Michigan Football, Team 139, 2018 Season

[Jeff Buchanan]

As of this morning, the only media outlets reporting Black's injury are Yoder/Chat Sports, Detroit Sports Nation (??). Yoder gets a lot of things wrong hoping to be the first guy with the story. I'm not familiar with Detroit Sports Nation. So far, none of the major outlets are reporting anything on Black one way or the other. umbig11, a usually reliable insider at mgo has heard the rumor but doesn't know anything beyond that. There's an open practice today. Guess we'll no more after that. If true, Black is going to be one of those could have been great stories that M seems to be famous for.

Appears that if Black is injured, Nico Collins will step up to starter along with DPJ. Behind that is Junior, Nate Schoenle and Freshman, Ronnie Bell. Have not heard rumors of any of the other 2018 class of excellent wide receivers mentioned much, maybe a bit on Oliver Martin.

[iam416]

Oliver Martin was one of the most underrated recruits of alltime. Hard to imagine him not being spectacular.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Two mentionworthy tid-bits: Yoder has gone private on his account. Mike Spaith at Rivals - a reliable source - is quoted as saying via twitter we aren't going to know anything one way or the other re Black.

Here's some speculation: Somebody might have seen him go down during Saturday's practice - maybe from a vantage point outside the practice field because the practices are closed. Regardless, there might have been something that was observed that sparked the rumor. We've seen this before where the truth is simply not known. I've seen it go both ways - the guy is hurt or he's not and it was nothing more than some ass-hole who likes watching fans go nutz over pre-big game reports like this. Anyway, there is a lot of doubt creeping in about the Chat Sports posts on this.

While Black would be a pretty big loss, DPJ, Nico Collins and Oliver Martin all got shout outs as making strides and McElwain reportedly has had a very positive impact on the WR unit. If Balck is injured it just sucks for the guy. So much promise and so much bad luck.

[drok]

Black injury confirmed via multiple reports now from Michigan. Foot injury. Severity unknown.

[Jeff Buchanan]

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2018/08/26/michigan-football-tarik-black-foot/1104508002/

[Jeff Buchanan]

So we know there is a foot injury. It's the right foot. Last season it was the left. I never saw any details of Black's injury reported in 2017. That he was out for the entire season indicates it was a significant injury (a fracture of some type - there are several of these) involving surgical correction (probably pinning). If you're curious, you can go to the link below and look around.

Here's what probably happens when an obvious injury to the foot occurs: (1) On field staff (trainers and probably the doc who is almost certainly going to be an orthopedist) do an immediate examination. (2) Regardless of how serious the initial injury appears to be, there is going to be an immediate X-Ray done. So this much is known by the training and medical staff after the exam and X-Ray: Black has a (a) A broken toe. (b) A stress fracture of one of the bones of the foot. (c) a non-displaced fx of one of the bones of the foot. The most likely in both cases is a metatarsal and probably the 5th - it is the most commonly fractured metatarsal in athletes. (d) A displaced metatarsal fracture. In an athlete like Black, these are going to be surgically repaired. (e) Variations of the most common metatarsal fx present in degrees of severity. (f) There are also other different kinds of fractures of the various bones of the foot that are pretty serious. If Black has one of these he'll be out for the season.

It's hard to tell from the press release what is known by the M staff but it is certainly way more than we know right now. If it's a toe fracture, he can tape it and could play but these are painful if the great toe is inovlved, less so if its one of the other toes. If it's a metatarsal fx and the extent of it (stress, non-displaced or displaced) is not clear on XR, a MRI will reveal the extent. I'd like to think this is where we are and that is the glass half full type view. IOW, the medical staff is evaluating the MRI, treatment approach and how long Black will be out.

If surgery is not required, the healing process in a metatarsal fx and return to unrestricted activity can take from 4w to 6m. So, he's not going to play v. ND, might play (best case) v. Nebraska and (worst case) may not play during the regular or post season.

Has to be tough for the guy. He was obviously excited to be playing again and seemed to be having a great camp.

https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/diseas...foot-fractures

[Jeff Buchanan]

umbig11 posted about 45 minutes ago at mgo that after today's MRI, Black is out 6-8w. If true and he usually is spot on, it's not a significant fx, e.g, a displaced foot fx or worse. A surgical pinning does not heal that fast such that unrestricted activity is doable in that time frame. It's more than a broken toe. I'd guess best case is a soft tissue injury to the ligaments of the ankle/foot or a stress fx, worst case a non-displaced fx of the one of the metatarsals.

I'd say that's good news considering the dire possibilities for the guy. Next man up. Nico? DPJ? Here's your chance to shine.

I'd add out of the myriad decent comments I've seen posted around the web on this, the impact on the offense is not insignificant but also not devastating ...... e.g., the loss of Patterson, Higdon or a WR in that order probably describes, in descending order, the impact on the offense. Somebody wrote there may be less opportunities for a 4 WR set. I'm not sure about that. A while back, after McDoom's then Crawford's transfer, Ambry Thomas was seen working with the wide receiver unit. He was a two way player in HS and played WR and CB (the current unit he has been working with that has a ton of depth). Supposedly has the tools.

[Hannibal]

So we lost our only decent receiver for probably the season. Fucking figures.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, since, IYO, M's losing five games, it's doubtful he would have turned any of those losses into wins anyway. No big deal.

[WM Wolverine]

Our TEs can all split out wide, we lost a game breaker but should be able to recover... Two transfers at WR too, certainly hurts depth... Yes, hurts ability to go 4 wide though I like our TEs so much I'd rarely take them off the field

[Jeff Buchanan]

Seriously, WR depth isn't great, Bob. It's not the best thing that could have happened. OTH, there are dudes that can step up, get some playing time, live reps and experience. Can't beat that. Look at the bright side.

[WingsFan]

[Hannibal]

Seriously, WR depth isn't great, Bob. It's not the best thing that could have happened. OTH, there are dudes that can step up, get some playing time, live reps and experience. Can't beat that. Look at the bright side.

The Nate Schoenle era begins September 1st!!!!

[WingsFan]

Rashon Gary is fully dressed, but not participating in skill position drills at (open) practice.

[Jeff Buchanan]

That would seem pretty routine to me. He may or may not be dealing with a booboo. Either way, you save these kinds of players for game time.