Mailbag question: Devin losing his red-shirt

Posted at 12:00pm — 9/8/2010

Mailbag question: Devin losing his red-shirt

Guys,

With the one play that Devin Gardner played, I’m guessing a lot of Michigan fans are wondering if that one play burned Devin’s red shirt. Not that I trust the source, but Wikipedia states “…However, NCAA rules are quite clear on the use of red-shirt status: any participation in any competition counts as a season of eligibility. For example, even a single play in a football game counts as participation for an entire season, so coaches cannot play red-shirt players at the end of a game simply to get them some experience…”

Would you explain the red shirt rule?

Would you also comment on the decision to bring in Devin instead of Tate? It may be as simple as Devin is number two on the depth chart, but I was thinking that Tate would have come in to protect Devin’s red shirt in case Denard stays healthy all year. Maybe Tate is a distant 3rd on the depth chart?

Thanks for a great website. Keep up the great work, and Go Blue!

Cam
Redondo Beach, CA

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Thanks for the question and helping our site by providing a format for important discussion. This week will bring plenty of inquiries about red-shirts, Tate, and Notre Dame, so we will get to work and again, thank you for being a part of GBMWolverine.

Here is the NCAA explanation.

The term “red-shirt” is used to describe a student-athlete who does not participate in competition in a sport for an entire academic year. If you do not compete in a sport the entire academic year, you have not used a season of competition. For example, if you are a qualifier, and you attend a four-year college your freshman year, and you practice but do not compete against outside competition, you would still have the next four years to play four seasons of competition. End of explanation-

So yes, one single play equals a loss of red shirt status.

There are a few exceptions for the rule such as if a player plays in the game and then gets hurt where he could possible use a medical red-shirt for missing significant time.

The GBMWolverine staff believes that Saturday’s injury replacement play will not be the only play that we see Devin this year. All along we have strongly discounted the idea that Devin would red-shirt, even with perfect health of the other quarterbacks.

This one play takes all doubt out of the quarterback equation for the entire year. So now the question shifts from will Devin play to how will Devin be used adequately to help the team and not waste an entire year on a few plays?

There are a few possibilities for using Devin Gardner instead of Tate Forcier after Denard’s injury.

Devin Gardner might have beaten Tate Forcier out for the back-up spot, in fact that is what we believe to be the most likely scenario. This summer and fall we believe Devin took the next step up and has shown his athletic ability and all he needs to do now is learn the offense and learn how to read the defensive coverage better. Thinking outside the box, with little preparation Devin could be a big-time receiver and could help on a few select important plays this year.

There could be an academic or discipline problem as well regarding Tate, we really like to stay away from commenting on such speculation because such concerns are (more correctly should be) private issues. We decline comments on rumors floating around about academics, as followed another Wolverine player recently.
It is possible that the coaching staff sees Devin Gardner as the future and wants to get him ready as soon as possible. In this offense a team needs a back-up ready to go at any time, especially when the quarterback is running the ball as much as Denard ran against UConn.

As stated before, anything can happen when running your quarterback and a linebacker or safety is looking to knock his head off.

Written by GBMWolverine Staff

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