Injuries Pile Up

I try not to make too much of camp injuries, because coaches are much more cautious with injuries in camp than they are during the season.  A minor injury that would not put a guy out of action during the season will keep a guy out of practice during camp.

Right now, little injuries like that are coming fast and furious, but there is also indication of some more serious injuries that may require players to lose a little time.  Starting middle linebacker Jacob Cutrera has missed at least as much practice as he's made, which has put Kelvin Sheppard back into the starting rotation for now.  Cutrera does not really need the extra practice time, but it would be nice if he could develop chemistry with the new starters in the back 7.  We still do not have official word on what his injury is, but the rumor mill is somewhat troubling.  As far as I know, he could return to practice on Monday, or he could be out a significant number of games.  I just don't know.  This is probably the most significant injury, as it is to a starter and could result in a lot of lost time.

The second most significant injury is probably Pep Levingston's broken hand.  It is in a cast, and he is missing practice, but he could probably play with it if need be.  It's not like he's a wide receiver having to handle the ball all the time.  Heck, he could use the cast as a bludgeon.  You would like to see a guy like Pep, who is seeing a HUGE jump in his role with the team this year, get that practice time, but we can live without it.

Heck, the whole defensive line is banged up.  Rahim Alem, Lavar Edwards, and Akiem Hicks were out of practice yesterday, and Chancey Aghayere has been in and out of the practice roster with minor injuries.  The linebackers are seeing a lot of this too, as Kelvin Sheppard has also lost a little time, but he's back.

Surprisingly enough, through all of that, the perpetually injured Charles Alexander has remained healthy and at practice.  He has only missed the second half of two-a-day sessions, to keep his body from being overburdened.

The secondary has apparently stayed reasonably healthy through all this.

On offense, it's the same story.  There are a lot of minor injuries.  No one has missed a lot of time yet, though, and everyone should be ready to go within two weeks for sure.

So far, we have escaped the very serious injury to a key player bug that sometimes strikes at this time of year.  Georgia lost starting left tackle Trinton Sturdivant around this time last year, and we should all remember losing Alley Broussard a few years ago, and how that ruined his career.  Knock on wood, except maybe for Cutrera (and we're not sure about that yet), nothing out there is really serious.