Gardner looks like an upgrade and a solid pickup, http://www.mutigers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=4470&path=
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Gardner looks like an upgrade and a solid pickup, http://www.mutigers.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=4470&path=
Analysis: How Gardner's season-ending injury impacts UL defense
Juco-transfer inside linebacker is out for the year.
Quote:
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The UL defense went into its 2017 preseason camp with the question of how to fill two huge holes at inside linebacker as its biggest by far.
The search for an answer, at least at one of those spots, just got tougher.
Fifth-year senior T.J. Posey is slated to start at the Mike linebacker spot for UL this season.
SCOTT CLAUSE/THE ADVERTISER
Much tougher.
Juco-transfer Ferrod Gardner has a season-ending foot injury and probably will undergo surgery Wednesday, Ragin’ Cajuns coach Mark Hudspeth said after Tuesday’s ninth camp practice.
“I hate it for him,” Hudspeth said, “because he worked awfully hard.”
Gardner, who began his college career as a redshirted preferred walk-on at SEC-member Missouri in 2015, was being hyped as a contender to perhaps start at Will linebacker for the Cajuns in 2017.
The product of Trotwood-Madison High in Trotwood, Ohio, came to UL with three seasons of eligibility remaining from Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College, where he had 67 tackles in 10 games, one interception and three fumble recoveries including one returned for a touchdown last season.
More: Cajuns add 5 juco transfers to 2017 roster
The Cajuns head into their 2017 season, which opens Sept. 2 against Southeastern Louisiana, without Otha Peters — their starting Mike linebacker last season — and Tre’maine Lightfoot, their last starting Will linebacker last year.
Both were seniors in 2016.
Lightfoot had a team-high 101 total tackles and Peters, now in preseason camp with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks, was second with 94 including 11.0 tackles-for-loss.
“That’s a lot of production that was lost,” Hudspeth said.
“O.P. (Peters) and Lightfoot, them guys had close to 200 tackles. … I think they (Cajun coaches) recruited well,” returning linebacker T.J. Posey added, “and we’ve got guys that can get the job done.”
The need to replace all the lost production is glaring, and UL thinks it has its solution at the play-calling Mike in Posey, fifth-year senior from Gadsden City High in Alabama who had 14 tackles backing up Peters and Lightfoot last season.
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He’s being backed up, at least for now, by sophomore Jacques Boudreaux, who played mostly on special teams as a true freshman.
“He is doing everything we’re asking him to do,” Hudspeth said of Posey, calling him “locked down” at the Mike.
More: Cajun defense has two huge holes in the middle
Gardner’s injury sustained last Thursday, however, intensifies UL’s need for someone to step up at the Will — and exposes how hurtful it potentially can be if someone else does not.
It’s the latest in a short string of injuries for the Cajuns early in camp, and appears to be the most impactful to date.
Baseball-player-turned-football-player-too Jam Williams, likelier to contribute the most early on playing special teams rather than at safety, is now out for the season with a knee injury requiring surgery.
Backup safety Denarius Howard has been dealing with a hamstring issue.
Calif Gossett, who had been working as a No. 3 wideout, is out 2-to-3 months following surgery to repair a shoulder dislocated on the opening day of camp.
And backup quarterback Andre Nunez returned to practice Tuesday after missing four practices due to a sore throwing shoulder hampered by overuse early in camp.
More: Dual-sport Williams out for the season
But it’s the reverberation of Gardner’s injury that may be felt all season long, especially considering how he may have fit in the bill for what Hudspeth is looking for in a Will.
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“For me,” the Cajun coach said, “it’s going to be who can really turn it loose and run to the ball and tackle. … We’ll figure it out.”
After Gardner went down, UL decided to shift another juco-transfer — Mustafa Mitchell of Lackawanna College in Pennsylvania and Whitehall High in Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania — from defensive end to his former position of linebacker.
The reason for the move?
“To see if he can be that guy there (at the Will),” Hudspeth said.
The Cajuns really are searching high and low, because without someone to play off of Posey there will be a glaring hole in the gut of UL’s defense.
Brayden Bailey, another juco-transfer, from College of the Desert in California, is another possibility, and returnees Alonzo Brown and Tanner Holmes are two more._-->
Does anyone else think we have too many serious leg, ankle, and foot injuries? Is it problems with the turf at the IDPF, or maybe the field maintenance on the grass practice fields.
I hardly doubt that it has anything to do with that...just the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by CajunEXPRESS
Just seems like we've had excessive injuries in non games, practice. Could be my view, and we didn't have excessive numbers, or we did and it's just bad luck.
Apparently the staff was really counting on Gardner to fill a huge hole at LB.
And the news on Reinhardt Drive just keeps getting better......sigh....
UL football player accused of felony identity theft
http://www.katc.com/story/36631464/u...identity-theft
I posted this on Saturday and got no reply, same old same old around here. High quality criminals, ugh I mean recruits.
Who is he???
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