Gardner, a redshirt senior, will start at quarterback against Rutgers on the road Saturday night. He had started 16 consecutive regular-season games before last week. Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
Michigan coach Brady Hoke, still reeling for allowing quarterback Shane Morris to return to the field after he showed symptoms of a concussion, moved Devin Gardner back into the starting role Wednesday.
Hoke said he takes responsibility for communication issues that allowed Morris back into last Saturday’s game — a 30-14 loss at home to Minnesota that dropped the Wolverines to 2-3.
But Hoke reiterated that it’s not his decision to determine when players are healthy enough to play. He declined to clear up any discrepancies between his account and a statement released by athletic director Dave Brandon at 12:50 a.m. Tuesday.
“When you’re a leader you have to take responsibility,” Hoke said. “I take responsibility for our student-athletes, and I take it for their health and welfare.”
Gardner, a redshirt senior, will start at quarterback against Rutgers on the road Saturday night. He had started 16 consecutive regular-season games before last week.
Morris, who suffered a high-ankle sprain in addition to the head injury Saturday, wasn’t listed by Hoke as an option for Saturday.
Contradicting comments from Hoke made on Monday, Brandon said in a statement sent past midnight Tuesday that mistakes were made in Morris’ “probable, minor concussion.”
“Shane came off the field after the following play and was reassessed by the head athletic trainer for the ankle injury,” Brandon said. “Since the athletic trainer had not seen the hit to the chin and was not aware that a neurological evaluation was necessary, he cleared Shane for one additional play.”
Hoke said Wednesday that he still has a strong relationship with his boss.
“This is a big family, this university is. That’s the way we look at it,” Hoke said. “The statement itself is what we stand by.”
Hoke declined to comment on whether he thought the mistakes admitted by the athletic department were worthy of a punishment. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany spoke to members of the athletic department Tuesday, but the league won’t be handing out any penalties for breaking a conferencewide concussion policy, according to ESPN.com.
U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), the co-founder of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, wrote a letter to Delany on Tuesday asking him to investigate Michigan’s actions.
Brandon and the university’s president, Mark Schlissel, both promised to revise the program’s procedures for dealing with injured players, especially head injuries, during games. A medical professional will be in the press box or video booth with “the ability to communicate with medical personnel on the sidelines” and Brandon said he will examine Michigan’s “sideline communication processes.”
Hoke said he doesn’t plan to wear a headset in the future to facilitate that process. He is one of only a few head coaches in college football who doesn’t wear a headset.
“That’s something I’ve explained a lot. It allows me to coach guys on the sideline,” Hoke said. “I’ve got a guy right behind me who is telling me everything that I need to know. I think it helps when you want to be hands-on.”
