Tough News re Sheller

by Nestor on Jun 26, 2008 10:00 PM PDT in Football Comment 3 comments

Some tough news to pass on in what has been a great night for Bruins.

Here's the release from UCLA on offensive lineman Sean Sheller, who will miss the season. He suffered a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament.

Sheller was the projected starter at right tackle.

UCLA redshirt sophomore offensive tackle Sean Sheller will miss the 2008 football season due to injuries suffered in a vehicle accident last Friday.

An MRI showed that Sheller's left knee sustained a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and the medial collateral ligament. Surgery to reconstruct the ACL and repair the MCL will be scheduled at a later date. His left ankle also sustained a wound which is being treated on a daily basis to prevent infection.

"Our hearts go out to Sean and his family," said head coach Rick Neuheisel. "The young man is devastated. I am confident that his surgery will go well and he will come back better than ever."

"It really hasn't hit me that I won't be able to play this year," said Sheller. "I am anxious to have the surgery so that I can begin my rehab and get back with my teammates as soon as possible."

Get well soon Sean.

I wrote yesterday how Sheller's injury even if it wasn't severe was a setback. This is going to make life even more difficult for Palcic (who was already dealing with the loss of Aleksey Lanis). Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope Donovan Edwards gets his course work done. May be freshmen Mike Harris will get to step and who knows Connor Bradford, an incoming freshman may be called upon to serve right away.

Either way, this is tough news and only complicates the scenario we laid out in our dose of reality posts in recent weeks. However, with the current coaching staff in place I am confident that they will find a way to make the best out of this situation.

GO BRUINS.

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The sky is actually falling

I saw this in the LATimes this AM and was crestfallen. All the good news about the success of our Ben Ball warriors was sucked right out of me.

I wrote before that we should take a wait and see attitude with this news as it seemed we were all getting a bit worked up without knowing much about the extent of the injury. Well we’ve waited… and what we’ve seen isn’t good at all.

Chicken little can start screaming, the Bruins OL is officially a shambles. If Palcic pulls this off and we even have enough starters to field 4 O-lineman by the SC game without recruiting guys from our DL and TE crew, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

Heres hoping that Palcic can channel a little DAvid Copperfield, DAvid Blaine or Harry Houdini and pull a little magic out of his warm-ups or this will be one painfully long season.

One strangely good thing may come of this news, though. NO one will ever again criticize our modest expectations for this upcoming season given the number of injuries the team has suffered to date.

by Bald Eagle on Jun 27, 2008 8:00 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It is not Good

It is a serious loss because it could compromise the performance of other good players. But it is what we are left with. It is the price one pays as a fan to get involved with the team -the highs are higher: but the lows are even lower. Even the best coaching staff in the Nation cannot make up for the actaual loss of players. And even though the UCLA campus is in proximity to Hollywood, it is not going to be a story book ending ( no miracles.). We are going to be lucky to win some games.

What’s left? We get to see what a good coaching staff can do with llittle to no experinced players. What Coach Neuheisel has done already is bring in some non- Division1A transfers. Great contingency planning coach! He has also convinced Kevin Prince to enroll early to get as many new players as possible familiar with his system along with the return players. Building for the future. Great long range thinking coach. He is recruiting players who are diposed to recruiting other players. Great recruiting so far coach ! In reading interviews with recruits, I have never seen players so excited about being part of a football program. Great motivation ! And maybe we get to see just how much the desire of less experienced players is a factor against older and perhaps more athletic players on the same field. Are we going to win a lot of games? I do’ nt think so. Are we rebuilding ? Yes !

I, for one, do not want to miss any games this season. And I agree with Coach. Just think how bad Sean Sheller feels.

by northbaybruin on Jun 27, 2008 11:41 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

This is a set-back, but...

...the world is not coming to an end. Yes, we have major holes on our offensive line, and yes, Sheller’s injury makes this much worse.

But, I have great faith in CRN and NC to plan around this. I suspect we’ll see more screens, quick-hit routes, and grind it out football. It won’t be pretty, but if anyone has the football know-how to get around this problem, it’s NC.

Hopefully DW can pull the same kind of magic with a defense with some serious question marks (secondary and at linebacker) and keep us within reach in these games.

Let’s not throw the towel in just yet. Yes, it’ll be hard and yes this team has some serious roster problems, but we have a phenomenal staff who will do everything they can to get these guys in a position to win week-in and week-out.

by norcald503 on Jun 27, 2008 1:38 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs