The Wisconsin football quarterback situation took another confusing turn Monday afternoon following practice, with Joel Stave remaining out indefinitely, but not because of an injury as head coach Gary Andersen had said earlier in the day.
Monday morning, Andersen said Stave would miss an undisclosed amount of time with a throwing shoulder injury.
But Andersen met with reporters in the afternoon to clear up his earlier comments. Andersen, for example, said the word “injury” was not the proper word in the statement earlier that day.
“Joel is at practice. He’s at meetings. He’s in all the scenarios, as far as that stuff goes. But as far as game-prepping at this point, that’s where Joel is not with us completely 100 percent, all the time,” Andersen told reporters. “He’s at practice all the time. I don’t want to say he’s not practicing, he’s not with us because that’s not the case. When Joel feels that he can do that, he’ll be right back in that process.”
The second-year head coach also made it clear that there is nothing wrong with the throwing shoulder that Stave injured in the Capital One Bowl in January.
“There’s been no re-injury for Joel whatsoever,” Andersen said. “Is he injured? No. Is he ready to play right now? No.
“It’s not an injury as far as him feeling like he re-hurt it, or he’s struggling or it’s a shoulder scenario. It’s him just working through getting in a position to be able to get into the game and play in a game for us.”
After Andersen spoke to the media, Stave also did his best to clear up the confusion about the situation.
“Physically, nothing is wrong,” Stave said. “I just haven’t thrown the ball the way I’d like to.”
Despite nothing being physically wrong, Andersen said in his teleconference this morning that Stave hasn’t looked his usual self since the middle part of August.
GA said he knew Stave wasn't quite right "earlier in the camp." Pointed to the second scrimmage (which was closed to media) as telling point
— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) September 2, 2014
However, Stave said the development has been more recent than that.
“I’ve noticed in this past week I haven’t really thrown it the way that I’m used to or the way that’d I’d like to,” Stave said. “That’s when you start to think a little bit. You just got to get back to relax and play the game like you know you can.
A report earlier in the afternoon by ESPN claimed that Stave could potentially miss the rest of the season. But when he met with the media this afternoon, Stave said he could play this weekend against Western Illinois if he had to.
So Joel Stave has the yips but says he could 100 percent play on Saturday against Western Illinois. You really can't make this up
— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) September 2, 2014
It’s hard to tell what the case might be with Stave, but tonight’s updates probably won’t be the last of it.
