Big Ten coaches purposefully mum on injuries

Asking college football coaches — well, really any coach in any sport — about injuries is an exercise in reading between the lines.

Coaches are purposefully vague when it comes to how specific they are on injuries. Sometimes it's because they honestly don't know. Sometimes it's because they don't want to say. More often than not, it's the latter. Sometimes it's both.

On the Big Ten coaches teleconference Tuesday, there was the typical smattering of injury update questions for several of the 14 head coaches. Michigan's Jim Harbaugh was asked about tight end Nick Eubanks' injury status and the injury specifically.

'What bone?' Harbaugh said. 'Per usual, I don't make those announcements (of) what bone, what body part. You understand why.'

Harbaugh was matter-of-fact about it, not unlike many coaches who dislike discussing injuries.

There are two clear answers as to why coaches can't or won't discuss the specifics of an injury: HIPAA — the law which protects medical privacy — and competitive advantage.

The athletes themselves are free to discuss the specifics of an injury, as are school officials if the athlete gives consent. Sports injuries are often on public display, and those who have watched or followed sports for a long time usually can surmise the general area of an injury, but its details are up to the athlete and, potentially subsequently, the coach to share.

In college football, there's no rule requiring coaches to submit an injury report, as is the case in the NFL. Thus, very few programs across the country publish one. Northwestern is an exception. Coach Pat Fitzgerald said when he got the job, 'it seemed like every other question I got was about injuries,' and he did research on it. He decided sending out a report would protect his players from constant questioning and the rumor mill.

While the Northwestern reports are not specific, they do indicate the playing status for a particular player. The Wildcats' injury reports come out on Thursdays.

'Protecting their privacy, protecting their NFL futures and also protecting their families, that's my No. 1 priority,' Fitzgerald said. 'And No. 2, out of fairness to the media members, I know they're asked and pushed to get that information. Instead of making it back channels or things of that nature, I try to be as honest as I can. Am I going to be specific about a lot of things? No. I'll err on the side of being more vague. I don't want to give away any competitive advantage either.'

The competitive advantage portion of that is the most obvious.

Coaches and players will do just about anything to win. Game plans shift drastically in some cases depending on whether or not a particular player will or won't play. It's part of the game to be as secretive as possible with your opponent.

Iowa's Kirk Ferentz comes from a coaching tree where injury reports are treated almost with disdain. His old boss, Bill Belichick, is famous for his injury reports being almost farcical in their ambiguity.

Ferentz is a little more transparent. Tuesday, for example, he shared that Brandon Snyder won't play this week, and that it was related to the same knee in which he tore his ACL in the spring. But when it came to Akrum Wadley on Saturday, who left the field and went back to the locker room briefly, neither Ferentz nor Wadley specified why, Wadley simply saying he got hit pretty hard and they made him go back to the locker room.

Minnesota's P.J. Fleck said injury reports would be essentially useless for college football, depending on timing and that uncertainty.

'I think at (the quarterback) position it means a lot more, but at some other positions I don't think it does,' Fleck said. 'A lot of our press conferences as coaches are Mondays and Tuesdays, and that's early in the week to be able to say, 'Hey this guy's out,' or playing, because you have to see how they progress through the week. I think everybody in college football would put 'Doubtful' or 'Questionable' (on a report) because you wouldn't know. There's strategic advantages if you don't know someone's going to play.'

FOR THE (VERY GOOD) DOGS

In a moment of levity during what usually is a rather routine and sometimes mundane Big Ten coaches teleconference, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh got a laugh out of a couple Labrador retrievers.

While Harbaugh was answering a reporter's question, the reporter's dogs made a racket in the background — the reporter apologizing for his chocolate and black labs barking at a squirrel wandering by the window.

Given how he cheered up when the dogs came up, Harbaugh seemed far more interested in what the dogs were barking at than any questions he got.

'What'd that dog say?' Harbaugh asked through a laugh, before accepting the reporter's apology. 'It's life happening.'

They're sorry, October 31, 2017

They're sorry, @CoachJim4UM But those squirrels... pic.twitter.com/mUEB4HXQT1

— Adam Biggers (@AdamBiggers81)

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com