Yeah--started getting calls and emails on this within an hour or less after it happened. Talk about "clenched guts": Folks inside the department and fans who were there (it was during an open practice) were uniformly apoplectic.
"H" is a big part of our hopes and plans--and the first sign that maybe our "badluck"-run might not be over after all. Of all the things it could have been, the knee and clearly something painful, a "bone bruise" is relative good news, 'cause it's easy to identify, treat and fully come back from in fairly short order. It's NOT generally a "nagging" injury. Still, had everyone groaning "Not now! Not again!!!" Things going so well early on, too. We're "ahead of schedule" all over the field, by all accounts, especially notable improvement on offense--where almost everything we're hoping on, kinds of things that (for various reasons) didn't turn out last year, are coming on strongly now: Driskel looking REALLY sharp, comfortable and decisive in this offense, not perfect but making his reads, going quickly thru' the progressions and hitting the right guy most of the time. Made some nice long throws too, which bodes well come the real thing. The receivers coming into their own--all except Dubose, who thus far stands out only for his multiple drops of well-thrown balls. The kid is fast, runs good routes, but he still looks to let himself and his team down whenever it counts. It's "in his head", no doubt--but give me a hard-working "plugger" who has to fight his way up the depth chart, over a "natural" who you just can't count on, ANYday.
Look, there's always gonna be bangs and bruises, the kinds of things that are part of playing at this level. You have to go at practice all out; it gets you where you wanna get to in the relatively short time you have to prepare for the season ahead--and you don't, CAN'T cut down on serious injury by "going easy in practice" ANYWAY. Look at last year. If it's gonna happen, it will happen, especially those "flurries" of fluke injuries to starters, it seems. That's why we're all so hair-trigger at such news, and why there's nothing for it but to work hard, stay positive, hope "things even out" for us and we stay mainly healthy this time around.
