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So a couple weeks ago, I remember explaining how the majority of college football news during the summer months consists of drunk-driving incidents, drug arrests, assault and battery cases and the subsequent player suspensions or dismissals that follow.
Well, now that we've hit the month of August and training camps have gotten underway, we're seeing fewer of those police blotter stories and pretty much an ambush of injury reports.
Oy vey as my mother would say, where to begin...
How about with No. 1 Georgia? After all, hasn't Mark Richt lost enough players this summer?
I guess not.
And if things keep going this way, he may have to start holding those walk-on tryouts that I mentioned the last time I was talking UGA football.
Anyway, the Bulldogs were hit with more bad news Monday when starting left tackle Trinton Sturdivant tore multiple ligaments in is left knee during a scrimmage and will for sure miss the entire 2008 season after undergoing reconstructive surgery next week.
According to the team's doctor, Sturdivant might even need a full year to rehab the knee, which would leave him ready just in time for the 2009 campaign.
But still, the fact that the Bulldogs are losing another player - and a good one at that - is another dagger in Richt's heart in a year where his team is expected to contend ferociously for a national championship.
With the amount of critical players lost this offseason, though, I'm beginning to think that there won't be any national title trophies being delivered to Athens, Ga., in January.
Yeah, I know. They haven't played a game yet. But just trust me. The dismissals and injuries will, nevertheless, hurt.
They might not hurt in Week 1, but by Week 12, they could easily become a factor.
And right now, Richt just has to find someone who can try to fill Sturdivant's shoes (and since he's 6-foot-5, you know they're probably pretty big ones).
The Bulldogs aren't the only ones on this whole injury trail, of course.
Just down the Eastern seaboard, Florida coach Urban Meyer is getting his own taste with sophomore offensive lineman Jim Barrie and freshman linebacker Brendan Beal both tearing their ACLs.
In fact, Meyer's ACL tally nearly mirrors Richt's player suspension/dismissal number.
To this date, including Barrie and Beal, the Gators have now lost five players to ACL injuries this offseason.
That's just one short of Georgia's six players who have been suspended or dismissed from the team this offseason.
"Five ACLs, that's a tough deal," Meyer said. "It's frustrating when guys are hurt."
Barrie's and Beal's injuries, remember, are coming just a week after sophomore tight end Cornelius Ingram tore his ACL during the Gators' second day of practice.
Look, I don't know if there's an ACL plague in Gainesville, Fla., an enormous amount of bad luck or something with the way Meyer runs his practices, but it's certainly not helping Tim Tebow's cause this season in what many think will be another Heisman-like - if not better - year for the lefty quarterback.
For the sake of college football, let's hope so. The game could use another Archie Griffin after all. I know my former colleague and good friend Jeff Lippman (what a mench, right?), a UF graduate, would agree.
In the meantime, Illinois defensive tackle Sirod Williams is another impact player who won't see the field this season.
Not after last Saturday's preseason practice, when Williams tweaked the ACL in his right knee.
While it looks like Williams will apply for a medical redshirt and come back to the Fighting Illini next season, head coach Ron Zook will need sophomore Josh Brent to step up in a big way this fall if his team hopes to have any chance of competing in the Big Ten with the likes of Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Out in the Steel City, Pitt starting defensive end Doug Fulmer has also jumped on the knee injury bandwagon after tearing a ligament in his left knee at practice Sunday.
Let it be known, however, that this isn't the first time Fulmer has been hurt.
It's rather the third straight year that he's had injuries end his season early (or in this case, before it ever began).
In 2006, he started the Panthers' first four games before breaking his ankle and missing the rest of the season.
Then in 2007, Fulmer had to sit out another full season after having surgery on his right knee from an injury he suffered in spring workouts.
And whether Fulmer, a redshirt junior, will even qualify for another medical redshirt is uncertain, leaving him only one more year of eligibility should the NCAA rule against him.
"It's just so unfortunate because the guy hasn't had a chance because of all the variety of injuries," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. "The plan right now is that he'll have the surgery. We'll see how the rehab goes, and then we'll deal with it then."
Dealing with injuries is always a pain in the rear, but there's been a couple injuries this week that haven't caused any serious concern.
One of them saw Missouri tight end break his pinkie finger, leaving him sidelined now for two weeks, yet is still expected to play when the Tigers open the season Aug. 30 against Illinois in St. Louis.
The other injury, meanwhile, saw South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia go down with a sprained ankle, forcing him to miss the Gamecocks' Wednesday night scimmage.
But a sprained ankle, which will keep him out a week, is the least of Garcia's worries (as well as head coach Steve Spurrier's).
Garcia, after all, has been involved in three separate incidents with the police since arriving on campus in January 2007.
It's a good thing then that the redshirt freshman, though extremely talented and built possibly to run USC's offense some day, is listed as the third-string quarterback.
Because if the Gamecocks don't make up for that horrendous '07 finish last year after an unbelievable start (remember, it's not how you start, but how you finish as they say), you can bet that the fans in Columbia, S.C., will start to call for Spurrier's head.
Sorry Steve, but that's just the way it goes in the SEC.
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This isn't supposed to be an injury blog...
Thursday, August 14, 2008, 04:19 AM EST
[South Carolina gamecocks]
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