Virginia Tech and associate athletics director for sports medicine Mike Goforth provided a post-season Hokies football injury report.
Cornerback Kendall Fuller had surgery on 1/5/15 in Baltimore to repair a fracture in his left wrist, that he played with the entire season. (Emphasis is my own.) Kendall will be limited in the spring, but back full for summer camp. In 2014, Fuller was voted a second-team All-American by Walter Camp, FWAA, Fox Sports and USA Today, a third-team All-American by the Associated Press and Athlon, and got the nod from the ACC's media and coaches as first-Team All-ACC. Reminder: He accomplished all of that with broken wrist.
As mentioned yesterday, A.J. Hughes will have surgery on Wednesday to repair a slight disc herniation in his lower back that he played through during the season. He is expected to be back full for spring ball.
Offensive lineman Kyle Chung will have a scope on his left shoulder today by Dr. Tony McPherron at LewisGale Montgomery. He is questionable for spring ball.
Fullback Sam Rogers had surgery on 12/31/14 (Happy New Year!) to repair a radius fracture in his left elbow that he suffered in the Military Bowl. He will be full for the spring.
Tailback Juice Williams had surgery on 12/16/14 to repair a torn ACL in his right knee that he suffered at Duke. He is out for spring ball.
Tailback Joel Caleb had a scope for the meniscus in his left knee on 1/2/15 in Richmond. He is expected full for spring. (If there was going to be a running back to transfer this offseason, a logical guess would be the underutilized and occasional doghouse dweller Joel Caleb to explore his options. I am reading into things, but perhaps Caleb being listed is a positive sign that he will be back at Tech next fall.)
Offensive lineman Cody Rhodes is pending surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee. He will be out for the spring.
Virginia Tech is in the process of submitting paperwork to the ACC for medical hardship waivers on Kalvin Cline, Brandon Facyson, Desmond Frye and Luther Maddy.
Comments
Just when I thought Kendall Fuller couldn't be any better, it turns out he was playing less than 100% the whole season.
Second team All-American with a fractured left wrist.
11th airborne division
Do we know when exactly Kendall broke his wrist?... maybe on this play?
This also happened...
http://www.hokiesports.com/football/recaps/20150113aaa.html
Kendall named co-defensive player of the year by VaSID.
Best. Avatar. Ever.
"You sumbitches couldn't close an umbrella..."
"When I get home, remind me to snack your Mamma right in the mouth"
Any word on how injuries for Kalvin Cline, Brandon Facyson, Desmond Frye and Luther Maddy are progressing? BigLu has posted a couple tweets that seem to indicate that things are progressing well. I have the bad feeling in my gut, that Facyson's injury is talking on the "tone" of Kenny Lewis' torn achilles that he was basically never able to come back from.
Why do you think Facyson's career is done??
I have ZERO information upon which to base the thought. I just feel very uneasy that this kid had what sounded like a stress fracture and 9 months later, it's still not healed. There have been a significant number of athletes over the years who have had stress fractures that would reoccur as soon as they returned to playing. For example, Bill Walton's career was not only greatly impacted (missed large #'s of games), but ultimately ended because the stress fracture never healed to the point that it didn't reoccur.
Again, I have nothing to base my thoughts on, other than having a bad feeling about it due to the fact that 9 months later people see him on crutches.
I posted this previously, but I passed Brandon on crutches as I was leaving The Military Bowl. I shouted out "Brandon, good luck with your rehab!" Before I could add, "see you next year," he shouted back "I'll be back next year!" with a huge grin and a great deal of enthusiasm. For someone who plans to be a doctor after football, you would hope/think that he has some idea of how he is progressing medically.
That was a cool scene in the parking lot. Brandon taking pics with all kinds of kids stopping by, all the while responding 'yes sir, no sir' to questions with that big smile. What a great kid.
He took time for a picture and a few words with my 5 year old. Completely made his day.
Yeah and I bet your kid loved it too!
luther maddy snap chats himself working out in the gym every day and rehabing! hes home in florida now. from the sounds of things hes possitive and working hard to get back as soon as possible.
shai posted that he is jogging only 3 months out of ACL surgery on his facebook followed by a comment by scott loefler saying "you have no idea how excited this makes me" hope shai isnt rushing back to soon but sure looks like he is wanted back and is busting it to get back.
My worry is he hurried back from the last ACL surgery and re-injured. I would rather he take his time and heal the right way.
I hope so too. He is, IMO, clearly the best RB on the roster if he's healthy
I hope Shai is patient. The kid has a very bright future.
So glad to hear about Shai- hope he takes it easy as well. Showed flashes of greatness during his short first season!
He seems to be coming along well if he is jogging already. I would think the best thing for him would be to take next year off, then come back is '16, hope for a good year and go to the NFL. He cant afford another ACL injury, so hes really gotta be 100%.
What is the likelihood of the ACC/NCAA granting these medical redshirts?
The general consensus seems to be that the application is more of a formality, but maybe someone has specific news on these applications?
It would be utterly shocking if any one of those was denied.
Because of the wording of the rule, I'm not holding my breath on Facyson. Basically, it boils down to an injury that prevents you from playing. For most of the season, we thought Brandon could step in, but just not be 100%. That's not keeping you from playing so I could see where the NCAA might not grant one there. BUT, VT could have documentation to say otherwise that we just don't know about.
I felt exactly the way you described regarding DJ Coles' medical hardship waiver a few years ago, and it was granted without comment or delay.
Basically as long as all the medical paperwork is in order, the programs are given a huge amount of leeway in determining what is season ending. You don't have to be laid up with the injury. It suffices for the coaching staff to say the injury hampered the player enough for them to play someone else instead.
Without additional injury, he underwent a second surgery midseason to continue the repair.
That will probably go a long way towards the acceptance.
Virginia Tech is in the process of submitting paperwork to the ACC for medical hardship waivers on Kalvin Cline, Brandon Facyson, Desmond Frye and Luther Maddy.
These guys all played as true freshmen, proud of their hard work
Basically, Kendall played with the broken wrist just to make things somewhat fair for the WRs he would be covering. It will never be completely fair, but his heart's in the right place.
Also, in addition to the incoming DuWayne Johnson, we have a Cody Rhodes?
Nice to see the WWE well-represented in Blacksburg.
Ahh. Where the trigger warning man? Those are Wake Forest colors.
Sorry, man, I wasn't thinking.
OMG being a life long wrestling fan I never even thought about Golddust wearing WtF colors. I'll never look at Golddust and Stardust the same way again.
Neither had I.
To his credit, hasn't Stardust worn other colors recently, or are my eyes that bad?
Wake Forest??? Who cares about Wake Forest? It's not like they're any kind of rival, don't we like crush them every year.......oh wait, never mind.
FTFY
The Sam Rogers Healing Center
Rehab includes several sessions in the kinky pool.
I am now actively trying to get hurt.
Those wrist injuries are hard to recover from.
After doctors went in for the repair, it was noted that they were amazed that a bionic elbow could be fractured in the first place!
Live from Sam's surgery:
Surgen 1: "The gauges will not read. They're all peaked like we're plugged into some magnetic field."
Surgeon 2: "The reason we were shooting for grid eight was because thermographics indicated that grid nine was compressed iron ferrite...which means you've landed us on a goddamn iron plate!"
For the Armageddon reference, A leg! Kudos haha
Here's hoping they all get well, but Kendall really showed grit there
This is a dumb old person question:
Does Virginia Tech have medical insurance to pay for all of these surgeries? I tore my ACL snowboarding a long time ago and I had to pay a couple of grand to cover my deductible. My insurance plan covered the rest of the surgery and rehab cost but that could really add up for some of these guys that have had multiple major procedures over their playing careers.
Pretty sure they do. With so many sports teams and people's livelihoods on the line, I think it would be imprudent for them not to carry an extremely good insurance plan.
Matter of fact, the way this season went, I think the Hokie Bird and the AFLAC Duck are poker buddies now.
I remember while attending there being some sort of insurance but I cant remember the depth which it covered.
Short answer: yes.
Long answer:
The NCAA requires participating athletes to have coverage up to, or greater than $90,000 for injuries.
If their medical bills exceed $90,000 then the NCAA's own catastrophic policy activates to cover the overage.
According to the NCAA, 'in most cases the colleges and universities provide that coverage.'
The coverage can be personal/parent's insurance policies.
The NCAA allows institutions to reimburse athletes/families for out-of pocket expenses up to the policy deductible after qualifying injuries sustained during practice/participation.
According to VT's site, all athletes must provide proof of insurance to participate. In addition, VT has umbrella coverage for their athletes.
SO......as I understand it, say as a VT stud athlete, I am injured. I would have to be evaluated by the VT staff who would refer me to what VT considers is appropriate care. As I am treated, charges would be submitted to my or my parent's personal policy. If there are costs up to the deductible, VT could (I hope does?) cover these, and once my personal policy is maxed, the VT umbrella policy activates. If my injury was particularly costly and maxes VT's coverage, ($90,000 in health care doesn't go as far as it used to!) then the NCAA's catastrophic policy activates.
whew......
What I don't get is what happens for the athlete with NO coverage/parental coverage. Is VT allowed to purchase an insurance policy?
Student fees (included in athletic scholarships) allow the athlete to participate with student health services, but what happens to that athlete if they have a non-sports related illness and they have minimal coverage?
It doesn't seem that the NCAA allows reimbursement by schools in those instances.
Say, as an athlete, I get ebola virus unrelated to playing sports; is there any ability for VT to help with the bills? (Exaggerated scenario I know).
Beyond the health fee, aren't students required by the university to carry health coverage, either on their own or purchased from the school's provider? I remember it being the case when I was a student there (and full disclosure, it's required of me here in grad school too).
When I was looking at grad schools a bunch had a good rate for insurance that was bought through the school that I could buy.
Interesting choice in thread resurrection.
All I have to say is that, knowing how bad the injury situation was this year.... The built up good karma over this year is going to be fantastic
I agree. Law-of-Averages. I am looking forward to a very healthy 2015 football season for the Hokies.
After this season, some players better develop Wolverine's goddam mutant healing factor to balance it all out.
that's why we need Xavier Adibi to come back as a graduate assistant. Teach those Weapon X healing powers to the team.
I was Googling Fuller for reasons, and I found the title of this wikipedia article humorous. Seemed appropriate to post here.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
I'm not sure if I'm proud or ashamed that I already knew what this is.