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| How healthy is B.J. Daniels (Picture: TBO.com) |
While watching the Notre Dame, we got to see Daniels execute the offense, scrambling when he needed, and not making a costly mistake in the process. However, later in the game, Daniels could be seen on the sideline with the trainers working on his hamstring. When he emerged on the field, he was limping, even the pro-ND NBC reporters made note of the limp. That raises a red flag and makes us wonder, is he 100% healthy right now?
Now what we saw on Saturday night could have been a simple cramp. The team did sit for hours before taking the field, so there is the strong chance that sitting around and not being fully warmed up (Holtz wasn't given a 10 minute notice according to him before they resumed play), so he may have been stiff and slowed down.
Yet, there is still reason to mark this limp down. Daniels played nearly all of 2011 injured. Even this Fall, he missed several days with a hamstring issue, suffering an injury when he cut wrong and went down with the strain during practice. Coaches have said he is at full health and Holtz remarked yesterday that everyone was at practice and not limited by any injury (always a good sign).
So how worried should we be? A player like Daniels needs his legs to be at full health. A nagging hamstring, which is could appear to be for him, could continue to flare up and cause issues down the road. The success of this season lies in his hands and the Bulls will need him at full strength. If USF gets a solid lead in the game on Saturday or the other games, expect to see Eveld get a lot of snaps on the field to help keep Daniels healthy and get Eveld more game ready just in case this hamstring continues to cause issues.
Seems like the only answer to the headline question is "never healthy enough!"
ReplyDeleteHe's not listed on the injury report as of yesterday, so hopefully he's good to go. Ideally the game this weekend will be out of reach (for Ball State) so that Eveld can get some playing time and BJ can get some not getting injured time.
Remember that Big East teams don't have to give out an injury report like they did last season, so he could be ailing and not be mentioned, keeping it quiet.
ReplyDeleteHe was limping pretty bad in the 4th quarter, could be just cramped up, but history of Daniels is constant bumps and bruises. If USF goes ahead big vs. Ball State, Eveld will come in, no doubt about that.
Right - I think Skip said yesterday there were no major injuries, but he's obviously not going to say just how banged up his QB is.
ReplyDeleteHe's obviously not 100%, I'll go with the hope-it's-just-a-cramp plan too!
Exactly, Holtz would not state if someone is still a bit banged up. McCaskill was hampered on the defensive line with a nagging injury, Daniels could have a mild strain, etc. but unless they are massive and obvious injuries, no need to report it.
ReplyDeleteObviously nobody knows but in the past he's not hidden the fact that one of his players was injured. I mean it could have been he was sore from the 2 1/2 hour break.
ReplyDeleteI just think he was dinged and to say he's "obviously not 100%" is not a fair statement.