Horrible, awful, dreadful, terrible news: Trinton Sturdivant is hurt. There's no official word on the injury yet, but it looks like he is lost for the year. Of all the players to lose for the year, Sturdivant may be the most damaging. Unlike Stafford or Knowshon, there is no back up at left tackle, the most crucial offensive line spot, with any appreciable experience to speak of.UPDATE 9:15 AM: Per Georgiadogs.com, it's official. He's gone for the year.
Now, it sounds as if the line will be reshuffled to protect Stafford's blind side. Josh Davis is the official back up, but sources speculate that Kiante Tripp, Vince Vance, Cordy Glenn, or Clint Boling could move to left tackle. (Image: DawgPost)
The dim view says this is a serious, serious blight on any championship hopes. Without Sturdivant, we will return only two starters on the O line and one of those will be playing a new position. If Boling moves, every O line spot will have a new face this year. On the line, experience counts and we'll be breaking in someone new everywhere. A potential strength has now turned into a very ominous question mark.
An optimistic view says this is bad, but manageable. We may be young up front, but have talent to burn. Someone will step up. Last year, things looked much worse, but guys like Boling and Sturdivant stepped up and played great. If Stacy Searels could cobble together a good line last year, this year his job should be easier with added depth and talent.
I'm somewhere in the middle. We've got talent to replace Sturdivant, but we'll need some time for the line to gel. From a talent perspective, I'm not frightened of anyone until we face LSU's pass rush. I can't think of another really scary pass rusher on the schedule before then. But, scheme wise, Ellis Johnson, Nick Saban, and John Chavis will be staying up late tonight designing stunts to befuddle Josh Davis. Even if we can't find someone to fill Sturdivant's large shoes, you can still use Bruce Figgins or a back to slow a pass rush and protect Stafford's back. In other words, even if we can't find someone as good as T.S., we can scheme around it until the line gets some time to figure things out. But with this schedule, we had better figure things out soon.
And, please dear Lord, protect our players and their knees for the rest of the season.
Quinton
(PWD Note to Readers: We might not be able to update this story in the morning until lunch due to real-life duties; however, the beat writers will be all over it. If any of you guys see an official update feel free to post a link in the comments. However, if you don't have a link to an official, legit news source, please don't post injury rumors. Thanks.)
(PWD Note to Readers: We might not be able to update this story in the morning until lunch due to real-life duties; however, the beat writers will be all over it. If any of you guys see an official update feel free to post a link in the comments. However, if you don't have a link to an official, legit news source, please don't post injury rumors. Thanks.)
23 comments:
As I noted, to win a national title you need some breaks to go your way (no pun intended between break and what happened here).
Avoiding major injuries is something a team must do.
It's a huge loss, but come on... losing Stafford or Moreno would be a bigger loss. (What experience is there behind Moreno anyway?) Matt Stafford to Joe Cox is the difference in a #1 preseason team and a #8-10 preseason team. At least.
Anyway, a big loss, but this team is very good and very deep elsewhere. Boling can be a very strong LT (possibly pretty comparable to Sturdivant)... but it does leave the right side of our line (probably Vance/Tripp at that point) weaker. I think Tripp will be a very solid RT though. (Chester Adams was crap last year anyway, imho.)
Very bad news... but not the end of anything for '08 UGA... or even close to it. (We get a big break in that our two biggest SEC rivals, Florida and Tennessee, are very weak on the DL.)
If Sturdivant is out for the season, I think it's a bigger loss than Moreno, but not as big as Stafford.
This is a very significant loss but we are fortunate it happend now rather than 1-2 weeks into the season. CSS will have time to fill Sturdivant's spot and patch together the O-Line so Stafford and Knowshon aren't getting clobbered by South Carolina and ASU.
I'd really like it if major players stopped getting hurt. This seems like an annual tradition.
It seems like every team is losing a key player this year. BRUTAL.
Praying that this isnt as bad as it seemed...
I disagree that losing Sturdivant for the year would be a bigger loss than Moreno.
You can't teach a running back to do what Moreno does. You can't teach vision of holes that are about to open. That is a natural talent. You can't teach elusiveness; Moreno is awesome at that. Watch games from last year when Thomas Brown was in compared to Moreno. If thomas Brown ran a sweep right and the defense read it and went with him, Brown would just lower his head and take the loss or possibly gain a yard at best. Moreno would stop, change directions and somehow find a minor hole and turn a bad situation into 5-10 yards or even a touchdown (see the florida game).
Searels can coach at least one of the other guys to do what Sturdivant does. That doesn't mean Sturdivant is replaceable, but I think it's a lot easier to substitute the talent.
Either way...this sucks. At least we can redshirt him (assuming this is pretty bad).
Another site has stated this morning that "sources" are saying he has torn all 3 (PCL, ACL, MCL), possibly career ending as will require major re-constructive surgery . Can only hope this is way off-base somehow.
Very, very, very unfortunate.
This is just awful. The left tackle is such an important position when you have a right handed QB. Tough to compare this type of loss to a skill position like QB or RB, but I'd think it's the biggest loss you can have on either side of the ball, other than your QB.
Hope it's not as bad as it seems and that he recovers quickly.
I would caution everyone to wait for official test results. The USC blogosphere and message boards had Sanchez out for the year this weekend. That is not the case. Internet rumors are like fish stories...
I also disagree with TS being a bigger loss than KM. Moreno is irreplaceable, not because of his skills or his ability to make something out of nothing, but because of the swagger he brings to our team. We are a completely different squad with him in the backfield and the spark he brought last year when he was starting is proof enough of his value to the team. Our offense is completely different with him at tailback and defenses have to scheme against him because of that... I don't know of any DC's who are literally scared of Trinton like they are of Knowshon. I'd say Sturdivant was the 3rd most valuable player on offense.
Either way, this is a huge loss. He is incredibly valuable and our entire line will need to step up to help fill the void left behind.
I say we stop going contact in practice for a while... all these injuries seem more detrimental to our team's progression than the experience gained from the practices.
georgiadogs.com will have the official release in just a few minutes. Trinton is done for the year
UGA OT Trinton Sturdivant To Undergo Knee Surgery; Out For Season
University of Georgia sophomore offensive tackle Trinton Sturdivant will require reconstructive surgery on his injured left knee and will be out for the season according to Bulldog head coach Mark Richt
http://www.georgiadogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8800&ATCLID=1553045
Eff!
Damn. Who's gonna dance the Big Sturdi at the WLOCP this year?
This is obviously a huge blow but if anyone can whip a guy into shape to take over Trinton's spot it's Coach Searels. And who knows - this could be one of those team uniting things that ultimately helps them. Still sucks for Trinton though - I'm hoping for a full recovery.
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!
(now everyone quit your whining)
Obviously a huge loss - left tackle is the most important position on the line. But worse than losing Knowshawn? Come on. Moreno is the best player to wear red and black since Herschel.
Best of luck to Sturdivant to make a full recovery and return next season. We feel your pain after losing Cornelius Ingram for the year.
The season can't get here fast enough, these injuries are ridiculous!
Disagree that we will not face a good pass rush until LSU. We will face a very good pass rush at ASU. Watch some of their games from last year. They have two excellant DEs.
Hope we have time to gell before then.
I'm not a huge X's and O's kind of guy and this may just be my observation, but it seemed to me that alot of the big gains last year by both backs came from Sturdivant's side.
I felt like him coming in last year as a freshman and progressing like he did as the line matured was a huge key to our late season success.
I was really looking forward to him being a major factor this year and this news sickens me, but as it's been said before, it seems that we started with less to work with last year.
Good luck with your recovery, Trinton.
Go Dawgs!
Can you please remove the anonymous from the posting options. There are at least three morons that I need to rip who claim that TS is a bigger loss than Moreno? Wait, one if Paul Westerdawg! ARE YOU SERIOUS! Give me a break...
Gators blow me
Maybe I'm just too optimistic about the potential of Samuel and Caleb combined with pessimistic about Josh Davis and Vance (compared to Sturdy).
Either way, the criticism is fair. I doubt Quinton and Dawgnoxious agree with me anyway. They are probably laughing at me via separate email thread.
I still think this is worse. But whatever. Either way, it's bad.
Hopefully, this is the worst of it.
"Football is a rough game and often a cruel one." - John Facenda
Anon at 12:59, perhaps I'm being too thin skinned here, but wtf?
I suppose that because I suggested that losing Trinton was a big deal (Anon, 12:25) that you assumed that I meant that it was a bigger loss than that of Moreno? (Which I don't, btw).
And that makes me a "moron"?
And then you use the anonymous tag yourself?
Re-read the posts. I don't see your logic.
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