The humiliating loss to Alabama was bad enough. As if to add insult to that injury, Michigan has now lost one of its top defensive players for the duration of 2012 as well.
Monday morning, the Wolverines confirmed that cornerback Blake Countess suffered a torn ACL in the 41-14 loss to the Tide Saturday night. As a result, the true sophomore will miss the remainder of the 2012 season.
Countess suffered the injury on punt coverage early in the first quarter of the loss.
The loss of Countess for the season is a significant one for the Wolverines’ defense. As a true freshman last season, he started the last six games of the year and his name littered myriad Freshman All-American teams. Despite his relative lack of experience, he’s widely regarded as UM’s best cover corner.
Mlive.com writes that Michigan’s top options to replace Countess in the starting lineup would appear to be junior Courtney Avery and sophomore Raymon Taylor (no relation).