Published Oct 4, 2022
Michigan Football Mailbag: Injury report, where's the read option?
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Brandon Justice  •  Maize&BlueReview
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Michigan football is undefeated, with plenty of its season still ahead.

Each week, we'll open the floor up to questions you have surrounding the football program heading into Saturday's matchups.

To submit questions, either post a comment on the mailbag thread in The Den or tweet me @BrandonJustice_.

Let's begin.

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From Macdaddy7657: How long before CJ Stokes gets out of the dog house?

Freshman running back CJ Stokes couldn't have had a better start as a freshman back, clearly behind two highly touted backs in Blake Corum & Donovan Edwards.

When Edwards went down with an ankle injury, Stokes had a chance to be Corum's spell but fumbled the ball on his first carry. He hasn't had a carry since.

First, I wouldn't undoubtedly say he's in the "dog house" as much as I think this was Michigan's plan all along: roll out Corum & Edwards and nobody else unless we have to. That duo is as important as any skill player on the offense--Corum more than any.

Still, to see Stokes completely erased from the offensive game plan likely isn't a coincidence. Maybe he would land a touch or two at most a game in garbage time.

The thing is, Michigan hasn't had much garbage time in its last two games.

When that garbage time comes, we may have an answer on Stokes' status.

From jimUMfan: "Is the read option pretty much over for J.J. McCarthy Obviously, with Cade out, they can't take many chances with JJ, but it's a shame it's been almost nonexistent."

Did you know J.J. McCarthy, explicitly used as a run threat a season ago, has only two scrambles in 2022?

According to Pro Football Focus, the sophomore has 86 designed run yards, but 50 of those yards came against Colorado State.

Since Cade McNamara's potentially season-ending leg injury against UConn in Week 3, McCarthy's had only four designed runs. Against Iowa, he had two, one gap and one zone.

Michigan isn't risking the protection of the program's future, but I think it's safe to assume they understand if he's healthy for the heavyweight matchups, he might have to take some punches to win.

If I had to guess, the staff feels comfortable leaving those designed runs bottled up until the game plan calls for them more frequently, which I'd anticipate is in come-behind settings or an adjustment based on what the opposing defense is showing.

So, no, I don't think it's "pretty much over," but I don't anticipate seeing a ton of it against Indiana, which might be the ideal opponent for McCarthy to find rhythm in his deep ball.

Michigan State, Ohio State, and Penn State are different game plans and stories.

From @AvikRoy on Twitter: What's Roman Wilson's injury status? Did he suffer a concussion?

Roman Wilson is a pivotal part of this offense's lifeline through five games, scoring three touchdowns with several explosive plays as J.J. McCarthy's favorite target so far.

The junior suffered an injury on Saturday, and while we didn't get much clarity from Jim Harbaugh, he answered the same question at his weekly press conference on Monday.

Did you see the play?

"Yeah, I saw it."

What happened on that play?

"Same thing you saw."

He's OK?

"Think so. Once again, talked about everybody's health status. It's not my job to do."

So, we don't have an answer, and speculating on injuries is an unforgiving and dangerous business.

Michigan will always be private with their injuries. We still have no answers from the program or its head coach on Erick All -- Harbaugh said he has "no update" on All's status after missing two games -- we also have no update on LB Nikhai Hill-Green, who Harbaugh said had a minor hamstring injury before the season. Yet, Hill-Green has missed all five of U-M's games.

We'll get our answer on Michigan's injury report the same day we do every week: game day, based on the travel roster since it's an away game.

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