{"id":575342,"date":"2026-04-10T05:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T05:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:46:12","slug":"michigan-rb-depth-takes-hit-with-season-ending-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/575342\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan RB depth takes hit with season-ending injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michigan Wolverines<\/a> head coach Kyle Whittingham spoke to the media for the second time this spring on Thursday and confirmed that one season-ending injury has occurred this spring.<\/p>\n

Junior running back Micah Ka\u2019apana<\/a> is expected to miss the 2026 season with a lower-body injury. He was limited to four games last season after an arm injury suffered early in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne big downer,\u201d Whittingham said. \u201cMicah, our running back, Ka\u2019apana, is out for the season. Lower leg injury. So, we\u2019ll miss him. It\u2019s unfortunate, but so far we\u2019ve been healthy other than that. That\u2019s a loss, something that I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll return from and will be back for the \u201927 season. It looks like he\u2019s going to be out for the \u201926 season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whittingham was unable to comment further on the state of the injury, but said the team will move forward assuming he is not available this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cLower leg [is] as specific as I can get,\u201d Whittingham said, citing medical privacy rules. \u201cBut it\u2019s a shame, too, because he was having a good spring. He\u2019s a tough kid, and he\u2019ll be missed.\u00a0But you have to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ka\u2019apana has played in 6 career games at Michigan and could have as many as 3 seasons of eligibility remaining after this year due to a redshirt year and a medical redshirt season.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Ka\u2019apana was going to be a depth piece and contributor for the Michigan offense. The Wolverines will be led this season by junior Jordan Marshall<\/a> and freshman Savion Hiter<\/a>, a former five-star recruit who has impressed this offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think really the whole offense has progressed and is doing really good things.\u00a0Savion Hiter, he\u2019s another bright spot,\u201d Whittingham said. \u201cWe\u2019ve talked about him several times during the course of spring. But he\u2019s really a great fit for this offense.\u00a0Has really impressed me with his blitz pickup.\u00a0You have to be able to pass protect if you\u2019re a running back. That\u2019s part of the job description.\u00a0And he is, for a true freshman, he is really doing a good job in that respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Ka\u2019apana out of the picture for depth reps, it further solidifies the return of Bryson Kuzdzal, who should be firmly in the top three at the depth chart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some young guys that are working hard,\u201d Whittingham said. \u201cBut really, Jordan and Savion are, and Kuzdzal, I shouldn\u2019t forget him.\u00a0He\u2019s a heck of a player, too, so Bryson is in that mix. But we have those three top guys, and then some guys down below, jockeying for position to see who\u2019s gonna be that fourth guy.\u00a0Right now, we don\u2019t know who that fourth was; it was going to be Micah.\u00a0But now that\u2019s a competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michigan is through 10 of its 15 earmarked spring practices. It concludes camp on April 18 with the annual spring game at the Big House, set for 2 p.m. ET. Admission is free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham spoke to the media for the second time this spring on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,169841,253070,398,396,397,167240,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-575342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jordan-marshall-24-archbishop-moeller","10":"tag-micah-kaapana-24-bishop-gorman","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-ncaafootball","14":"tag-savion-hiter-26-louisa-county","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}