Georgia Bulldogs: The balance between time and injury
A recent article by Chip Towers on Dawgnation.com got us thinking about the tightrope the Georgia Bulldogs coaches are walking this week:
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As excited as we all are now that Spring Training has finally started, Chip Towers of Dawgnation.com wrote an article today that should bring fans back to earth. As fans, we’re really excited to see players back out playing ball. We’re especially excited to see our favorites in their final years as well as some of the new freshmen. However, it’s worth remembering that coaches have some very real concerns to think about in this time of year. Those thoughts also do not always revolve around scheme and playbooks.
In it, he mentions that as exciting as practice is for fans, it’s often not quite as fun for many of the players:
"You know who spring practice isn’t particularly good for? For veteran, established upperclassmen who have already been through two or three of these things. Like they say about that other sport that’s going on this time of year, for the guys who already know the playbook, are physically and mentally fit and have proven themselves in real games that actually count, you just want them to survive and advance through spring football."
He then reminds us exactly how many of these Senior players Georgia has on their roster this year:
"Georgia has several players who fall into that category this year. Tailbacks Nick Chubb and Sony Michel come to mind immediately. So do outside linebackers Davin Bellamy and Lorenzo Carter and safety Dominick Sanders. These are just a few of the players who probably could do just as well lifting weights and running regularly and reviewing their playbooks and game video a couple times a week."
He goes into a lot more detail later in the article about what particular dangers some players might face. It’s a sobering article and one worth taking into consideration at this particular time. There is a lot of hype starting to swirl around the program for 2017. Players like Nick Chubb and Sony Michel coming back to Georgia has a great deal of people excited. However, it’s worth mentioning how differently those people might feel if a big name senior gets injured. Trenton Thompson’s recent incident is a reminder that top line players are not unbreakable.
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Now of course this is all speculative and shouldn’t dampen our overall excitement that football is back. However, as fans, we should remember the balancing act coaches are going to have to play in Athens the next few weeks. While we can be excited to see the team back out there competing again, we should also keep our fingers crossed that nobody ends up getting hurt.