Update: Through a Virginia Tech spokesperson, head coach Justin Fuente indicates Facyson will continue to be evaluated throughout the spring and Fuente is hopeful it's a short-term condition.
According to ESPN's Andrea Adelson, Brandon Facyson will miss spring ball with a knee injury.
Had a chance to catch up with Bud Foster. Said CB Brandon Facyson is out for spring after injuring his knee in offseason workouts.— Andrea Adelson (@aadelsonESPN) February 25, 2016
In 2014, Facyson suffered from a shin injury as well as a broken tibia and fibula fracture of his left leg.
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Kid just can't catch a break...or maybe he does that too well, depending on how you look at it.
Heal up, 31.
WELP
This is where the real value of a S&C coach comes in to play. Nearly every joint is stabilized and protected by muscle. These kinds of injuries can be prevented with proper training. It sucks to see it happen but Hilgart will hopefully begin to head off these types of injuries.
Could be that some people are just more fragile than others genetically?
That's a possibility. Musculoskeletal imbalances can contribute to acute knee injuries as well as bone structure to a lesser extent. Wide hips tend to distribute more force to the knee leading to more common knee injuries. This is why female athletes are (by some studies) up to 5x more likely to suffer a knee injury. Regardless of a genetic predisposition, strength training can decrease this risk.
I suspect that's likely. I know from the first time I saw Facyson step on the field, I always worried about him, injury-wise. For all his athleticism and skill, he's always looked too skinny to hold up to the physical abuse that the game of football dishes out. I know he's spent a ton of time in the weight room here and seems to be much stronger than he was as a freshman, but he still doesn't look big enough to me to fully withstand the punishment.
Yes, absolutely. It's a fact that gingers are physically more fragile than others. But seriously, you make a great point.
Kind of a presumptuous statement, don't you think?
Knee injuries are very closely tied to flexibility and strength.
https://www.acsm.org/public-information/articles/2012/01/10/basic-knee-i...
The American College of Sports Medicine address several issues that fall under a S&C coach's purview.
Yeah, I get all of that.
C'mon man. You know what I mean. What if Brandon fell off of Marshawn's hoverboard? How's a strength coach going to train away accidents? Point is, you don't have remotely enough info here to stir that pot.
Training in general will reduce even accidents. I never said this was a practice related injury. It's a fact that a more flexible/muscular individual is less likely to have a joint injury than someone who is untrained.
There does seem to be a lot of armchair M.D. out there. I think there is just disappointment and frustation in seeing him out, again. We do miss his talent and keep remembering him when he was healthy.
Pretty odd to see a presumptuous statement on a fan board...
*tips a wink.
So based on this statement, Gentry didn't do his job and didn't provide proper previous training....????
I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that we have a culture of knee injuries. Look back two or three years and it's really bitten us hard. Strength training is, without a doubt, a very beneficial way to proactively handle such injuries. I'm hoping Hilgart's new program is able to help protect our athletes.
If this knee injury is his Left, then his knee injury can be likely be attributed as secondary to his other left leg issues and injuries. Strength training can be both productive and counter-productive. The stronger a player gets, the more torque and strain they are placing on their ligaments, especially knees. Thus no matter what activity is being done, there is always a possibility of serious injury. Every body is put together differently and steps can be taken to help reduce knee injuries, but there is no sure fire way prevent them from happening. Knee injuries are inevitable, especially in football considering the extreme amount of lateral cuts that are being made on nearly every play, which is exactly why nearly every O-lineman has a complex knee brace on (to prevent roll-ups, side impacts, and provide high-torque support).
I'd bet if you looked close enough, every football program has knee injuries at the same rate Tech happens to have had. We just have our finger on the VT pulse. It's not a 'culture of knee injuries' at VT, it's football in general. You may not be saying that it's Gentry's fault, but that's exactly what is being said by saying that there's a culture of it by not training properly. The addition of Hilgart isn't going to magically make knee injuries disappear.
My initial comment was that proper training is preventative. I'm aware that we will never eliminate all knee injuries but I would love to see our guys stay healthier and that is the S&C coach's job. Our OLine is actually great in terms of knee health. Our running backs and corner backs have been hit hard. I'm just hopeful that Hilgart brings something new that starts to reduce the injury rate. I understand it is unlikely.
As far as a "culture of knee injuries" you're right, that may have been hyperbole on my part. Over 50% of all football related injuries are lower extremity injuries. I don't think anyone archives injuries by number and type for every program but if they did, I'd love to look deeper into it.
Have you done any research to back up the notion that VT football is an outlier with regard to knee injuries?
Per my comment above, no. Nor do I intend to. Just a recent string of injuries including two running backs and two corner backs, one of them a top NFL prospect, just make me suspicious. My initial comment was to bring to light another and very important role of the S&C coach. Injury prevention is just as important as Squat or Deadlift numbers to me.
College football is not band. It's a violent game played by players who have gotten much bigger and faster, but joints and craniums haven't. Players on every team get injured and not always in a predictable, linear fashion.
It's not just VT.
Okay, this is my last comment on this thread as I seem to not be delivering my point at all. I am not saying that there will not be injuries. What I was attempting to do with my original comment was convert our excitement over a new strength coach to knowledge about what a strength coach does besides makes our players bigger and stronger. Injury prevention is an awesome thing that comes around from proper strength training. I realize players go faster, they hit harder, padding and protection gets smaller. I am not addressing those at all. I am simply hoping all of our Hokies stay healthy with this new S&C trainer who seems to know his shit and has some great support.
I take my leave.
This is something I've wondered. Two questions I'd love to have answered, but I'm too lazy to research myself:
I think S&C definitely plays a part, but remember, these kids have limited time; they can't devote 12 hours a day to practice, film study, training, and recovery. I think genetics has a little more to do with it though.
Genetics have more to play with individuals who are growing (which you could argue most of our athletes are full grown when they reach college). Disorders of growth plates can absolutely influence knee injuries as well as disorders like Osgood Schlatter disease.
There have been specific genetic sequences that are attributed to achilles tendon injuries. To date, there are no specific genes linked to ACL injuries (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2658952/). ACLs are made up of collagen. The structure is the same and, hypothetically, there could be some pheontypic expression deviation in the amount of collagen but with how widely sports injuries are studied, it seems unlikely.
With all due respect to BF, would we be having this discussion if there was experienced and talented depth behind him? I think not. This sounds like the whole eating bacon is bad for you bs! Everything in moderation including poor recruiting. I am not saying BF was a poor recruit only that we are hanging out hat on him because we "think" we have nobody else in the 2 deep as good as BF.
^this post brought to you by "confusion" and the letter 3
Love it!
Lets hope he gets everything healthy before the season. We need him to step up.
Doesn't seem likely based on his prior history of injuries. Hopefully Stroman, Alleyne, Johnson, and Ladler are able to step up and contribute.
And Adonis Alexander. French said that he's got a great shot at moving to corner.
Both Fuller and Fayson never seemed to be completely healthy for us - why we so snake bitten? Wish we had had those two back there ball-hawking like they did their freshman years last year!
I actually spoke with him over the weekend. He's walking around just fine, but has some tendonitis in that knee. This is largely precautionary and from what I understand, very similar to what Bucky had to deal with during fall camp. As far as I can tell, if it was game week, Brandon would be playing. This is all assuming nothing serious happened in the past week or so.
Bitter's tweets seem to confirm that it is nothing too serious
Sigh, man....
Hope he gets well, gotta get our #1 db healthy in time for UT.
Liberty first. Of all people we should know not to overlook an FCS team.
But we haven't lost to UVA in over a decade
Well struck.
Leg for Freddie and the Bravos!
Boise came first in the short-week-of-death double wammy. Count me as a person overlooking Liberty, Jerrry Falwell can call god on his cellphone and it still won't help.
Couple seasons ago they played Unc and nearly beat them. Last season they didn't perform quite as well.
I'm on board with this... They're going to be replacing the greatest QB in LU history (who was a Combine invite) and his first game is going to be @VT. The other QBs on roster combined for 4 total completions last season, FOUR. Granted the most likely starter is going to be a r-Jr. (Masha) who started 2 games in '14, but this team has an steep uphill climb on this particular Saturday....
I'll add that the two games that Masha started at QB in '14 were wins against Coastal Carolina to win a share of the Conference title and the playoff autobid (Coastal was the #1/2 FCS team in country at the time depending on the poll) and JMU (#15 FCS) in the 1st round of the FCS playoffs.
As an LU alumni/fan I'm actually more worried about who will be taking over for John Lunsford, LU's kicker who did this to force overtime against Richmond as a Junior:
If the kick was so great, why did they plaster "LAME" across the bottom of the screen, eh?
Took me a second to realize that you were referring to the end zone.
seems like this kid is always getting hurt :(
hate to see that for the guy. He seems to be doing everything right on and off the field. It really saddens me that his career has been marred by injuries.
As a future doctor he wants to be able to relate to his future patients.
>Sighs< That's it.
Glad to see it wasn't anything serious. There are a lot of things that can happen in your knee that you can get taken care of that only a few weeks of a recovery. Better for it to happen now than in July or August.
On the bright side, more spring playing time for all the young guys to get better, and more competition in the Spring. We need him to be 100% next season a lot more than he needs more reps.
I wish I could give Facyson a leg.
What would he do with 3?
Sounds to me like the guy could use a spare...
#AlexanderToCorner just gained steam.
I can't explain to you why exactly, but I really want him to remain at safety
Something to do with this perhaps?
Maybe. Something about a kid with his size and range that makes me want to leave him in a position where he gets to cover the field and bring the hits. Seems like the NFL is, not surprisingly, trending to larger safeties and corners and I think with four years of safety under his belt he's a good bet to be a really high draft pick. I'd rather see him stay there than make the transition a la Exumtaur.
Yeah, I want him at safety too. Mook and Facyson at the corners with Alexander roaming the field like a cat ready to pounce is my preferred defensive backfield. But if Facyson can't go, we might not have another option.
Johnson and Alleyne redshirted last year, Stroman looked better in coverage at the end of the year too, and we get Ladler early (although cominb off an injury) who is our highest rated DB commit since the 2013 signing class. Hopefully that gives us enough talent to have a 2 deep and not have guys learning new positions. Will be interesting to see how things work out now that we have a safeties and CB coach
Alleyne actually played last year, mostly on special teams. 4 tackles in 12 games played, per Hokiesports
I liked what I saw out of Edmunds(22) last year as well.
Yea, I just have him penciled in as a starter whereas those other guys are ?
Agreed. IIRC we were forced to play Kam Chancellor some at corner due to depth issues, and while he was a decent corner, he's obviously a monster at safety.
Kam played some corner as a true freshman
I've seen this movie before, I did not like the results
The good news is that it's a different injury, and one that's fairly common and pretty easily treatable in the offseason. It's an annoyance and not ideal, but not something that should have a huge impact on him come fall, given that he's an experienced player who already knows how to operate in Bud's system.
http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/91209/virginia-tech-dc-bud-foster-...
ESPN looked at VT's defense, in the article it is mentioned Bud prefers Adonis at corner but I am not sure if Bud actually said that or if it is a mistake on ESPN's part since they also refer to Edmunds as a rover
I'm expecting:
BCB: Alexander
FCB: Facyson
Rov: Edmunds2
FS: Clark
Nickel: Mook
that's interesting. I'm not sure what to expect with a new DB coach. I thought the most talented/experienced player typically played boundary though. I find it odd that you have Alexander there instead of Facyson. I would have those two switched. What am I missing?
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Well that throws some cold water on the coming season......
It REALLY pisses me off that the rest of his bod will not cooperate and match the level of his talent and greatness.
It probably pisses him off too.
No clue why this thread got bumped recently, but I saw Facyson today on crutches with a big knee brace on.
Not good.