Every Texas A&M football player who is limited for spring practice
Spring practice has begun for Texas A&M football, signaling a new beginning for the program under Mike Elko. This is a period of time rife with anticipation, excitement, and fresh optimism: not only for the Aggie faithful, but for the fans of every program in America.
Though this is a fresh start for the Aggies, some of the bumps, bruises, and injuries from last season still linger—and I’m not just talking about the stinging 7-6 record that we saw out of this team. There are still a few guys who will be limited in spring practice due to injuries previously suffered, either during the season or directly before.
In his media availability yesterday, Mike Elko updated the reporters and fans on who would be limited in spring practice. On the bright side, it looks like all of the transfers and incoming freshmen will be ready to go this spring, but there are still some major players who won’t be out there. The full list: Kam Dewberry, Shemar Turner, Aki Ogunbiyi, Donovan Green, and Enai White. Bryce Foster will also not be participating, as he will be with the track and field team.
Green tore his ACL back in last fall camp, and is still recovering. Billy Liucci mentioned that the same injury occurred for Enai White midseason. Given the nature of those injuries, “extremely limited” could even be an optimistic light for this spring. Hopefully Dewberry, Turner, and Ogunbiyi will be able to play some during the spring, however.
The good sign is that, to my knowledge, these were all injuries sustained during practice or games last season; in other words, Tommy Moffitt’s offseason program has not been the culprit here. Sometimes the S&C coaches can get too much flak anyway for this kind of thing, but I think a poorly-run S&C program does start to see a lot of soft-tissue injuries. It looks like Moffitt has been doing his job well so far.
Hopefully, this is an occasion to develop depth for the Aggies. Fall camp will doubtless see heavy competition—Elko has said as much—so I expect some guys to step up and compete in this spring window.