Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments

If I understand medical hardship waivers, since Shai has played in games, we will list him on the injury report the rest of the season to establish a paper trail for the application process. Need a record of him being listed as out due to injury to support our claim.

In a former life. All that got shut down, mostly after they named O'Cain playcaller and entirely after the Loeffler hire.

This.

Mike Imoh and Cedric Humes were not NFL caliber tailbacks, yet we had a sustained ground game with them in the backfield. We have lost something in that area that is way bigger than the players on roster.

Wait a minute. There was a mixup on here a few days ago where Joe mentioned Shai's surgery in October 2014 and a couple people (me included) got our years mixed up and thought it was talking about needing a new surgery. I was getting that mixed up with how TG kind of let it slip that Kendall was having knee surgery before it was officially announced by that AD.

So many injuries to keep straight.

Brain fart. My bad.

Am I wrong in thinking that someone with a very similar screen name went on a similar anti-Brewer rant recently? I notice this guy has only been a member for a couple weeks, and I think that's about the time the original Brewer-basher got community banned.

Yeah, I'm not even saying he's wrong. It's just close to the polar opposite of my own viewpoint. I see compulsory military service as a civic duty, even if I'm a citizen of a country that doesn't require it.

Okay, perhaps I am misinterpreting you. When you said this:

Both Shai and Marshawn have hurt themselves again trying to get back this season on promises of playing time

I interpreted it to mean they were "pushing too hard," meaning they should not have been allowed to be doing the level of work they were doing. You reinforced that opinion when you said:

If Shane would have played it safe and shut them down for the year (like most would have) then they probably (the only point you may have is here) wouldn't have gotten re-injured.

The key phrase here is "shut them down for the year." I interpreted that to mean a reduction in workload/activity. But both had been medically cleared to return to athletic activity. So my natural conclusion was to assume you meant they shouldn't have been allowed back to full activity as soon as they were. This seemed supported by your assertion that:

I think every sane person would feel a lot better about the injuries if they happened after a longer rehab period instead of the absolute minimum.

But that's not how medical clearance works. There's no "minimum." There's no arbitrary time frame. The rehab period ends when medical staff examine the reconstructed knee and declare it fit for athletic activity. The staff did that, and if they did their jobs, they made the call based solely on the physical condition of Marshawn's knee, without consideration of the number of days that had passed since the injury occurred.

The only way to enforce a reduction in activity level is for medical staff not to clear the player for a certain level of activity. Once the medical staff gives the okay, that player is then basically on his own to work his way back, working with the strength and conditioning coaches to get back in game shape. The S&C coaches can encourage moderation, but it's up to the player himself to set his own pace. Marshawn has hustle. He's a baller. He was gonna be on the upper end of the workout spectrum by nature of his personality.

When you say:

Being medically cleared to return means you can but not necessarily that you should.

I don't know what it means to say that a player "should" return. But I can say with certainty that being medically cleared, in Marshawn's case, means the medical staff declared the knee ready for unrestricted athletic activity. From a medical standpoint, the knee was good to go, and Marshawn went. Timidity after an injury is obviously not an issue with him. He trusts his body, perhaps a little too much.

The defense can play the game of their lives and it won't matter for spit if the offense posts another 100 yard outing.

Is Searels expected to be back on the sideline this Friday? The absence of a position coach shouldn't have that big an effect, but it seems like the O line has regressed considerably in his two one week absence. (Thought he was out for Pitt too, my bad.) I get a lot of that is tailbacks not finding their lanes against ECU and Pitt's nasty front four wrecking Yosh and McGlock, but I will feel a lot better if Stacy is in the house to coach em up in-game.

My bad, thought I heard he missed another week with the back issues.

You...have an odd definition of slavery.

This. A lot.

I understand the frustration over both Shai and Marshawn needing additional surgeries. But the vibe I'm getting about all the innuendo about someone (Shane, the trainers, the medical staff) doing something wrong to cause it just seems like sour grapes to me. At some point you have to start pressing yourself to return from an ACL tear. That risks reinjury. Like you said, the timeframes are absolutely within the norm.

People want someone to blame because it's human nature. We feel better in a bad situation if there's someone we can flip off about it.

I agree with the sentiment that Shane not being emphatic that Marshawn probably encouraged him to put a lot of effort into rehabbing in hope of seeing the field. However, and I've said this so many times now, once a medical staff clears you to return to physical activity, you're cleared. You don't get "more healed" by sitting on a reconstructed knee a few extra months. At some point, you're gonna put strain on it, and if you tweak it, you tweak it.

What we need is an AMA with an orthopedic surgeon.