Tate Forcier Announces Transfer On Twitter

One of the more remarkable aspects of Michigan quarterback Tate Forcier has been his family's reliance (and one might even say insistence) on using the Internet to document his (and his brothers') journey to college football and, perhaps, beyond. QBForce.com isn't exactly the world's slickest website, but it's been enough for the Forciers to show off recruitment letters as well as offer their opinions on quarterbacking and life. Their tone might be off-putting to some, but extraordinary self-confidence is just as important to a quarterback's play as any technique, so in a family full of quarterbacks, well, this'll happen.

At any rate, Tate Forcier's season at Michigan didn't exactly go smoothly; he was passed over by Denard Robinson for the starting role at the beginning of the season after several remarks by players questioning his toughness, and he wasn't always the first quarterback off the bench when Robinson would leave a game, much to Forcier's chagrin. Forcier eventually settled into a second-string role and was fine at it, but then he was declared academically ineligible before the Gator Bowl and didn't enroll for classes at Michigan in the spring semester. That, then, appeared to be that.

So despite last week's report that he still wanted to play at Michigan, Forcier announced today that he intended to transfer. But since this is the Forcier family we're talking about, he did it online. On Twitter, to be precise. An entire press release, tweeted sentence by sentence. We've condensed the series of tweets into paragraph form, but if readers are interested in experiencing the release the way Twitter readers did, they should read a sentence, wait two minutes, read another sentence, wait two more minutes, and repeat the process until finished and/or the boss gets angry. And yes, he tweeted the header too.

-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 or 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 and 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, its 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

For the record, the tweets were all typed impeccably and the only edits were the punctuation around the quotation marks and paragraph breaks. That seems like an odd thing to assert unless you read hundreds of athletes' tweets every day. Which we do.

More to the point, Forcier appears contrite and doesn't burn any bridges at Michigan. Sure, the "they have given up on me" line may not fly well, but being that Forcier didn't even enroll at Michigan for the second semester, new coach Brady Hoke and the Wolverines essentially had no choice. It seems like all parties involved recognize that fact, though, so it would be erroneous to assume any discord being sown by this announcement. Forcier was just saying goodbye the only way he knows how: on the Internet.