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After Build Up, Hoke Makes No Decision On Gardner Or Morris Starting Saturday

By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak

CBS DETROIT - Michigan head coach Brady Hoke said Monday that he would announce Tuesday whether Devin Gardner or Shane Morris would start at quarterback in Saturday's home game against Minnesota. As it happened, Hoke did not announce a decision after all.

"We've got some ideas what we want to do, but we're still going to evaluate it," Hoke said on the Big Ten teleconference Tuesday. "The other day we talked a lot and talked about what we want to do, but at this time we're still going to have both the guys take the reps. We feel good about both guys, and we'll have some other potential changes that we'll get to later in the week.

"We'll probably end up [making the decision] later in the week," Hoke added. "Any personnel decisions that we make this week, we want to make sure we're right, and we don't want to mislead you guys at all, so we just want to make sure we're doing it the right way."

Hoke has stated all season that the quarterback competition has been a close one, but Gardner, a senior, won the job. As the team has struggled, however, failing to even reach the red zone against both Notre Dame and Utah, Gardner has looked increasingly uncomfortable and ineffective.

Gardner has completed 64.1 percent of his passes for 694 yards and five touchdowns, but he has also thrown six interceptions. Gardner was pulled from the Michigan-Utah game in the fourth quarter and replaced with Morris, a sophomore, who proceeded to complete only 4 of 13 passes and and also turn the ball over twice.

Hoke said after Michigan's loss to Notre Dame that Gardner would still be the starter, but Hoke made no such commitment after the Utah game. He acknowledged Tuesday that making a quarterback change during the season could be difficult but indicated both players would be able to handle either outcome.

"It can be delicate, but ... you've got guys that have competed their whole lives and understand that competition is always part of the game of football," Hoke said. "We have a lot of faith in both guys as our quarterbacks."

Last season Gardner completed 60.3 percent of his passes for 2,960 yards and 21 touchdowns. He also threw 11 interceptions and got sacked a debilitating number of times. He had to sit out the bowl game because of injury. Gardner's absence in that game gave Morris the only start of his career at Michigan. Against Kansas State in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl, Morris completed 24 of 38 attempts for 196 yards and threw one interception.

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