Bleak injury news out of Blacksburg

By: Chris Coleman | Lead Analyst and Columnist
Ronny Vandyke

The injury news coming out of Blacksburg tonight is bleak.  There’s no way to dress this up, so let’s get right into it.

RB Tony Gregory (r-Sr.): Gregory has suffered yet another ACL tear, and his career is over.

Whip Ronny Vandyke (r-So.): His shoulder injury will require surgery, and he will miss the 2013 season.  His backups at whip are walkons Josh Trimble (r-So.) and Derek DiNardo (r-Jr.).  Kendall Fuller (Fr.) is expected to play this position in nickel situations.

OT Mark Shuman (r-Jr.): Shuman suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee.  He will have surgery and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.  Tech’s other offensive tackles are Laurence Gibson (r-Jr.), Augie Conte (r-Fr.) Jonathan McLaughlin (Fr.), Wyatt Teller (Fr.) and Parker Osterloh (Fr.)

RB J.C. Coleman (So.): Coleman has a high ankle sprain in his left ankle, and a regular ankle sprain in his right.  Trainer Mike Goforth thinks he can be back for Alabama, but realistically there’s no way he’ll be 100% for that game.

OT Augie Conte (r-Fr.): Conte has a left ankle sprain.  He may or may not scrimmage on Saturday night.  If not, the Hokies expect him back early next week.

We’ll have more tomorrow on the ramifications of these injuries.

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  2. This only makes all the attritions more nerve racking. For example, if Manning were here, Fuller would have probably played nickle full time and Manning would have battled it out with Facyson. Having Tookes might have helped a bit too.

    The OLine situation is just bad luck. Also recall we lost guys like Acree over the spring that would have helped. Whats scary is that we have a bunch of true freshmen that are likely going to be playing on the OLine this year.

  3. J C Coleman with a high ankle spain on one side and regular sprain on the other leg, man that is just too bad. High ankle sprains take a long time to come back from so if they bring him back too soon he will not be the player he could be if they keep him off of it for 6 weeks. With all that cutting he has to do it could be next spring before that injury completely heals.

  4. What a bummer. I was looking forward to RVD playing whip, and Tony Gregory getting some touches in his SR yr; realize he was deep on depth chart, but he did have some nice runs and a good team player. Postives vibes out there to you guys to get healthy and strong.

    More positive vibes out there to all that need to step up sooner than expected. Find that strength within you and exceed all expectations. As they say; “Ya gotta believe!!!”

    GO HOKIES!!!!

    to quote Donald Sutherland in Kelly’s Hero’s; “Always with the negative waves Moriarty.” This guy is sending postive waves to the team!

      1. Well are we.?.. Between defections, guys leaving, and now injuries we seem to be down to about 70-75 healthy guys on scholarship. I “get” that it means guys who wouldn’t be playing are going to play, BUT, they weren’t playing for a REASON; because they were not READY to play.

        I’ll accept it as a silver lining, but it STILL smells more like chicken @#@@ than it does chicken salad!

        Sorry for being so negative, but this is getting hard to take, yet take it we must!!

        1. who knows if they’re actually “ready to play”…just bc they were not projected starters doesn’t mean they aren’t necessarily ready. Injuries happen all the time and then the next guy steps in. Sometimes they’re ready sometimes they’re not, and usually its somewhere in between. By your logic guys like Dadi Nicolas and Cory Marshall aren’t ready to play. Don’t get me wrong this is BAD news, but you can be ready to play and not be a starter. That’s kinda the whole point with football.

    4. The silver lining is that a lot of young guys are going to get to play and get some experience ….so in 2 or 3 years we should be better.

    1. yeah, but what about who plays DE in his place?

      Reminds me of the graffitti:

      I like grils
      That’s girls!
      Yeah, but what about us grils?

      1. Yes He will……

        Isaiah 40:29 – He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

  8. And the July 31 trading deadline is history. Geeze, we can’t even bring up someone from the minors. (MLB strategy overlapped into the Tech pre-season camp for all you non-baseball affectionados.)

    I was planning on not watching the ‘Bama game at all…I may be lost for the season like RVD. I have already totally given up on my Phillies. What will I do this fall…watch “Dog With a Blog” on TV(?). Yeah, go ahead, you can call me a fair weather friend. I need a shot of something to get me out of this funk.

    I DO think all these injuries are the result of INTENSITY in practice, which is a good thing. That intensity and competitiveness gets us tougher in the long run. I just wish the long run was over with already.

    1. I will be at every home game this year at least…but I’m definitely feeling you O&M 69!

    3. go in knowing we will be 6-6 at best and watch the games for player improvement, new plays in the off., etc. and accept the losses early. it makes the season easier to watch.

  9. Geeezz….. How serious is the practice?? is it like a 100% effort ,full speed full contact practice?

  10. Um…..what happens if–GOD FORBID–Edmunds gets injured? Just unbelievable to think that Holmes and Gregory aren’t even in the picture, even though they were probably #3 and #4. I mean, I hope to heck that JCC makes a speedy recovery but high ankle sprains are usually just plain ugly and Bama’s D is not exactly one you want to face if you are not feeling 100%.

    This is truly unreal when you think about it. And that is a major bummer on RVD.

    This time last year, who woulda thunk we’d be without Exum, RVD, Holmes, Gregory, Shuman, Manning, et al for the first game??? I wouldn’t have.

    And I worry about Coles’ ability to hold up.

    Oy. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye.

  11. Just had a feeling about RVD…when my son was being looked at by some smaller schools a few years ago, he tore his labrum making a tackle. He was never right after that, and subsequently, had to give up football. Not saying this is going to happen to RVD, but I can tell you if it’s this type of injury, it’s a long, slow process, and it won’t be as strong as it was before…Sucks for him for sure.

  13. If the measure of a team is how well they respond to diversity, we’re going to find out a lot about the 2013 Hokies in the first month of the season. At this point, I’m less concerned with winning or challenging Alabama than I am about getting out of that game without any more injuries. Is it too late to put out an APB for JUCO help?

    1. There’s a LACK of diversity with injuries, but plenty of adversity…sorry, editor in me.

  16. We have to move Dahman McKinnon to Whip now, especially for the team like Alabama, Miami.

  17. Wow. Good thing McLaughlin isn’t a typical freshman. And at least we know Trimble can play in space and tackle (based on his good special teams play, he was a gunner last year, wasn’t he?) I was looking forward to having a playmaker at Whip, hopefully one of these guys seizes the opportunity. It seems like several of our recruits the past couple years projected at Whip, hard to believe the depth is all walk-ons. I reckon its time to ante up and kick in folks.

  18. We just cannot catch a break! It is like the basketball team has extended their jinx on the football team.

      1. Looking more and more like Tech’s soul was sold to the devil in order to get the invite to the ACC country club.

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