FanHouse StevenThreet

A couple months ago, Steven Threet decided to leave Michigan. The quarterback started eight games for the Wolverines a year ago, but was obviously not a good fit for new coach Rich Rodriguez and the spread offense he brought from West Virginia.

Threet took his time looking over his options, and he found some potential suitors who still ran some sort of pro-style offense.

Sooner or later, you would expect Rich Rodriguez's luck to turn around at Michigan. It looked like things were headed in that direction when Rodriguez landed a very strong recruiting class back in February, but apparently the universe has some more kicks to the crotch in store for the Wolverines' second-year coach.

According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, quarterback Nick Sheridan suffered a serious leg injury during Michigan's spring practice on Tuesday. College Fantasy Football Insider speculates that Sheridan broke a bone. The Michigan Daily seemingly corroborates that notion, saying that Sheridan was seen walking with crutches around campus, a large boot on his right leg.

UPDATE: The Free Press is reporting that Sheridan fractured a bone in his lower leg, and will miss four-to-six weeks. If that's the case, the impact of this is pretty minimal, seeing as how the season doesn't start in May.

Michigan quarterback Steven Threet, a redshirt freshman who started eight games in 2008, has announced that he's transferring, dealing a significant setback to Rich Rodriguez's program.

Threet's statement didn't say much, other than he's on the way out.

Every Thursday, Pickin' on the Big Ten breaks down action across the conference.

ABOVE: Wisconsin's Jonathan Casillas couldn't catch the above quarterback, who is not John Elway. Perhaps if Casillas had a motorized vehicle of some sort ...

Okay, I know it's still quite early in the season, but I think we've seen the Horrible Pants-Blasting Loss of the Year. Not to take anything away from the Wolverines, but when you look at the box score from last Saturday's Wisconsin/Michigan game, you can't help but come away thinking, "How on Earth did the Badgers lose that game?" Up 19-0 at halftime against a team that had only scored 19 points once in three games, with a clock-gobbling running game and a usually stifling defense ... and they gacked.

Sure, there are some good reasons why they lost. Allan Evridge is an inexperienced quarterback. Then again, he's more experienced than Steven Threet, who looked like John freakin' Elway in the fourth quarter. (Okay, he looked like Elway would have looked if Elway had been able to run. I haven't forgotten all the O.J. Simpson jokes, you know.) Again, you have to give Michigan credit for doing what it took to win that game ... but how did Wisconsin lose it? You can only reach one conclusion: Pants-blast.

Other teams whose lower body laundry you wouldn't have wanted to do last week: Indiana, Iowa, and Purdue, who I think became the first team ever to not intercept Jimmy Clausen. How will these teams rebound this week? Hint: like a dead cat.

*Actually, RichRod said no such thing. In fact, what he said was "Not all is lost." Which, unfortunately, is not entirely accurate now that Michigan has fallen to Utah in the home season opener 25-23.

But I would venture to guess that he's immediately reconsidering his decision to jump from BCS-wheelhouse friendly West Virginia to Michigan, where his every move and each loss will be heavily criticized.

Of course, he knew that, because he watched Lloyd Carr get destroyed when he fell to Appalachian State in the opener last year. Which means that he also knew a loss to a non-BCS conference team in his home opener would be, um, not good.

Oddly though, watching him in the post game presser, he's talking like he's an NFL coach and not a college coach. He's mentioning "positive things" and gaining "experience" and frankly, that's not how it works in college football.

Was it something I said? It was the four years of starting a midget who couldn't throw? Oh. Yeah, I guess I get that.

Well, that didn't take long. We have the 2007 the first transfer of the 2007 recruiting class, which you may note isn't even supposed to be on campus yet. Early-enrolling Michigan quarterback Steven Threet, however, is outta heeeeerrre. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the shamelessly homer spin for you:

The quality and quantity of recent recruiting has been such that one newcomer may have helped push out another Jacket, as freshman Steven Threet has left the program as the second Tech quarterback to transfer in recent months.

Mmmmm, that's good unbiased reporting. Georgia Tech is the program that was so flush with quarterbacks it started Reggie Ball for four years. More likely is that Threet was looking for something grander than Chan Gailey Equilibrium, which states that everything coached by Chan Gailey ends up 7-5. Georgia Tech? 7-5. The 1927 Yankees? 7-5. Jeff Gordon? 7-5. Also a potential reason: a desire to get laid at least once in college.

Anyway, this is a potential downside to the recent trend of players enrolling the January before their class hits campus. Threet took a test drive at Georgia Tech, decided he didn't like it, and is now essentially a free agent with no penalty aside from an enforced redshirt wherever he transfers to. A good bet would be Michigan State, which took top 100 instater Keith Nichol over Threet, then lost him to Oklahoma when they fired John L Smith.