As you can imagine, the weekend of your typical Trojan supporter has been dominated by Mark Sanchez injury chatter. After suffering a dislocated left knee cap during a drill Friday, he was evaluated and determined to have no ligament damage, which has somewhat calmed the frayed nerves on the Left Coast.
The episode has already taken many turns, at first starting off as something minor with hope that he'd be back on the practice field on Monday to discussions of him possibly missing the opener against Virginia to wondering if he'd be ready to go for the Ohio State game.
From what I understand, the recovery time needed for this type of injury varies greatly depending on the degree of injury and other factors (Conquest Chronicles explores the injury in more detail if you're curious). Based on other players that have suffered the same injury, he's looking at anywhere from two weeks to six weeks before he's ready to play again. You can bank on Sanchez being in superb physical condition, so that will help speed up his rehabilitation -- all but ensuring that he'll be back for the Buckeye game, if not at full-health, close enough to it to hit the field.
But his return for that game could create other potential problems for Pete Carroll. What if backup Mitch Mustain goes out and lights the Cavaliers up? He has a season of quality starts at Arkansas under his belt, so it's not like he's green and if Sanchez is only 90% after watching Mustain play well, Carroll could be left with a difficult decision to make. What if Sanchez does get the nod, but at less than 100%?
You never want to cheer on injury, but the first major break in this game has gone to the Buckeyes.
The DTI Crew hit Media Day and scored some nuggets from the players. Our favorite: Beanie might be thinking of a Heisman pose for the Wolverines this season.
I risk pointing this out for fear of giving our distinguished friends from up North something else to blame defeat on, but researchers have evidence that supports the fact that a contestant wearing red will garner more favorable calls than a contestant wearing blue. Blue fail.
