Following an ugly loss to Iowa, the Michigan Wolverines received some pretty devastating news earlier this week, as quarterback Wilton Speight was reportedly ruled out for the remainder of the regular season with a broken collarbone. However, Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan staff have refused to acknowledge an extended absence for the starting signal-caller, and the head coach doubled down on Thursday.
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Harbaugh went on WXYT-FM (97.1) radio in Detroit and had this to say about Speight's injury status (h/t Detroit Free Press):
"We'll see how he feels today. It's really been a day-by-day thing, he's progressing. I know some people have said he's out for the year and I have not heard that from the doctors. We'll see how he is today and that's were we're at. It's a day-by-day thing right now."
As you can see, Harbaugh is insistent that Speight isn't even ruled out for this week against Indiana, much less the season finale in Columbus against Ohio State. Harbaugh continued in leaning on the official word from doctors around the program:
"The way it works is the doctors are in control. They say if a player's available and then it's the trainer's job to give the coach options and get the player feeling as good as they can be. Then it's my job to look at the functionality and see who the best player is for our team in that particular practice or game. But our doctors or our trainer are not going to put a player out on the field if hey can make an injury worse or if they're not in a position to protect themselves."
It should be noted that Jim Harbaugh is famous for gamesmanship in that the team rarely releases any sort of specific injury information, and that places a bit of shade over these comments. Still, there is at least a possibility that Speight returns until he is officially ruled out, and unless that takes place, the John O'Korn hype train must remain (somewhat) muted.
