For the Daily’s article on the Paulus situation, click here.
The full transcript of the Daily’s chat with early-enrollee quarterback Tate Forcier this afternoon is below.
The Michigan Daily: What have you heard about the reports on ESPN with Paulus?
Forcier: From what I’ve heard, I’ve been talking to coaches all morning, my position coach, Coach (Rod) Smith, he told me specifically that they have not offered him. They don’t know why he would lie. They don’t know the kid. They haven’t offered them. They said we’ll let you’ll know what’s up, because right now, their specific words were, they haven’t offered them.
I want to believe my coaches, I committed (to) them. Why would a kid like him lie to national media? So to me it’s still up in the air. From what I’ve heard, he hasn’t been offered anything yet, he hasn’t accepted anything yet.
TMD: Did you know anything about him before today?
Forcier: We were actually in practice here, we were having a meeting before practice, and he walked in, and I recognized him. I was like, ‘Who is he?’ And I talked to the coaches about it, and he’s trying to find out the best options available.
TMD: When did you first hear about it?
Forcier: His quotes saying they offered him, I woke up and it was on TV. My coaches were calling me, they called me like three times this morning before I even saw it, but I don’t know if they saw it on TV before I did and just wanted to tell me the truth. It’s hard. I can’t give you a word on it. I’m not worried about it, a kid like that was good in high school, but it’s nearly impossible to come back to this level and play. It might be possible, but not in the QB position. You have to know too much. You have to know the speed of the game.
TMD: So what if he does come to Michigan?
Forcier: If it happens, it happens. I still highly doubt he’s coming. It would be impossible.
Again, the only reason he would be doing this is because I heard he tried out with the (Green Bay) Packers. And from what I heard, I’m not worried about it. It ain’t going to happen. By the time he would legally get here would be in the summer, and by the time he’d get here, he’d have to learn the whole playbook and get used to the speed of the game. I doubt you could even do that at the high school level, go in your senior year and try to play. You have to know too much. You have to get used to too much. I’m honestly not that worried about it. It ain’t going to happen. I talked to (Michigan) Coach (Rich) Rod(riguez) and he said (Paulus) doesn’t know if he wants to play football or be a basketball coach at Duke or coach football. He doesn’t know yet. I might not be getting the whole story from my coaches, but there’s no final word.