Purdue Injury Report Comment Count

Tim

Your weekly dose of who's in and out for the weekend's game.

[Press Release]

University of Michigan Football Injury Report

For the Purdue Game (Saturday, Nov. 7)

Out

David Molk (knee)

Martavious Odoms (knee)

Questionable (50 percent chance of playing)

Greg Banks (foot)

Probable (75 percent chance of playing)

Zac Johnson (shoulder)

In addition, head coach Rich Rodriguez announced the game captains for the game at Purdue: linebacker Stevie Brown, defensive end Tim North, left tackle Mark Ortmann and slot receiver Ricky Reyes.

[/Press Release]

We already knew about Molk, as he's done for the year. At his press conference yesterday, Rodriguez seemed moderately optimistic about Odoms's chances of playing. Losing the team's best slot player is a downer.

As the captains go, I wondered earlier today if Ortmann would be named a game captain to spite the people who said he should be suspended. Not sure if that's the motivation, but the senior is indeed a captain.

Comments

Bando Calrissian

November 5th, 2009 at 9:07 PM ^

Grady is a game captain multiple times after spending time in jail during the offseason, and Ortmann is a game captain one game after he gets away with punching a guy in the junk.

OK.

joeyb

November 6th, 2009 at 11:03 AM ^

I think it further builds leadership. If a player knows he never has a chance to be a captain, then why try to be a leader? Also, if a player is a captain that week, they might try to live up to the role a little more than usual.

YouRFree

November 6th, 2009 at 5:24 PM ^

Yeah, but not everybody are good leaders. I am not against to have different players (seniors) to try that caption position in the early season. But when the season moves on, the coaches should be able to identify a group of seniors as leaders and stick with them. They can be the backbone of our team. I just simply think this weekly captain thing destroys the chemistry of a team. Besides this leadership mostly will be translated to the performance on the field. If you cannot perform well on the field as a captain (again, for example, like C. Brown in the PSU game), I just don't know how other players would listen to you.

jg2112

November 5th, 2009 at 11:12 PM ^

You can be a band douche as much as you'd like. There is something to be said for paying your debt, moving on, working hard, being a good example, and reaping the rewards of that hard work.

Kevin Grady has played well this year when called upon, and has given great effort on behalf of the team I presume you support. Your effort, on the other hand, to smear his name is unwarranted.

Bando Calrissian

November 5th, 2009 at 11:37 PM ^

I have no doubt he's worked hard this season, and I know he has certainly proved himself on the field when given the opportunity.

That being said, the game captains for this team should be young men who are emblematic of positive leadership on and off the field, especially from the perspective of young people who look up to Michigan football players. I was certainly one of those kids when I was growing up and aspiring to attend and graduate from this great University. A kid who picked up a DUI after being passed out behind the wheel of a car, who was lucky not to have killed himself and others, should not and must not be put forth as one of the chosen representatives of our University, much less multiple times in a season. I don't have a problem with him being a part of this team, I don't have a problem with him being on the field. I do have a problem, however, with him being one of the handful of young people given the symbolic responsibility of a game captain.

It's not smearing his name, it's pointing out what are facts on the public record. I hope Kevin Grady has learned from his mistake. Part of dealing with that, however, should include Kevin being prohibited from being a game captain. I think that's certainly fair given the incredibly dangerous situation in which he was arrested, and the fact that he couldn't adhere to the terms of his probation after the fact and allowed it to be a story a second time.

This is the University of Michigan. We should expect more from our student-athletes, not reward them after they have put our program in a negative light through their off-field transgressions.

jlvanals

November 6th, 2009 at 11:10 AM ^

Kevin Grady smeared his own name. Bando, as far as I know, did not force him to get in a car while drunk and proceed to operate it. And calling Bando a "band douche"? Are we in high school? There is a legitimate argument that Kevin Grady is not exactly leader/captain material and I don't think being in the band has anything to do with that argument's validity. Its a sad day on this site when a member with 4551 pts goes ad homenim on some guy for suggesting that a player who could have killed someone due to a selfish decision might not be an appropriate representative of the football program.

Grow up.

jlvanals

November 6th, 2009 at 11:29 AM ^

You guys negbanged Bando for saying that making a guy who, without a plea bargain would undeniably be a convicted felon right now, a captain is a bad idea. You also neg banged him for saying that making a player who assaulted a member of an opposing team last week a captain was similarly a bad idea. Kevin Grady is a drunk driver who intentionally risked innocent people's lives so he wouldn't have to pay for a cab home from whereever he was drinking at. If there is anything more selfish and immature than this, please advise me of it. Instead of sending a message that some decisions you make in life will follow you for as long as you live, regardless of how hard you work or how sorry you are, such as those that put innocent people's lives at risk, RR chose to say that Kevin Grady is the best this University and team have to offer. I do not necessarily disagree with RR's decision, he knows Kevin better than I do, but I understand Bando's point.

Ortmann hit another player in the testicles. While funny to everyone here, that guy could have been seriously injured from an unchecked act of aggression, completely out of proportion to what the other player did to Ortmann (ie, being a douche and walking over him). Instead of controlling his team and sending a message that, even in the game, RR will not accept thuggish behavior, he makes him a captain. In this instance, I am in complete agreement with Bando and think it is reprehensible and reflects poorly on UM that Ortmann was not suspended, let alone made a captain.

I can't remember who was saying it last week, but I echo it: everything about this team right now is sloppy and desperate. I want Michigan Football to succeed, but not more than I want Coach Rodriguez to develop these young men into quality human beings and productive members of society. This decision to make Ortmann captain, along with the decision not to suspend Ortmann tells these kids that winning is more important than doing things the right way, the hard way. IMO, that is a huge mistake we will eventually pay for one way or another.

Greg McMurtry

November 6th, 2009 at 12:44 PM ^

ever stop to think that maybe by being given the opportunity to be the team captain for a week that it means the player must understand his responsibilities as a student athlete and prove to the rest of the team that amidst some of his past decisions he must now step up and set a good example for his teammates?

jlvanals

November 6th, 2009 at 1:25 PM ^

As I said in my post, I don't necessarily have a problem with Kevin Grady being a captain, I just have a problem with people negbanging someone and calling him a "band douche" just because he makes the valid argument that drunk drivers and recidivist parole violators should not be UM team captains. I don't know Kevin Grady and don't know what he's done on the team/in the community to atone for that. But I can see arguing either way and being a dick to someone for having an opinion contrary to yours is really myopic, IMO.

With Ortmann, I don't think there is any possible way to argue that he should be a team captain a week after he assaulted another player. He hasn't shown the slightest bit of remorse about it and said that he was just "pushing Liuget away" with "an open hand". That is horseshit and obviously a lie as the video is conclusive and unequivocal. Also, he has faced no punishment for this action and that, combined with the fact he hasn't apologized or anything, leads me to the reasonable conclusion that he (and vicariously his coaches) think what he did was not wrong.

He has done nothing to show he "understands his responsibilities" or that he is "stepping up to set a good example for his teammates," therefore I would argue he has no place being a captain.

msoccer10

November 6th, 2009 at 2:19 PM ^

on Ortmann not being a captain for the game. How about Matthews or Minor or Moosman, our other seniors on offense? That being said, since the Big Ten didn't deem it worthy of suspension, I don't have that much of a problem with Rodriguez playing Ortmann. It was unsportsmanlike but not something that should hurt the whole program.

Senator Bluetarsky

November 6th, 2009 at 8:09 PM ^

The Illinois player affected had, I recall watching, deliberately thrust his nether region into Ortmann's face while celebrating excessively after an Illinois key play. At best, that was an unflagged taunt. At worst, Ortmann took a donger to the face. You can't blame Ortmann for attempting to exercise the psych demons from the horrific largeosity of this tragedy and ultimately fight for the survival of his very soul. He took a donger TO THE FACE man. A future shooting incident has been averted. Both refs and coaches alike seem to have recognized the necessity of this street justice dispensed player-a-dongmaster. Let it go.