with "Our King" or will you be a loyal subject and get on board with the new Supreme Commander?
JGS
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 5:39 p.m.
@D21 - Justin Boren listens to Creed. Need I say more? He's fat and lazy and plays for the enemy. I've no love for that Benedict Arnold traitor!
JGS
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 5:37 p.m.
Hey Theo I've supported the team for 30 years through good and bad. How many years does this said "king" need to groom a respectable football team? I remember "back in the day" complaining about how "we" (Michigan) would always be 8-3 or 9-2 and could never go undefeated or have just one loss. Now we all hope to be.500 or better with this regime. It's not ONE man's fault, but ONE man is ultimately responsible. Is that fair? Maybe not, but it's a fact. The problem with the defense is there is absolutely zero talent and will take another 3 years to recruit and build. I for one don't want to see another "Detroit Lions" decade of misfortunes here in A2. Bottom Line (and me included): Michigan fans are SPOILED due to the success of Bo, Gary (short lived) and Lloyd.
D21
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 5:12 p.m.
Justin Boren is looking smarter every day!
larry kramer
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 4:35 p.m.
nobody is teaching these great athletes how to tackle. I learned in 10th grade! I wish a real football player (an old wolverine) would tell us how this defense got to where it is. they seem to have a football IQ approaching dull-normal.
mgoBart
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:52 p.m.
Does Michigan still have 5 DB's to run the 3-3-5? Are there open tryouts this week for defensive backs? Maybe Michigan can get lucky again and find another walk on to play defense back, since they have not had much luck recruiting any.
Joe
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:49 p.m.
Anyone know why Turner and Emilien left?
Buster W.
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:49 p.m.
Illinois' OC, QB and Receiver coaches are going to look like complete geniuses on Saturday. IL RB's can take the rest of the week off. IL will pass, pass, pass, pass some more.
leaguebus
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:46 p.m.
This is from a Sports Illustrated article on Jon Gruden. "At Dayton, Jon declared in a questionnaire that he wanted to be the head coach at Michigan by age 39."
funkwazzie
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:44 p.m.
Enough with the, "they should use the 4-3". Um...if I remember correctly they tried that 2 years ago. Anyone remember how well that worked? Exactly, it didn't. Last year they tried 3-4 hybrid. That didn't work either. This year 3-3-5 hybrid. I don't even need to say how well that's worked. The point is, nothing has worked. The defensive coaching is HORRIBLE!!! period. And we have walk-ons starting! that's right, walk-ons. Guys that weren't even recruited by division 1 schools. That is REDICULOUS! I'm sure they could convince some kid from a mac school to come play. Then again all their defensive recruits leave for some reason. They don't need to hire "great" d coaches, just ones that know how to coach.
tim
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:22 p.m.
Great -- -- who's going to play the waterboy?
Macabre Sunset
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:06 p.m.
This is true. There is a bright side to Rodriguez. He has as many MAC wins here (4) as he does Big Ten wins. I think we've found the right conference for him after November 27.
truebluefan
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 3:01 p.m.
If Martin's ankles are still an issue on Saturday, I think it would be extremely wise to use a 4-3 D. Also, we need to take chances with LB and safety blitzes to generate pressure on the QB. Otherwise Scheelhaase will have a field day against our corners.
theteamtheteamtheteam
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:54 p.m.
FYI, at least coach RR is dominating the MAC 4-1 in 3 years. Keep up the tradition. How pathetic.
clarklaker
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:30 p.m.
Its sad to see more attrition with the defense.That being said they were still showing a HUGE lack of improvement as the season has progressed. Michigans defensive coaching staff should be replaced at the end of the season.David Brandon would be wise to take a very close look at the next coaching staff. P.S. go to a 4-3 for the ill game what is there to loose it cant get any worse.
braves03
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:24 p.m.
How come Al Backey #38 can't get any playing time at CB? He's a red shirt Freshmen from Ypsi who can play the position. He is more then just a Special Teams player. Come on RR, give the kid a chance!!! He can't do any worse then the rest of the defense!
P U MSU
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:22 p.m.
Ugh, again with the Harbaugh talk. HE will be in the NFL. HE wants to coach in the NFL. Why bring him in for him to leave within a couple of years. Please, enough with the Harbaugh talk.
P U MSU
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:20 p.m.
john, You take the starting quarterback out of any offense and they are a worse team. Take star players out of the offense and they are even worse. We seen how good Georgia was without A. J. Green. Let's take LeMichael James out of Oregons offense. I understand where you are coming from, but it is not specific to a RR offense.
ChelseaBob
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:19 p.m.
Up until now RR excuse was the D players are too slow. I don't know why some reporter hasn't asked him why he recruited such slow defensive players. The narrative from now until the merciful end of this season will be injuries. Not his fault because of injuries, but wait til next year. Fortunately Brandon won't be buying it. Have we signed Harbaugh yet?
Sean T.
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:16 p.m.
Well said, johnnya2.
johnnya2
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 2:03 p.m.
Nobody blames RRod for injuries, BUT I will damn well blame him the first time I hear the secondary was torched BECAUSE of injuries. This is football. If this is the first he learned that there will be injuries, he needs to fired for that alone. I will live by Lloyds philosophy. The expectation is of the position, not the player. This is the major problem with RRods system both offensively and defensively. It is too dependent on a certain player, where as quality coaches can fill voids when injuries happen. If you look at the facts, how many games has Denard left the game because of an injury? In Rich Rods biggest game ever (a chance to play for a national championship) he can not win because of an injury to Pat White.
ChrisW
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 1:57 p.m.
Given how bad our secondary is, I don't see how this hurts. I think we should start bumping opposing receivers on the line to screw up their timing and slow them down.
Ryan
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 1:45 p.m.
I thought part of the Barwis Advantage is that you are in such superior shape compared to any other team that you do not get hurt or tackle for that matter? Is this at least a four year project like the RichRod experiment?
timeatwork
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 1:20 p.m.
"A guy fell down in front of him, and I dont think he saw it and got rolled up, Rodriguez said. The unfortunate part is its practice, and were not even tackling in practice. I haven't seem much tackling during the games either....ZING!
heartbreakM
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 1:06 p.m.
Now you're talking Tater!! Those Lisfranc injuries are quite bad. Hope Floyd can recover.
Sean T.
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 1:04 p.m.
I understand that we're not tackling because of injury but the last thing we should not be doing is not practicing tackling. I hope we're hitting the bags at least.
chimarathon
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 1:03 p.m.
Does it honestly really matter? You could switch out the entire secondary for some high school kids and it wouldn't be any worse (and maybe even better)
Sean T.
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 1:02 p.m.
This is terrible, maybe we can use some of the very little used RB's we have and make them play in the secondary. Playing time, is playing time.
michboy40
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:59 p.m.
Pretty soon, Craig Roh will be covering outside receivers...he's already being asked to cover slots and RB's at times. Ridiculous. It will be a miricle if we win again this year.
Mark
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:56 p.m.
Not too worried about this injury. I was never impressed with Floyd on the field. Just please tell me we will do some more press coverage to force opposing QB's to make accurate throws. I am sick and tired of the backpedaling and slow reacting to recievers route running. If this D is so fast, then press coverage/ man coverage is our best bet! If our stategy doesn't change, then I don't care who is starting at DB, we are doomed from the get go!
uptodate citizen
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:50 p.m.
I count 23 "secondary" on the roster....is there hope?
True_Wolverine_Fan
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:39 p.m.
RR is a terrible coach. He ruined JT's ankle! It's his fault!
P U MSU
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:24 p.m.
This sucks.
Mick52
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:21 p.m.
Darn
smokeblwr
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:14 p.m.
I think the best defense for the rest of the season is an onside kick.
coldtoes
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : 12:10 p.m.
abort abort abort...............mission. return to base. mission failed. WTF is this team cursed? GO BRANDON!
81wolverine
Wed, Nov 3, 2010 : noon
That's bad. Just what Michigan's D didn't need. I hope his injury isn't serious and that he'll be back 100% by spring. But, the exodus of players and attrition is killing us. The coaches really need to ramp up the recruiting effort to get some good players in this class. Yes, it will be nice to have both Floyd and Woolfolk back next year, but who else will depart before then?