Maryland @ Michigan, Saturday, October 6th, Noon EDT, ABC National/espn3 video

[Jeff Buchanan]

Hard to understand why this is ABC's national noon game while Bama and Arky kick off in lovely Fayetteville at the same time.

[Whitley]

Cross promotion maybe? Pretty close to DC if something breaks....could promote Sunday new programs?

[Hannibal]

I don't know if Gary is healthy enough to play but they should sit him regardless. It looks like he has a long term shoulder issue that would benefit from sitting a week.

[Hannibal]

17.5 point spread seems about right. Maryland could win this one but they shouldn't.

[hack]

I don't know if Gary is healthy enough to play but they should sit him regardless. It looks like he has a long term shoulder issue that would benefit from sitting a week.

Agreed. Always the same thing.

[Jeff Buchanan]

There was a post on mgoboard inquiring if anyone knew the details of Gary's shoulder issue. One poster offered that it was probably a Labrum tear. Another said he'd seen Gary leave the locker room at NW with a "Don Joy shoulder stabilizer." I know a bit about these things. So, I posted a link to a picture of it and asked, "like this?"

I went on to note that this kind of stabilizer was not for a Labrum injury but rather it provides shoulder immobilization and controlled range of motion for glenohumeral dislocations/ subluxations, rotator cuff tears and acromioclavicular separations. The shoulder brace is designed to protect and stabilize the shoulder post-injury and post-operatively. Gary would not be playing with this kind of injury. It does no good to immobilize a Labrum tear. he might have had a shoulder sling to keep the shoulder joint quiet and I suspect that is what the observer who posted about it saw.

I added that from what I'd been reading, the thought that Gary had a Labrum injury or SLAP was probably correct. A SLAP tear or SLAP lesion is an injury to the glenoid labrum (fibrocartilaginous rim attached around the margin of the glenoid cavity). SLAP is an acronym for "superior labral tear from anterior to posterior".

There are 7 major classifications of a SLAP and 4 subcategories of the worst one. Gary has a either a type I or II (minor) if he is playing at all and he is. These are non-surgical Labrum injuries. They don't progress and worsening is unlikely. He could have a completely new Labrum injury but not a worsening of the existing one. The risk of worsening (not possible) or new (possible) Labrum tear is low and that is why he is playing but sparingly.

The original post that I responded to and my response were both deleted by the mods. That tells me that a Labrum injury is probably what Gary is dealing with. Cortisone injections and pain relievers do the trick on these. You can only inject once every 3 months at most due to the potential for tissue damage with too much of that stuff. So, if he had one at the start of camp in August, he can have another in November. After the season, he'll probably get arthroscopy to evaluate and repair the injury if that is necessary. You can only learn so much from an MRI. Ortho Docs I know want to see injuries like this with their own eyes and then decide what to do about it. Labrum tears are easily repaired surgically but there is a long rehab usually about 6 months.

One caveat to the above. At some point in Gary's career, he could have suffered a shoulder dislocation and the injury was reduced (put back in the joint). People who suffer these usually have repeats - you just put it back in place. You would wear a Don Joy type Immobilizer if this happened during the NW game. The way to stop these from happening is by a surgical tightening of the capsule that holds the arm bone in the joint socket. I think this type injury - chronically dislocating the shoulder - is less likely than a Labrum tear but it could be this kind of injury. I don't think the docs would clear him to play with this sort of chronic condition. They would have told him if he wants to play, it needs to be surgically fixed with the attendant long rehab. So, there is that.

[WingsFan]

I have had SLAP tears in both shoulders. Your shoulders in general are one of the weakest parts of the body. Lifting weights all those years in my case, repetitive stress can lead to tears and other injuries. It took 6-8 months for me basically to use my arms again, though my range of motion will never be the same. Small potatoes unless your playing sports like young Gary, it sucks. He needs rest or surgery IMO

[Detroit Dan]

I don't know if Gary is healthy enough to play but they should sit him regardless. It looks like he has a long term shoulder issue that would benefit from sitting a week.

Good fodder for discussion, but we know so little compared to the coaching staff and medical team that it's foolish to form a strong opinion.

[Detroit Dan]

Schedule is shaping up pretty well. The Northwestern game got the team's attention. Maryland would be an easy one to overlook, but it's at home so we have that plus the talent advantage. Then we get Wisconsin at home, which again is to our advantage. The team is fired up for the MSU game, and I think that will help to negate the road disadvantage. Plus, we have been screwed quite a bit by officiating so far this year, so hopefully the B1G will be primed to ensure that doesn't happen again in a high profile game. Finally, the Penn State game back at home could find us with a lot of momentum, plus we get a bye week before Penn State to strategize and Rutgers the week after to not worry about.

[WingsFan]

Plus, we have been screwed quite a bit by officiating so far this year, so hopefully the B1G will be primed to ensure that doesn't happen again in a high profile game.

This year, last year, the year before that, the Rose Bowl (pick any year) Spartan time clock Bob, Desmond Tripped, Charkle White Fumble, Woodson PI


JT was Short (whole game), Hack guaranteed me we would get 'make up calls' the next year.

Ever watch the Deroit Lions? How many times have they been screwed over by officiating? Are they getting make up calls, no.

See this isn't basketball and there are no make up calls. Michigan is being called 'Detroit Lions West' for a reason.

Harbaugh said he is still waited on word from the B10 on that ludicrous call. Don't expect much, don't really care.

Getting F'd over time after time is normal around here. fucking refs

[WingsFan]

For those of you who didn't see it, this was the hold on Higdon #22 in the 4th - after a 29 yard gain. Could have cost us the game.

[iam416]

The Worldwide Anti-M Conspiracy is really quite amazing. Not even Tennessee gets screwed over in every single game ever. Brian referenced the 2008 nFw game in his brief write-up -- and I vaguely recalled that it was a pretty good piece -- and it was. Misery is easy to write about. What I forgot, though, was that M was screwed by the refs in that game. I actually LOL'd when I read that. An eternal truth. God bless the the WWAMC!

[hack]

And, yet, still, that was called a hold on Higdon. Nobody needs to allege a grand conspiracy to note the silliness of that call. You do need to allege one if you very much do NOT want to note the silliness of that call.

[iam416]

Getting F'd over time after time is normal around here. fucking refs

[hack]

Apologies for that, WF. I imagined that after that insane game in which every single damn 50/50 call went for OSU, extending or aborting four seaparate drives, that it would be impossible for Michigan not to see some serious homecooking the next time. I was wrong about that. Especially since the Big Ten knew it, and sent somebody to Teddy Greenstein to do a single-source story defending itself.

Twitter traffic indicates Brian's found some serious data on the holding calls problem. For the amount of pressure the UM DL gets, the amount of holding calls is way, way off-the-charts low compared with the rest of the conference. It's insane, looking back at the '16 line, that they went something like 5 weeks in a row in conference play without drawing a single holding flag. Especially given what happened in the OSU game.

Michigan only plays football on the field, and likes it that way, and won't stoop to the levels of OSU or Scott Frost. So it'll be good if folks like Brian come up with rigorous data.