"That Is Possible. Maybe Not Probable."

Lloyd Carr revealed on Wednesday that Michigan will be without star RB Mike Hart and three others for spring practice which begins on Saturday. Hart is recovering from a medical procedure, while WR Adrian Arrington, TE Carson Butler, and DE Eugene Germany will not be with the team for unspecified reasons.

Hart had an arthroscopic procedure but Carr said it was nothing major and didn't seem concerned with his star running back missing time. Hart is intimately familiar with the offense and his absence will give backups such as Brandon Minor more practice time.

However, the cases of Arrington, Butler and Germany are far more intriguing with Carr's evasiveness about them suggesting disciplinary reasons for their dismissals from spring ball.

Arrington started all 13 games for the Wolverines last season, catching 40 passes, the most of any returning player. On the flips side, he was also involved in an off-field domestic violence charge that was subsequently dropped.

Butler started 12 games and caught 19 passes, though it seemed he dropped just as many. He stood to be the starting tight end going into the season.

Germany had three tackles in eight games.

When asked if those three players would be back on the team in the fall, Carr said, "That is possible. Maybe not probable." And considering that news flows out of the Michigan football office about as freely as it did from behind the old Iron Curtain, I think we won't know the answer to that question until close to the time Appalachian State visits Ann Arbor on September 1st. But right now, it doesn't look good.