THE NERVE! (cleared to play)
By Danny Reagan / Abilene, Texas
UPDATE: ESPN just announced (8:45 p.m.) that Colt was cleared to play in the Alamo Bowl. And sure enough, mackbrown-texasfootball.com confirms the news. See complete Associated Press story at the "Colt in the News" link above.
Suzanne Halliburton of the Austin American-Statesman (now lead reporter for the UT beat) has a good story this morning about Colt McCoy's now famous (infamous?) pinched nerve.
If you recall, the nerve was pinched in the Kansas State game on a quarterback sneak and was coming along nicely until the last few minutes of the Texas A&M game when it (or perhaps it was a different nerve) was injured on a horrific blow under the chin.
Lots of good medical terminology and explanations in her story, and an affirmation of what a lot of us know about stingers: "The danger is when the injuries recur. Doctors say that if a player keeps suffering these type of stingers, there is a risk for career-ending damage ... a player with two previous injuries would have a 'minor' risk. Three or more would put the player in a 'moderate' risk category."
My next-door neighbor, an A&M alum, recounted the story of a similar incident during R.C. Slocum's Aggie reign years ago. After a player suffered several stingers, the coach told him he'd keep him on scholarship and he could suit up, but Slocum wouldn't play him because he didn't want the athlete to suffer permanent danger. The player eventually transferred out of A&M because he wanted to play. Don't know how that story eventually ended.
But according to Halliburton's story, the timetable for Colt's return is right on the bubble for when he might be cleared by the doctors. They want a player to go a month without pain before giving the OK to return from such an injury.
It'll be close, and with Jevan Snead now gone and ultra-blue-chip QB John Brantley now staying in his home-state, will Mack Brown take a chance on aggravating Colt's injured nerve again? The "blog-boards" are saying Mack already took a chance when he sent Colt on a sneak twice in a row at KSU, and then another chance when he played Colt against A&M instead of Snead.
Speaking of Chance: Colt's little brother Chance, the 6-2, 178-pound senior wide receiver for the Graham Steers, was named to the Associated Press second-team offensive squad. It'll be interesting to see where he signs in less than two months (probably Abilene Christian).
Mack Comments: On anything new with Colt McCoy: No, I think they'll want him to go home and spend some time at home, and they'll check him when we get to San Antonio. I would not expect anything new from our doctors until then.
On Matt McCoy: Matt's done a good job. I think he feels kind of like it's his turn. He obviously wants Colt to be healthy and play, that's the fair thing, and Colt's done really well for us, so we need him to play, but Matt knows his role would be to help our football team if Colt's not in there. (Quotes from Brown's Wednesday press conference)
In Other News: I'll be blogging from the press box at the Alamo Bowl and will be writing a "sidebar" for the Abilene Reporter-News. I'd also like to submit a list of fan comments about the game. So, once the game is over, if you want to give your opinion, either click on the "Comments" link under the blog entry or go to the chatroom and post something.