Jake Locker underwent surgery on his fractured right thumb this morning. He will speak to the media tomorrow.

Locker would be expected to miss six to eight weeks ... as a quarterback. However, coach Tyrone Willingham confirmed that it is possible Locker could return at another position. He would not say what position that would be, or even whether it would be offense or defense.

Willingham discounted the danger of Locker being injured if he returns, say, as a safety; noting that all football players run the risk of injury at all positions -- including quarterback, obviously.

Some direct quotes from Willingham today:

On Locker:
He did have a fracture coming out of the ballgame, of the first metacarpal of the thumb and it required surgery. The surgery should have started at some point this morning, I think right around 11 o’clock give or take a few minutes. And what it appears to be is it could be as many as six to eight weeks is typically the recovery time for that injury. Outside of that we don’t know anymore at this time.

On Locker changing positions:
It is possible. I couldn’t tell you where right now, but I think I said and others have said that he is a tremendous athlete with the ability to play five, six, seven positions exists.

On Locker's risk of injury at another position:
You always run that risk. The play that he got hurt on was an extra-effort play that really didn’t contact anybody other than the ground. So that risk is always there. But this is a young man – every much like a lot of young men that we have on our football team – wants to win. And he’ll be willing to do anything that will help the football team and win.

On what position he might move to:
That would be a little stretch for me right now because you really don’t know how he’ll come back and what that means. Does that mean he has a cast on the size of a helmet or something of that nature. How will be he outfitted. All of those things. I wouldn’t speculate.