Controversy swirls around Michigan Coach Brady Hoke

Many Michigan fans didn’t need another reason to want fourth-year Coach Brady Hoke fired.

Michigan (2-3) has lost three games before October for the first time in the program’s illustrious football history. The Wolverines have lost on consecutive home weekends at Michigan Stadium, the iconic venue known as “the Big House.”

Michigan fans didn’t need another reason to want Hoke fired, but found one in the embers of Saturday’s embarrassing loss to Minnesota.

Piling on Hoke became gift-wrapped easier when quarterback Shane Morris, knocked woozy on a hit, was sent into the game for one play after Devin Gardner lost his helmet.

Michigan’s lame reasoning for why Morris returned doesn’t pass the smell test. Hoke said he thought Morris had an ankle injury and didn’t see the play on which Morris was hit because he was following the ball down field.

“We’d never put a kid in there who was not capable,” Hoke said.

The slow response from Michigan’s leadership, purportedly led by Athletic Director Dave Brandon, smacks of all the parties trying to get their stories straight.

Michigan finally released a statement Tuesday, with Brandon admitting “a serious lack of communication” resulted in Morris’ insertion back into the game.

Brandon also confirmed that Morris had suffered a concussion.

Brandon said: “We now understand that, despite having the right people on the sidelines assessing our student-athletes’ well being, the systems we had in place were inadequate to handle this unique and complex situation properly.”

In fact, the situation didn’t seem unique or complex for many who saw the Morris hit on live television. The quarterback was clearly rendered groggy.

Hoke, appearing on Tuesday’s Big Ten coaches’ conference call, declined to comment further on the situation.

“I’m not going to add anything to that statement today,” he said, “other than to echo that the safety of our student-athletes is our top priority.”

The bottom line is you don’t mess with concussions, an issue that has hyper-sensitivity in today’s sports landscape.

Ignorance, or incompetence, is certainly not an excuse. Michigan explained that the trainer also did not see the hit on Morris, who was cleared for one play before a neurologist was able to further examine the quarterback.

It is easy to be cynical and wonder whether Michigan fans would be as righteously outraged if their team was 5-0 and ranked in the top 10.

The fumbling of Morris’ injury, though, is certainly a rightgeous cause to rally around -- especially if you want the head coach fired anyway.

The good news is Michigan can’t lose a third straight home game this week because the team is playing at Rutgers.

Michigan returns home Oct. 11 to face Penn State. There is a chance attendance will dip below the magical, 100,000-fan threshold.

At this rate the most memorable game at Michigan Stadium this year will be an August soccer exhibition between Real Madrid and Manchester United. That exhibition drew 109,318.

If that’s the case, the handling of Morris’ concussion will get more serious by the minute.

And then you’ll really know it’s time for a coaching change.

Twitter: @DufresneLATimes