Last week Michigan's injury report did not change until two hours before kickoff

Michigan's Wednesday injury report for Minnesota has both of its starting edge rushers on it, its starting right tackle for the third week in a row, and, for the first time, Andrew Marsh, who has 17 catches in the last two games. All four are questionable.

Before reading anything into that, look at last week. Michigan's report said the same thing on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then answered every question at once on Saturday morning.

The Thursday and Friday reports are coming anyway. They may not help.

What the word means here#

The Big Ten went to four availability reports a week this season for conference games, per the Associated Press. For a Saturday kickoff, teams file by 8 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, then once more two hours before the game. The weekday reports can say probable, questionable, doubtful, out or out for the first half. The game-day report has three options only: game-time decision, out, and out for the first half. Anyone not listed is available.

So a team has two ways to treat a questionable player on Saturday morning. It can say yes or no. Or it can say "game-time decision," which is questionable with less time on the clock.

The conference keeps an archive of every report, and through September 26 it covers 20 team-games. In those, 64 players went into a week listed questionable on Wednesday. Most moved by Friday: 25 to probable, 10 to doubtful, 5 to out, 2 off the list entirely.

Twenty-two did not move. They were questionable Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Fifteen of those 22 were game-time decisions on game day. The other seven got a straight answer two hours before kickoff, and all seven played for Michigan or Michigan State. (The two Michigan schools, it turns out, agree on something.)

Michigan's four were Nichols, safety Zeke Berry, tight end Logan Forbes and Sprague. Michigan's game-day report left the first three off, which under the rules means available, and listed Sprague as out. Nichols and Berry both played. Sprague missed his second straight game.

Nobody on Michigan's list changed status across the three weekday reports. Not one name moved.

Who is on it now#

The Wednesday list for Minnesota, filed September 30:

Questionable: Andrew Marsh, Dom Nichols, Andrew Sprague, Houston Ka'aha'aina-Torres, Manuel Beigel, John Henry Daley. Probable: Blake Frazier. Out: Braydon Alford, Micah Ka'apana, Jonathan Brown, Julius Holly, Ace Hamilton, Andrew Babalola.

Two of those are real changes from the Iowa week. Beigel, the sixth offensive lineman, was doubtful all of last week and out on game day; he is now questionable. Frazier, who hurt his right leg in the second half against Iowa and came back, is probable. "He's been limited all week, and he's a tough kid," offensive line coach Jim Harding said Wednesday, per Angelique S. Chengelis of The Detroit News. "I'd like to think he's going to play, but I've been fooled before, so, I hope so."

Marsh is new to the report. He has 22 catches for 239 yards this season, and 17 of the catches and 211 of the yards came against UTEP and Iowa.

Sprague is the familiar one. He practiced the week of the UTEP game, was there for the Friday walkthrough and was a late scratch, per Aaron McMann of MLive. He has not played since. "We're closer to clarity than we were," Kyle Whittingham said on Monday. That was two days before the report that said questionable again.

The edge#

The pair to watch on Saturday is Daley and Nichols, because between them they have nearly half of Michigan's sacks.

Michigan has 12 sacks in four games, per its official box scores. Daley has 3 and Nichols has 2.5. Nate Marshall has 2. Tariq Boney, a freshman, has 2, one each in the last two games. Nobody else has more than one.

Julius Holly, another defensive end, has been out on every report Michigan has filed this season.

Daley was hurt on the second-to-last play of the Iowa game and was helped off before the touchdown that beat Michigan. MLive lists the injury as a foot. "He's walking, which is a positive, without a boot, without crutches," Whittingham said on his radio show Monday, per The Detroit News. "But we'll have to see as the week progresses how much soreness we can get out of that injury."

Nichols was questionable on all three weekday reports before Iowa, then played and split a sack with Daley.

If both are out, the edge is Marshall and Boney, who have 4 sacks between them in four games, against Minnesota. The Gophers' own Wednesday report lists seven players out, three of them offensive linemen, Ashton Beers among them.

When to look#

Saturday's kickoff in Minneapolis is noon Eastern on Fox. Two hours before that is 10 a.m. Eastern, or 7 a.m. in the Bay Area.

If last week holds, that is the first report from Michigan that will say anything new. Anyway, set an alarm.

Sources: The Big Ten Conference's 2026 football availability reports, the Wednesday report of September 30 for Michigan at Minnesota and the conference's report archive through September 26, both read on bigten.org's report service on October 1, 2026. Report schedule and game-day categories from the Associated Press announcement of the 2026 policy, as carried by theScore. Sacks from Michigan Athletics' official box scores and play-by-play for Western Michigan, Oklahoma, UTEP and Iowa. Marsh's receiving from ESPN's box scores for the same four games. Harding on Frazier and Whittingham on Daley from Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News, September 30, 2026. Sprague's UTEP week, Daley's injury and Whittingham on Sprague from Aaron McMann, MLive, September 28 and 30, 2026. Kickoff time from Michigan Athletics' 2026 schedule (11 a.m. Central); network from The Detroit News and MLive. Berry's and Nichols's plays against Iowa from Michigan's official play-by-play.