Two days before No. 3 Michigan faces Indiana at Michigan Stadium, coach Jim Harbaugh said his starting quarterback Wilton Speight is getting better.
"We'll see how he feels today," he said Thursday on WXYT-FM (97.1). "It's really been a day-by-day thing, he's progressing. I know some people have said he's out for the year and I have not heard that from the doctors. We'll see how he is today and that's were we're at. It's a day-by-day thing right now."
Speight was injured in last week's 14-13 loss at Iowa and was not practicing early this week. The Free Press reported it was a broken collarbone. Speight was at Schembechler Hall on Wednesday and didn't have an apparent brace or sling.
But his status for Saturday remains in doubt.
"The way it works is the doctors are in control," Harbaugh said. "They say if a player's available and then it's the trainer's job to give the coach options and get the player feeling as good as they can be. Then it's my job to look at the functionality and see who the best player is for our team in that particular practice or game. But our doctors or our trainer are not going to put a player out on the field if hey can make an injury worse or if they're not in a position to protect themselves."
If Speight can't play, backup John O'Korn will likely be the starter, as a number of players and assistant coach Tyrone Wheatley indicated this week.
Harbaugh said O'Korn gives off confidence.
"The kind of player he is," Harbaugh said "He's a very talented player, a very smart player, and our team knows hat and they've watched that in practices and scrimmages. And we've seen him in games this year. He acquits himself very well.
The team has confidence in John and John has confidence in himself and it's still a team game. Everybody has to perform at their best and I'm confident they will."
