First, practices closed a week early to media/public. Now this statement from CLM: I'm starting to believe that there may be a key injury or two. I sure hope not.
This never happens to a football team. No one gets hurt. First game, where was Ryan Baker? How many plays did Blackwell play in? Montgomery got to play in 4 full games. Taylor played in only 9 games. An we still won 11 games. Every team, every year. You learn to deal with it. I wouldn't worry.
If we did, I don't see the point of doing either of those things just to conceal injuries. That kind of thing won't be kept quiet to the media for the next 18 days.
Jarvis has been dressing out and Blackwell practiced yesterday in full pads. Taylor and Montgomery 100% Downs is too. Josh D could miss the game but should be close to 100% right before or after the game. I haven't heard of any serious injuries. I think it has to do with all the information true and false getting out about the scrimmage.
Les has never, from day one, given out information on injuries that he doesn't have to. If somebody isn't going to dress out for Oregon, we'll know it when he fails to get on the plane.
Kinda like every decent coach, really. Saban shut that garbage down at Bama too...as far as releasing info. Did you see him scold the Bama media the other day? Vintage Sabes. The reason...IMO...that practices are closed is because any little tidbit of info winds up on DD, TB, TR, and then subsequently all over the message boards within nanoseconds. When you have Dandy Don saying on his reports that Jarrett Lee is the most impressive QB so far, the boards blow up. Does that affect the team? Sure. Do they read these boards? I sure hope not. But if it's on message boards, it's on talk shows. Then TV. Then in the papers. It's everywhere, and nobody has any clue what the blue hell they're talking about. Journalistic integrity is quickly becoming an oxymoron, and everyone wants to be the first to break a story. So they'll take some dipchit's comments about the scrimmage and run with it. Just since Saturday, I've read that Jefferson is improved, looks the same, threw a pick 6, and is definitely the best choice on the team. I've also read JLee was great, still throws off his back foot, threw what should have been a pick 6 if Muncie could catch, and is definitely the best choice on the team. I've read that Mett threw a pick 6, threw a regular pick, still needs time to learn the playbook, and stood out as a man against boys. All from 'eyewitness' accounts from the scrimmage. And to top it all off, Dildeaux reported that the offense chewed our defense apart. Then his next article blasted Miles for continuing to 'lie' about JJ's improvement. Dandy also took the 500 yds total offense and ran with it, wondering how the offense...with key members of the OL sitting out...were able to shred the vaunted LSU defense that's supposed to be the strength of the team. Yeah, if I were Miles, I'd allow as little info as possible at this point. For one, some of that info can become an advantage to the opponent. Two, all that crap about the QBs can only result in one thing...divisiveness in the team.
I don't think so. Everyone that ain't on the team is THEM. Controversy talk just makes them have a better sense of US, which is a cohesive thing. All of the players are fighting for their positions all of the time and they know the deal better than any of THEM ever will. There is no such thing a bad publicity. And the Tigers are getting more ink than I've ever seen.
