He enrolled early at Michigan and was "knighted" the starter after his feet hit campus. So much that the current QB starter decided to transfer to Arizona State. He lit up the Spring Game that year and the WolverineNation was as excited as it ever was during Rich Rod's tenure in A2.
Then during the regular season Tate backed up his Spring Game preformance with a comeback win over ND at the Big House. He quickly started showing up on hesiman ballots and became a media sensation. Pretty much a "overnight" rock star story. The legend was born and clearly the start of where it all went wrong.
Tate believed he was a Rock Star and didn't preform very well the rest of the year due to injury and a lack of tape study. The Wolverines came a game away from being in a bowl game and the luster off Tate's star had taken a big hit.
Fast forward to the next fall practice and we find out that Tate is out of shape and hadn't been practicing with his teammates over the summer. RR takes the wings off his helmet and makes him show up at 6:00AM every morning to work out with Barwis to shed the extra weight. He puts in the work but it's starting to be clear that Denard Robinson was the QB of the future while Tate was in the dog house.
Time for the first game and Denard starts and Devin Gardner the new 5 star freshman is the back up. Tate is so upset after the game he tells a reporter he is out of here! Tate calms down and stays on the team and works his way back to the #2 spot. He even saves a wild game against Illinois after Denard goes down. A game that qualified Michigan for a bowl game. The one game he couldn't win the year before.
Then at the Gator Bowl that year he tells a reporter from the Free Press that his grades are in order and he has been attending class. A few days later he is sent home for academic reasons. The rumor is that he missed a ton of classes and probably had failed out of school. Rock Stars don't have to go to class.
While David Brandon is firing RR, Tate and his father meet with David to try to convince him to keep Tate in Ann Arbor. We don't know if David's hands were tied but he declines to help and Tate leaves Ann Arbor. We all assume Tate had flunked out of U of M.
A few months after that a strange episode happens in Grand Rapids when he is hanging out the window of his girl friends apartment building. The police are called and some speculate it was a suicide attempt. Nothing really comes of this and it's decided it's just Rock Star behaviour.
Many new Universities start popping up and it's reported he is going to attend the University of Miami (a perfect place for a Rock Star). Well, Tate never makes it to South Beach (for some reason?) and is looking for a new school. He has serious talks with the University of Hawaii but that didn't happen. He ends up at San Jose State and sits out a year.
After a year of sitting on the bench due to transfer rules. Tate announces in the off season he is leaving the program due to financial reasons. He wasn't on scholarship and his family could no longer pick up the tab.
He has been out of the news until yesterday:
schadjoe Former Michigan QB Tate Forcier has signed to play for Hamilton of the CFL this season
5/14/12 5:52 PM
The ride continues Rock Star. Good Luck at your comeback tour.
Recruiting Update 11:00 AM: Ty Isaac to USC :-(
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