Maybe the mystery is finally over, if the Twitter account @QBForce — the account for the Forcier family — can be believed.

Over the last few weeks, there's been plenty of speculation about whether or not sophomore quarterback Tate Forcier would stay with the University of Michigan football program. Granted, it certainly wasn't the panic that the Wolverine fan base invested in the "will-he-stay, will-he-go" drama surrounding the man who sent Forcier to the bench, fellow soph Denard Robinson, who actually carried his Heisman campaign through most of the regular season before it lost momentum — unlike Forcier in 2009.

But the fans — and beat writers — were still interested. Enough so that the topic came up at new head coach Brady Hoke's introductory press conference. While Forcier had been dismissed from the team prior to the bowl game, some attributed that to the quarterback's on-again, off-again, love/hate (or maybe more appropriately, "hug/sulk") relationship with deposed head coach Rich Rodriguez.

Instead of answers, however, Michigan AD David Brandon insisted he couldn't give too many details, since it was an academic matter. Tate's father, Mike, insisted numerous times that his son wanted to stay at Michigan, and that the matter had just been incomplete grades in classes, not failing ones.
Seems like the cat's finally out of the bag now, thanks to a string of tweets late Wednesday night.

I'll string them all here, in chronological order:

"Immediate Press/Sports Release: January 20, 2011 — Robert "Tate" Forcier University of Michigan Sophomore Quarterback ...
"Why do we all wait until we are at our lowest point to seek God's help? ...
"I've been kicked, pushed, knocked down, publicly berated, belittled, emasculated and more. ...
"There are plenty of legitimate reasons to give up for feel the victim. ...
"The humility of it all is indescribable and that is exactly my point. ...
"I had to reach rock bottom in order to see the light, and for that, I am thankful. ...
"It was not until then, I realized that it was my lack of accountability and maturity and not to pass blame. ...
"I do hope all my young fans forgive me and benefit from my lessons that I have learned. ...
"Be grateful for what you have and be humble for your successes. ...
"Don't wait to ask God into your life as he will help you see things clearer. ...
"In summary, I believe, I will become a better student and a person of stronger character from these experiences at Michigan. ...
"I can proudly state, 'I worked hard on the practice field, in the film room at at meetings' after all, football is my passion. ...
"I had fun celebrating with the fans. ...
"I even competed hard while injured as a true freshman through the last (8) games in 2009, but I always played the game giving it my all. ...
"I am proud to have been part of Michigan Football history and will always cherish the memory. ...
"The last few weeks I worked extremely hard to catch back up. ...
"I really wanted to stay. I was not giving up on Michigan, but in the end, it was made clear they had given up on me. ...
"With that being said, it's time for me to go. ...
"I promise the Michigan family and fans I will make you proud again. ...
"Tate Forcier #5 - A Michigan Man Forever - Go Blue ..."


Forcier was an instant sensation for Michigan as a true freshman, leading the Wolverines to a 4-0 start, and a national ranking. The freshman earned rock-star status, too, earning early mention for the Heisman Trophy. Things went downhill from there, however, as the Wolverines lost seven of their final eight games, and Forcier's relationship with Rodriguez seemed to deteriorate.

There were rumors of a possible transfer last summer, as well, when Robinson, Forcier and even true freshman Devin Gardner were locked in a wide-open battle for the starting quarterback job. When Robinson earned the start in the 2010 opener, and led U-M to a 30-10 win over Connecticut in spectacular fashion, the rumors resurfaced, as Forcier appeared to sulk on the bench.

Rumors have already mentioned Montana as a destination for the quarterback, who has a redshirt season remaining. Both of Tate's older brothers — Jason (U-M) and Chris (UCLA) — transferred from their first collegiate stop. The text of Chris Forcier's press release, when he transferred to Furman, can be read here.

NOTE: This column first appeared in The Oakland Press' print edition on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2010.

ANN ARBOR — However you want to look at it, the 2010 recruiting class for Michigan could go down as either the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end.

Amidst all the happiness of signing an enormous class of 27 players — one that coach Rich Rodriguez called the biggest he’d ever had — there was as much a note of caution coming out of Wednesday’s National Signing Day news conference.

Yes, the Wolverines’ haul earned them another consensus top 20 class nationally.

Yes, this group of athletic speedsters more fits the style that the Rodriguez’s Wolverines want to play on offense and NEED to play on defense.

Yes, the fact that nearly two-thirds of those recruits are on defense, allowing the U-M staff to replenish a badly-depleted corps that had allowed the second-most points in school history last year — then lost its two best players.

Yes, the early enrollment of seven of the players — including the nation’s best all-purpose quarterback in Inkster’s Devin Gardner — will give U-M another jump-start on building depth across the board before spring practice is even over.

And, yes, Rodriguez — whose voice was hoarse from weeks of non-stop phone calls — lived up to his reputation as a closer by keeping one key recruit who was wavering right up until Wednesday morning, then trumping that by adding a much-sought-after safety prospect shortly thereafter.

But no, not everything is hunky-dory ... not yet.

Coming off the worst two consecutive seasons since the 1960s — 3-9 and 5-7 — the Wolverines needed a strong recruiting effort, but it wasn’t easy, considering the lack of success they’ve had so far under Rodriguez. It’s been a rougher start than most people expected.

“It’s tougher than if you won a national championship, no question. I’ve been on both ends. If you’re on this end, you know, we’ve gotten a little bit better, so you can see progress, but I think you can also sell opportunity,” the embattled head coach admitted. “As I tell coaches, you’re not really selling. Sometimes it looks like salesmanship. I heard one time, you’re not really selling anything, you’re just giving people what they want. Maybe I sound like a salesman, to tell you that.”

What people want — at least people not named Bill Martin (the outgoing AD) and Mary Sue Coleman (U-M’s president) — is wins. If Rodriguez can use this recruiting class — truly just his second full class of his own — to get things righted on the field, there may be a chance that he outlives lame-duck status when incoming AD David Brandon takes over in the fall.

If not, Brandon likely won’t hesitate to change the recipe, like he did when he was still the CEO of Domino’s Pizza.

You’d think that a coach dangling in the wind as much as Rodriguez is wouldn’t take chances on kids with red-flag character issues, especially since he’s still got a pending NCAA investigation — you remember the whole practice fiasco from late last summer — hanging over his head. Nothing is an easier excuse to fire an underperforming coach than off-the-field issues.

Yet, here was Rodriguez on Wednesday, getting red in the face defending that late addition to his recruiting class, four-star Lauderdale Lakes (Fla.) safety Demar Dorsey, who had reported run-ins with the law as a prep star. And it’s not the first time Rodriguez has taken a leap of faith on a kid with a checkered past — either here or at West Virginia, where he had a penchant for recruiting kids like the much-vilified Pat Lazear and eventual NFL miscreant Pacman Jones.

“All I want to say is that, every guy we sign, we do our research on, as well. I think sometimes people are too quick to judge something they read on the Internet, and I think that’s dangerous to do that. I don’t think it’s fair to the young man and his family to pass judgment before you know the whole story,” Rodriguez said.

“I get a little upset when people have labeled ... ‘Aw, coach, you’ll bring this guy or that guy in.’ ... Unfortunately, you’ll have guys that disappoint you, make a mistake. We’ve had a couple that have come and make a mistake. God forbid they make a mistake, but unfortunately they did, and you have to have discipline, you have to enforce it. ... I think generally, for the most part, our guys have behaved pretty well. ...
“There’s nobody on this football team that we would sign that has a felony conviction, or there’s nobody on this football team that we would sign that has a misdemeanor conviction. So you have to look at the whole story, before you pass judgment. That’s all I’m asking you to do.”

The whole story isn’t written yet on Rodriguez’s tenure at Michigan. He’ll have the fall to prove — once and for all — that his system will work, if equipped with the right parts.

And members of this recruiting class will have to be a big part of that. Of the five defensive backs, it’s likely that at least two will have to start. The new defensive linemen will have to try to collectively fill the huge shoes of the graduated Brandon Graham, a likely first-round pick in April’s NFL draft.

Is this class good enough to do that?

Even Rodriguez was hesitant to say that.

“I’m a little a little bit reluctant, like most coaches are — everybody wants to rank a recruiting class, or put a stigma or something on guys coming in. Really — and this sounds like coachspeak — you really need to wait a couple years and then determine how good the class is,” he said. “I’ve had recruiting classes before that weren’t ranked anywhere in the top 25 or 30, and they end up leading the team to a top-five ranking in the country, and winning a BCS bowl, so I think you have to be careful about all that.”

Problem is, Rich, you may not HAVE a couple of years.

While some disgruntled Michigan fans might have hoped that college football coaching carousel might carry off a Wolverine coach or two, or that the recent hiring of a new AD-to-be in David Brandon might signal a housecleaning, no such luck just yet.

After Brandon gave a relatively solid endorsement to the Rich Rodriguez staff on his hiring, both Rodriguez and his longtime right-hand man, offensive coordinator Calvin Magee, have both been linked to job openings.

Magee interviewed (a fact confirmed by the Tampa Tribune) for the vacant position at South Florida, where his one-time boss, Jim Leavitt, was fired. Magee was on the initial staff at USF when it started football in 1997, but the odds-on candidate appears to be East Carolina head coach Skip Holtz, who admitted mutual interest from the school.

After Lane Kiffin's abrupt departure from Tennessee, Rodriguez himself was briefly linked to the opening as a possible target — then again, who HASN'T been? — but his agent, Mike Brown, denied the rumor when contacted by The Detroit News on Wednesday.

Unless something odd happens, it appears the RichRod era at U-M will get its third year.

There are a few arrivals to Ann Arbor, however.

The Wolverines got a head-start on preparations for the 2010 season when six commits enrolled early, and started class at the semester break. Ann Arbor wide receivers Jeremy Jackson (Huron) and Ricardo Miller (Pioneer) were among the players getting a jump-start, joined by Livonia Stevenson RB Austin White, RB Stephen Hopkins of Flower Mound, Texas; OL Christian Pace of Avon Lake, Ohio; and WR Jerald Robinson of Canton, Ohio.