After a seemingly innocuous tackle, Harris, the coaches, nor the medical staff have had a good feel for his true recovery. Each scheduled return has been beset with setbacks. Wednesday he underwent another surgery on the troubled knee. Now the staff advised he should be back in three to four weeks. But can we trust this speculation given the history of this injury?
Montel and BC have two options:
1. Monitor his progress and get him out there as soon as he can play.
2. Shut him down for the year as a redshirt and let him recover completely.
Although Montel might not want to sit, it is probably a better long term option. He won't approach the ACC records on a short season and NFL teams are not going to draft him with a nagging injury. If he redshirts, he still has a chance to recover and have a strong, full season in 2012.
The redshirt benefits BC too. When someone is out for the full season, you are forced to adjust. You find new players. You adjust your scheme. You mentally move on too. If the staff waits on Montel, they may wait the entire season. He never may regain his form. You don't know what you have so you are hedging your plans. However, if Montel fully recovers and comes back strong in 2012, BC gets a new weapon and wrinkle to the offense.
We won't know Montel's status until after the season starts, so I will stick with what I tweeted earlier: if he is not 100% by UMass, Spaz should redshirt him.
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18 comments:
wow, devastating news about montel. thank goodness we actually have a deep backfield -- andre showed he could be a workhorse last year and i bet either finch or kimble is an adequate backup. omg spaz re-stocked the cup board!!! BC actually with depth at a skill position i think i may faint!!!!
that being said, rettig absolutely crushed the scrimmage today and was without larmond AND montel. very impressive stuff, he seems to improve with each scrimmage. larmond's knee issues worry me as well -- hopefully they are just being precautious.
i would leave it up to montel whether he wants to return or not, but stress that he should not rush and the team will go on as if he won't come back. if you factor in the bye week on oct 15, montel could have 9 weeks to recover and then come back for the @ Va Tech, @ Maryland, v. FSU, v. NC State, @ ND, @ the U. no doubt we are a better team with montel so if he doesn't care about the recordbooks and is fully recovered for the last 6 weeks, i'd welcome him back with open arms. that is a tough stretch and even playing 6 games he could really prove to the scouts that he is healthy -- those are some prime time matchups (i'd imagine the games v. VT, FSU, ND, and the U will all be nationally televised) where his return will be talked about and he'll be in the spotlight somewhat.
I don't think its one injury after another, it's the same injury. I fear it's a permanent thing. He had some much time to get better for spring ball, I believe his laod was very light in spring camp, then he took one handoff in the spring game, took a very normal light tackle, and never went back in. That is bad. It shouldn't take 9+ months to recover from this.
I echo ATL's idea of redshirting if he isn't going to be 100% soon. He deserves a shot a full season.
I'm hoping Larmond sitting is more of a breaking him back in slowly sort of thing, but I'm probably trying to hard to find a positive. In light of that, I will introduce negativity to this comment - at what point to we start worrying about our defense getting abused? Having the offense look this good this early is nice, but the defense seems all sorts of out of whack...
I think back on Mike McLaughlin who clearly rushed back to quick and never looked right the whole year. I hope Montel redshirts.
This is a sad state of events. To redshirt would be best for him. This would be good in light of the grave foundation for this season. If Spaz fails, then Harris will walk in with a new coach. There is no doubt that Montel was overused. That is where this is sad.
"Montel was overused..."
Litotes: emphatic understatement
Think back to all those consecutive downs last season when our OC predictably had Montel running the ball head-on into guys our O-line didn't/couldn't block. The guy was in their cross-hairs dozens of times every game, and took a pounding...then he'd pop back up for more.
Red-shirt the battered Hero for a come-back season in 2012.
MrMason: Not unlike an English professor somewhat past his prime, you have misused litotes.
Perhaps a refresher will help you. Try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litotes
I don't know how anyone can say losing the ACC pre-season player of the year is not a big issue for BC. Just look at the Nevada game. We desperately need Harris to be successful this year unless one of the younger rb's can step right in as Harris did when he was a freshman. Add in the injury issues on the O-line, and we have a big hill to overcome at the start of the season (and Northwestern is a lot better than many of you think).
Oh, oh, oh I am sick with worry. Sick I tell you. Oh my G_d, it is so stressfull. An injury to a player whose name I have heard mentioned on TV. This is so, so terrible. We could not possibly have another running back who could play in place of the player whose name I heard mentioned on TV. Oh, oh, oh I am sick with worry. Sick I tell you.
There's no easy answer to the redshirting question. They have to consider many factors, and may have to re-evaluate the situation each week.
Obviously, this is a non-issue until the knee is 100% AND he's regained strength & football conditioning.
But whether he's ready at game 4,5, 6, or even 7, shouldn't matter.
- If the team beats expectations, and has a shot at the ACC championship, Montel deserves to be part of something special. And I doubt you could stop him, he's a competitor and a team leader.
- If there are more injuries, and we're down to just 1-2 RBs, you might as well play him, b/c you'll have no choice but to play him another RB goes down in week 9.
- If Rogers has installed a heavy dose of split back sets, we probably need a 4 RB rotation this year .... particularly if lots of the plays are designed for him.
But if mid-season, our RBs are healthy and doing fine, and if the season is unspectacular, then redshirting is a good call.
Jimmy,
The 20-something sarcasm is a little weak. Losing the best player on the team, correct that, the best player in the ACC, is a big deal. He is quite possibly the best running back in BC history. You just don't replace players of that caliber. This is potentially a very big deal for BC. The hope is that one of the younger guys comes out of nowhere as Harris did as a freshman (remember Josh Haden?). But, we all saw how BC was destroyed in the bowl game with Harris on the sidelines. And Nevada is not even from a power conference. We are more likely to win 9-10 games with Harris than without him.
By the way, Persa completes 75% of his passes. 75%!
I feel bad for Montel Harris and wish him the best. That's first and foremost - and Colin Larmond as well. We have players who can step up, but it would be nice to have these guys.
Teamwise, I was hoping we could beat the injury bug this season, but the O-Line is worrisome.
Eagle, I agree about Persa (if he is 100%) - if our D is too soft, he'll put up a couple of scores before we are in our seats.
I think our offense will surprise a lot of people, but the big eaters have to stay healthy. While I think we can score against Northwestern, we don't want to get into a big hole.
And we need the D to be strong.
We can't look at the Nevada game (they were ranked in the Top 15)because 3rd&9quill was an absolute disgrace.
Our offense will be twice as good this year just with Rogers showing up.
Eagleboston - did you happen to notice any running backs during the Syracuse game last year? Hmmm how does that figure? But I am so, so worried. Sick with worry I tell you
How did that work out in the bowl game last year Jimmy? Not too well. How did it work out when D. Knight (even though he went on to become one of the best RBs in BC history) replaced William Green against Miami in 2001? Not so hot. Replacing a superstar and experienced RB with a young and inexperienced one is not the recipe for success.
If Gary Tranquill ruined this poor kid's career by failing to gameplan at all and running him 35 times a game into defenses that knew exactly what was coming...that's really inexcusable. And it's looking more and more like that's what happened.
Mark the Twain! Past my prime? Hell,no!...OK, using the concept of "overused" to describe Montel's profile in the offensive scheme is technically a push on the Neg.versus affirmative litotes--(i.e., "not underused" vs. overused) but the guy was running 40 plus carries and blocking for himself, so "used" is where the understatement resides. Oh, yeah--Mark: using a wiki as a reference has no credibility and is sadly indicative of your sorry inattentive days with Caldwell in L.A..I Am Primetime! Go Eagles! Go Cubs!
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