So It Begins: Dealing With Datone's Injury
by Nestor on Aug 10, 2010 2:58 PM PDT
in Football
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PrintSo it begins. Yesterday captainqtp thought it'd be funny to try out some kind of reverse mojo trick with injury related news in UCLA football. Given how superstitious we often are when it comes to sports and UCLA, thought we'd be better off deleting that fanshot (even though it was meant as a joke). Too late I guess.
We just suffered our first significant injury of 2010 football season as junior DE Datone Jones is now out with a broken foot:
Jones will be lost to the Bruins until at least October, Coach Rick Neuheisel said. Jones was injured during individual drills. He had 30 tackles, including five for a loss, and four sacks last season.
Neuheisel said that Nate Chandler would probably fill Jones' spot in the opener against Kansas State on Sept. 4. Chandler moved from tight end to defensive tackle in the spring.
I don't really need to go into how much we were looking forward to Jones. You all know how much we were all excited to see him play this coming season. Let's get to how this effects the depth chart.:
| LE | DT | DT | RE |
| Nate Chandler (6-5, 291, Jr.**) | David Carter (6-5, 301, Sr.**) | Keenan Graham (6-2, 245, Fr.**) | |
| Damien Holmes (6-3, 265, So.**) | Justin Edison (6-4, 290, Jr.**) | Andy Keane (6-2, 276, Sr.**) | Iuta Tepa (6-1, 248, So.) |
| Owamagbe Odighizuwa (6-4, 240, Fr.) | Donovan Carter (6-1, 280, So.**) | Cassius Marsh (6-4,285, Fr.) | Reginald Stokes (6-3, 272, Sr.**)(I) |
| Seali'i Epenesa (6-2, 320, Fr.) | Wesley Flowers (6-4, 257, Fr.) | Derrick Bryant (6-3, 236, Fr.) |
** notes a RSed season
() notes game started
Honestly, looking at that chart, I don't see the need to shift to Nate Chandler to DE. I wonder why the coaches won't move up Holmes up the ladder and also give Owa a shot to break into the rotation. There is also Reginald Stokes, who was out during spring camp recovering from his injury but was supposed to be back by this pre-season camp. At least on paper it seems like coaches have options besides moving Chandler.
It would be great to get an update on Stokes from the reporters covering the team. It would also be good to get a complete explanation from the coaches on why they can't keep Chandler at DT and give other guys from the dept chart to step up at DE. It just doesn't seem fair to Chandler who always seems to be the guy having to move around due to foot injury.
No doubt losing Datone sucks. He was going to be one of the key cogs in this year's defensive unit. Now he is out and even if he comes back during the season he will not be in full speed (remember how hampered Logan Paulsen was when he tried to come back from his broken foot). Still, at this point, I don't really care all that much about moaning about the Spaulding turf or Adidas cleats. As littlebrother noted in the comment threads we have all talked about those topics before.
What I am really interested in reading and hearing in next day or two is how our coaches and team captains (specifically Rahim and Akeem on defense) rally our troops. In an ideal scenario, I am hoping Chandler gets to stay at DT and other younguns are given a chance to step up while Jones is healing up from his broken foot.
Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves let's stay positive. I am curious to see how youngsters like Holmes, Grahap, Tepa and Owa step up. Guess we will have to see how the Bruins cowboy up.
GO BRUINS.
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CRN must be pulling out what little hair he has.
I can’t believe that two OL are questionable for different reasons, and now this. I can’t even type the injury, because it makes me sick.
Relax
Datone’s injury news is not fun. However, Harris is only out for one game while Baca’s appeal is pending. The world hasn’t ended.
In other word, chill.
Hard to relax - But I'll try
We need everything to fall right to succeed this season. Winning will help us shut up the Troggies in the long run. Line play is are most questionable areas, and that’s where we are being hit. However, I admit there’s a long way to go. Hopefully, Datone can be ready for the majority of Pac 10 games.
OL Depth
The fact that nobody is freaking out about all our losses on the OL says alot about Neu’s focus on adding OL depth. We seem to be in pretty decent shape, especially considering we’ve lost XiaFula (sp?), Hasiak, Abele, possibly Baca, and now Harris for the first game.
by bornagainbruin on Aug 10, 2010 4:56 PM PDT up reply actions
I am freaking out about it, but mostly in private
Our OL is definitely the question mark on the offensive side of the ball – excitement about development from Prince and his receivers, incoming and returning talent in the running back chart, all rests on the OL’s ability to control the line of scrimmage. On the defensive side, we are looking to fill Price’s huge shoes from a strong DL (and replace other starters); on the offensive side, we are looking to fill the shoes of guys who weren’t a strong unit last year. Not really sure which is more concerning.
by britishbruin on Aug 10, 2010 6:03 PM PDT up reply actions
This is bad
This is very bad. Are there no more returning starters on the defensive line now?
Hopefully our team will stay healthy the rest of the season, or else there will be problems trying to win some games. Also, I hope our team keeps their heads up going forward and work hard in practice everyday.
I agree with you ...
between Holmes, Stokes and Tepa — someone will have to step up and fill Datone’s cleats.
And I agree that everyone needs to chill. These things happen, guys get hurt in football.
It will be interesting
and even exciting to see who will win the battle for Datone’s defensive end position. I hope there will be good competition and that the guys competing to get the spot push each other to get better.
The defensive line injury craze seems to be affecting teams that hate Lane Kiffin.
AtQ's Resident Baseball Purist.
by TennesseeQuackAttack8 on Aug 10, 2010 4:55 PM PDT reply actions
opps... rofl
i don’t know why i found that so funny but apparently i should type a reply after i’m done laughing.
Touché.
AtQ's Resident Baseball Purist.
by TennesseeQuackAttack8 on Aug 10, 2010 6:52 PM PDT up reply actions
Guess we will have to see how the Bruins cowboy up.
That says it all. DL is so critical…it’s hard not to be bummed about this.
by RealisticBruinFan on Aug 10, 2010 5:50 PM PDT reply actions
That's four guys
in two years. That’s no fluke. Time for the coaches to do a little research on this broken foot issue. We don’t need to dwell on it ourselves though, as stated.
Oh well. We’re still undefeated baby!
But hey, what do I know. I’m just the 800 lbs bruin in the room.
Yeah I agree completely
Something’s up with the foot injuries. No need to freak out over losing Datone for sure but I think it’s legitimate to expect the coaches to look into this and let us know what they find out. or if they’ve already looked into it to let us know why it’s not the shoes and why they think it’s just a coincidence. UCLA isn’t a place where head-scratching should happen. Research it.
by littlebrother on Aug 10, 2010 9:16 PM PDT up reply actions
Something that never occurred to me until now.
from your comments and Nestor’s follow in the main body of the post.
Why is Spaulding Field using Turf when the Rose Bowl is grass? It’s a lot like asking our basketball team to practice on blacktop then playing in Pauley.
The best thing you can do for your children is to love their mother. John Wooden
Spaulding has both grass and fieldturf
Pretty sure they use the turf mostly for when the grass isn’t ready, or when it might not be great to practice on it (like after rain), and generally so they don’t wear out the grass that’s there. Also, presumably the turf is useful for trips to Cal or other places that don’t use grass.
I disagree.
I’m still of the belief that these injuries are in fact flukes. It takes a ton of force to break a bone. No matter how bad your shoe is, its not going to cause you to break your foot unless there is actually a spike inside it that sticks directly into the bone. If we were seeing a bunch of twisted ankles, I’d be more inclined to buy the bad shoes argument, but no way they’re causing broken bones. Same goes for the turf argument. Just bad luck. Hopefully we’re getting al of the bad luck out of the way now, and we’ll get the good luck on Saturdays in September, October, and November (I’d say December, too, but I don’t think we’ll need luck for that game).
We're havin' too much fun today. We ain't thinkin' 'bout tomorrow.
by Steve Bruin on Aug 11, 2010 12:28 AM PDT up reply actions
Logan Paulsen, Ben Olsen,
Pat Cowan, Datone Jones, Kahlil Bell, Chris Markey….that’s a hell of a lot of bad luck.
RESCUING DANCE MUSIC FROM THE BLAHS
Crap
I’m with Cheeky—I think Stokes moves to LE, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Owa redshirt with a whole lot of opportunity open up for Tepa
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