mgoblog Rich Rodriguez Tate Forcier WTKA

Threet was Pushed Out?

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According to a few sources, most notably Brian from mgoblog, Steven Threet's departure from Michigan might not have been as simple as first thought. Brian appeared live on WTKA yesterday afternoon (I'm still efforting the audio from the broadcast), where he sat down with John U. Bacon and talked about, among other things, Steven Threet.

The details of the meeting Rodriguez had with Threet at some point a few weeks ago are sketchy, but the gist of the discussion was that Forcier was going to get the bulk (or all) of the snaps for spring drills with the first team, and that Threet might be better served elsewhere as a starting QB contender.

Two things bother me about this.

First of all, how does Rodriguez know that Forcier is going to be any better of an option than Threet was without ever seeing him take a collegiate snap?

And secondly, why would he try and muscle out a kid who's seen a year of action under his system, and could very easily serve as a competent and capable backup?

I'm not going to speculate. And I trust that Brian would not speculate as well, especially on live air. But if either one of those questions results in Rodriguez either not feeling comfortable with Threet on the roster, or Threet not feeling comfortable playing second fiddle to some new guy, than it may be for the best that Threet seek greener pastures.

But I really hope that Rodriguez didn't try and muscle Threet out of town based solely on the fact that he didn't perform as well as most would have hoped in 2008. And it doesn't make a whole lot of sense given that we've still not seen Forcier throw a pass in a college practice yet.

We had our chance to take a number of shots at Threet last year when the wheels were falling off the season, and we did. But it was never in the spirit of not liking the kid, we'd be critical of anyone who steps in as the QB.

And for the record, I'm still not at all convinced that Forcier or Robinson are going to take Michigan to promised land. But I will conclude, even now, that we're in better hands than we were a year ago at this time.
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1 comment

  1. Markus6:14 PM

    Great post.

    It would make zero sense for Rodriguez to recommend any such thing (transferring) to Steve Threet, considering the alternatives, as good as they *might* be. Forcier and Robinson are known quantities at the high school level, but still unknown values for Div 1 Big Ten college football. According to RR and staff, Threet practiced well, but frequently played below expectations/ability during games.
    Entering 2009 Threet would have been given every opportunity to compete (and RR eluded to inreased QB competition now on signing day 2009). It makes no sense to run off the most experienced players in favor of less experienced. I suspect Steve came to his own conclusions about his future and I wish him good luck. I'm sure the decision was very, very difficult for Steve.

    I do think it is interesting, however, to observe history repeating itself for Rodriguez with respect to his quarterbacks. At WVU in 2001 he had Brad Lewis and Scott McBrien at QB, both pro set QBs, Lewis the returning starter. Both had similar awful throwing accuracy that year (50% and below) as Threet did. They threw a crap load of INTs too. In 2002, Lewis graduated, but McBrien, the heir apparent starter, transferred to Maryland. Rasheed Marshall took over and WVU went on to utterly destroy opponents with a bonecrushing ground game in Year 2. The passing game was more accurate, but fewer passing TDs were scored.

    I don't think RR gives a damn about seniority or incumbents. He cares about getting as many guys read to play as possible at each position and playing the best of the lot.

    That's sort of a new approach for Michigan football, in my opinion. Because under Carr we'd typically not see that 4 start lineman recruit until his junior year and he'd frequently be ill experienced because Michigan rarely decisively won games to afford 2nd and 3rd string players much game time.

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