Monday tidbit
November 19, 2007
There’s no usual Monday press conference up in Troy today since, obviously, there’s a game tomorrow, but I’ve still got you a Monday news item.
Spoke with head coach Larry Blakeney and he said that defensive end Brandon Lang will not play against Middle Tennessee. He has not practiced at game speed since tearing his ACL against Oklahoma State on Sept. 14.
The hope was to be back for the MTSU game tomorrow, but it looks like it won’t happen.
“I won’t rule out him being back for a bowl game if we were to make one,“ Blakeney said. “He’s too good of a player with too good of a future to sick out there haphazardly. He’s made a miraculous recovery and we don’t want to mess up something where a guy has a chance to make a living doing this.“
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Lang could be a defensive end or most likely a Demarcus Ware-type player in the pros. It makes you wonder if he’ll shift to a spot like linebacker next year, but that’s just speculation on my part. Blakeney even said that he could play wide receiver here and be successful.
As far as a redshirt year goes, Blakeney, like myself, seems to think he has two years left to play two after this year. If you remember, he enrolled in Troy in the spring of 2005. However, he had to sit out that fall because of an academic suspension. He got his eligibility back next fall (2006) and played last year and this year. I’m thinking fall 2005 was considered to be a redshirt year since his eligibility clock started when he enrolled. He played the fall of 2004 at Hargrave Military Academy because he didn’t qualify out of high school, so as a sophomore, he’s really as old as most seniors.
But that doesn’t mean the coaches won’t check into everything if need be.
“Sometimes you need that extra time back (after an injury) to re-establish yourself as a good player,“ Blakeney said.
The game will be broadcasted by Rece Davis, Mark May and Lou Holtz. How cool am I? I got to sit in a room with Bill Curry at Sun Belt Media Days, and now I might get to share some delicious Barnhill’s grilled BBQ chicken with Lou Holtz. Maybe he can motivate me to write an award-winner (although I think my Troy-MTSU gamer last year was pretty good).
