Michigan Football vs Iowa: Midweek injury updates
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Michigan Football will host the Iowa Hawkeyes on Saturday afternoon at The Big House, and some of the Wolverines’ significant contributors may or may not be able to suit up for the Big Ten opener.
The Big Ten has updated its rules surrounding the conference injury reports this season. Teams no longer have to provide an injury report for non-conference games — only Big Ten matchups require teams to submit injury reports. That part is a bit silly to me, but the one thing the conference updated that is a major positive is that teams must now submit multiple injury reports each week. For games being played on a Saturday, teams must submit an injury report on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and two hours before kickoff on Saturday.
With that said, we have our first midweek injury report of the year for the Wolverines:
Out
- WR Braydon Alford
- RB Micah Ka’apana
- RB Jonathan Brown
- DE Julius Holly
- OL Ace Hamilton
- OL Andrew Babalola
Doubtful
- OL Manuel Beigel
Questionable
- Edge rusher Dom Nichols
- CB Zeke Berry
- OL Andrew Sprague
- WR Logan Forbes
First off, it’s really great to not see running back Jordan Marshall anywhere on the injury report. He left the game last week against UTEP and never returned. Head coach Kyle Whittingham said earlier this week that he expected Marshall to play against Iowa, so him not being anywhere to be seen on the injury report is reassuring.
Unfortunately, Babalola is still not ready to return after a setback in his recovery. And it’s also not a good sign that Beigel, the Rhino (sixth man) for the offensive line, is listed as doubtful. Michigan will likely rely on a guy like Avery Gach if Beigel is unable to play.
Even though he’s listed as questionable, Berry is likely to play against the Hawkeyes, as Whittingham said earlier this week. It’s a bit of a surprise to see Nichols end up on the injury report, as he played last week against the Miners and didn’t appear to suffer an injury. Hopefully he’s good to go this weekend.
Finally, Sprague’s status being questionable is actually a positive sign. From everything we’ve been told, it is really unclear when he will be able to return from whatever it is he’s dealing with. Being deemed questionable means there’s at least a chance that he plays this weekend. The Wolverines could really use their best right tackle against the Hawkeyes this weekend.
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