Kevin Koger Undergoes Surgery to Repair Achilles Tendon

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April 23rd, 2012 at 10:45 PM
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MGoShoe
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Kevin Koger Undergoes Surgery to Repair Achilles Tendon

The Toledo Blade's new Michigan beat writer Rachel Lenzi reports the unfortunate news.

Former Whitmer and Michigan football standout Kevin Koger underwent surgery to repair a partially torn left Achilles tendon, Koger's agent said today.

Rick Smith of Priority Sports and Entertainment in Chicago, said Koger, who will graduate from Michigan on Saturday with a degree in sport management, underwent surgery on March 27, five days after suffering the injury during training.

Smith would not comment on Koger's future in the NFL, other than to say, "He will be fine, and he will play in the NFL."

That's some seriously unfortunate news for Koger. Here's hoping his recovery goes smoothly.

LSA '89 - MBB Natl Champions, Big 10/Rose Bowl Champions | @MGoShoe

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April 23rd, 2012 at 10:50 PM | Smith would not comment on (Score:5 Normal)
BlueReign
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Smith would not comment on Koger's future in the NFL, other than to say, "He will be fine, and he will play in the NFL."

 

Smith would not comment other than to comment... Well played sir.

April 23rd, 2012 at 10:50 PM | A tough situation for someone (Score:5 Normal)
turd ferguson
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A tough situation for someone who is by all accounts a really good person.  I'm rooting for Koger no matter where he ends up.

April 23rd, 2012 at 10:51 PM | Oh man (Score:1)
Humen
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Gotta feel for the guy. We all thought he'd be drafted just a couple months ago, and then the combine snubbed him. Hope a team takes a chance on him. 

Thanks Thorin/Mgovideo for avatar

 

 
April 23rd, 2012 at 10:51 PM | Terrible Timing (Score:2)
Marley Nowell
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Hopefully KK can recover quickly.  Any chance he can be ready for NFL training camps?

"Relax you panic monger" -Megatron

April 23rd, 2012 at 10:56 PM | Long recovery (Score:1)
weasel3216
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Joined: 08/09/2009
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I think achilles are typically very long recovery processes.  Webmd says most take up to 6 months putting his recovery around October.

"Those who stay will be champions" -Bo

April 23rd, 2012 at 11:09 PM | I hope (Score:2)
Griff88
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his recovery goes well, and he gets a chance at the NFL.

April 23rd, 2012 at 11:01 PM | Getting A Shot... (Score:2)
LSAClassOf2000
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I would love to see Kevin Koger get a shot at the NFL some day - I think he would be a solid contirbutor to any team, as well as an incredibly positive influence, by all accounts. Best wishes on your recovery, # 86. 

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

Follow the random tweets of a Michigan alum - http://twitter.com/#!/LorneEC3

April 23rd, 2012 at 10:58 PM | That seriously sucks. I'd (Score:2)
Needs
Joined: 08/05/2008
MGoPoints: 4159

That seriously sucks. I'd doubt teams will draft a guy who was likely a later round pick (McGinn had him the 12th best TE in the draft) who has a recent injury requiring significant rehab. And entering the league as a undrafted free agent is a much tougher climb than even a late round pick, which means some team has made a significant investment. He seems like a great guy as well.

April 23rd, 2012 at 11:06 PM | Isn't that the same kind of (Score:3 Normal)
UMgradMSUdad
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Isn't that the same kind of injury Persa had? He was injured in one of the last games of the 2010 season and still had to sit out the first few games of the 2011 season.  His recovery time was in the neighborhood of 10 mos.

April 24th, 2012 at 12:15 AM | Yep. Exactly. (Score:1)
Section 1
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It's 10 months for an athlete.  Usually a lost season, one way or another.  But the repair can usually make you pretty close to 100%, and the risk of re-injury is very low.  Dominque Wilkins came back from his achilles repair and had one of the best years of his career.

Happened to me last year; it takes time to get back to normal.

 

 

April 24th, 2012 at 8:16 AM | Well... (Score:1)
justingoblue
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Persa had a complete rupture, Koger's is being reported as a slight tear. I don't know exactly how that should effect recovery time, but I'd assume Persa's would take longer.

Go Blue!

April 24th, 2012 at 11:40 AM | Fair point. (Score:1)
Section 1
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My rupture (and the basis for my curbstone opinion) was complete.  The thing is, that surgery is surgery, and most repairs, of partial tears or complete ruptures are done as open surgeries and not via percutaneous approach.  And the big thing is opening up the surgical site.

I hope Kevin Koger's recovery is a lot shorter than mine.  I expect that whenever it is accomplished, his recovery will be complete.

 

 

April 23rd, 2012 at 11:16 PM | Partially torn is WAY (Score:2 Normal)
samsoccer7
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Partially torn is WAY different than completely torn. He will have to work hard rehabbing but I'd expect much less recovery time than a full tear. The surgery is generally much less invasive which is already a head start coming out of the gates.

April 23rd, 2012 at 11:26 PM |  Didn't know that; thanks. (Score:2)
UMgradMSUdad
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 Didn't know that; thanks.  It still sounds like a painful and longish recovery.  The timing of the injury really sucks.

April 23rd, 2012 at 11:32 PM |   I completely tore mine (Score:3 Normal)
Reconnisaur
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  I completely tore mine about 3.5 weeks ago during PT at Ft.Benning. I had the surgery to stich it back together two weeks ago. They are telling me that it could be 6 months before I can even start to get active on it, then a year with full mobility running ect. They said it will be tight for about two years out.

April 24th, 2012 at 12:20 AM | See what I wrote above. Hang in there. (Score:4 Normal)
Section 1
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It will be six months before you are very active; sounds terrible I know but the nice thing is that as you rehab it, you will feel the progress and you'll keep gaining strenght and confidence.

And thanks for your service.  You will be back at full strength.  Stay with it.

 

 

April 23rd, 2012 at 11:52 PM | This sucks but Kevin is a (Score:1)
NoMoPincherBug
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This sucks but Kevin is a talented dude and will make it back.  Historically speaking, Tai Streets tore his just before the NFL draft.. and he ended up having a decent NFL career after it healed.

April 24th, 2012 at 12:00 AM | Brutal timing but drafted or (Score:2)
NorthernBlue8
Joined: 04/25/2011
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Brutal timing but drafted or not, some NFL team will be very happy with him

April 24th, 2012 at 12:15 AM | I feel sorry for him.  Good (Score:1)
KingGeorge17
Joined: 02/02/2011
MGoPoints: 124

I feel sorry for him.  Good guy.  I still think he will end up somewhere next year though.  Very underrated.  

April 24th, 2012 at 1:57 AM | That explains him rocking a boot at Dominick's after the Spring (Score:1)
FragglePac
Joined: 09/07/2011
MGoPoints: 11

That explains him rocking a boot at Dominick's after the Spring Game.  I hope it heals quick so he can get back on the field.

April 24th, 2012 at 8:26 AM | I've completely snapped both Achilles tendons (Score:1)
seksdesk
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And it's a bummer of an injury as far as recovery goes. My last rupture led to a blood clot, which led to no circulation to my inner calf muscle, which led to a Scooby-Doo villain-esque limp I now deal with. "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

Good luck to you Mr. Koger. 

April 24th, 2012 at 11:23 AM | I know people will probably (Score:0 Trolling)
April 24th, 2012 at 11:35 AM | I blame George W. Bush. (Score:2 Normal)
Section 1
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I mean, if we hadn't started a war for oil in Iraq, I'm pretty sure that Koger would still have two good achilles tendons.  It is quite possible that there was some sort of CIA plan that Cheney and Rumsfeld had hatched, to take out terrorist achilles tendons (code-name "Achilles' Heel") may have gone awry, and resulted in an injury to Kevin Koger's achilles.  What we need to find out, is how Barwis got involved.  It is all very surprising, because Brady Hoke was going to be a Secret Service agent; how can we be sure that he didn't do the training, and has been a sleeper agent all of these years?

 

 

April 24th, 2012 at 12:42 PM | Do you have any numbers to (Score:0 Overrated)
April 24th, 2012 at 11:41 AM | All kidding aside, I am only (Score:3 Normal)
panthers5
Joined: 01/12/2010
MGoPoints: -43

All kidding aside, I am only observing how many kids seems to be hurt frequently when trained by this guy.

April 24th, 2012 at 1:17 PM | Well this is pretty detailed (Score:1 Overrated)
panthers5
Joined: 01/12/2010
MGoPoints: -43

Well this is pretty detailed in "Three and Out". No need to be a smartace either, jmo.

MIssed games due to injury during RR era: Brandon Minor, Sam McGuffie, Troy Woolfolk, Mike Williams, Mike Martin, Steven Threet, Vinny Smith, Mike Shaw, MArtavious Odoms, David Molk, Fitz Toussaint, JR Hemmingway, Greg Banks, Denard Robinson, Devin Gardner, Tim McAvoy, David Moosemen, JT Floyd, Teric Jones, Jared Van Slyke, John Ferrara, Carolos Brown, Zac Johnson.

 

That is all I have time to look up. Thank you to collegeinjuryreport.

April 24th, 2012 at 2:56 PM | Right, but how does that (Score:0 Overrated)
April 24th, 2012 at 3:03 PM | Stack it up to this year and (Score:0 Trolling)
April 24th, 2012 at 3:34 PM | LOL wut? So every injury that (Score:0 Overrated)
April 24th, 2012 at 5:29 PM | How about you do it since you (Score:0 Trolling)
April 24th, 2012 at 10:40 PM | Ha! (Score:0 Overrated)
April 25th, 2012 at 8:29 AM | Thank you for your scholarly (Score:1 Overrated)
panthers5
Joined: 01/12/2010
MGoPoints: -43

Thank you for your scholarly response after complaining about lack of facts. Your reponse "it seems" was the factual response we were all looking for. Um from 08-10 averaged 11 athletes missing at minimum one game. Btw, I just checked SDSU injuries from 09 and 10 and they had 8 athletes sit out in two years. So add that to the um total this year and we are looking at an average of 4 a year for our current s&c coach compared to 11 a year under barwis.

April 25th, 2012 at 9:31 AM | You missed the point. (Score:0 Overrated)
April 25th, 2012 at 10:59 AM | Then bring your own facts to (Score:1 Overrated)
panthers5
Joined: 01/12/2010
MGoPoints: -43

Then bring your own facts to the table. Saying "it seems" while pointing out the I am using some wild assumption based on limited data and no facts makes you look very silly when you don't bring a single fact of your own. By all means, please educate us all. I am still waiting to hear something of substance from you. Yes I missed the point, because you complied all of the data of all 119 teams over the past 3 years, and then "it seemed" like normal what UM was going through. Sure. I'll take your word for it.

April 25th, 2012 at 11:20 AM | My "research" proves just as (Score:0 Overrated)
April 25th, 2012 at 11:26 AM | Just to play your game... (Score:1 Normal)
Section 1
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...I am just curious how many Michigan players missed games in 2007. 

The only reason I ask, is not because I think your methodology is acceptable, and 'just one more year of names' will prove anything one way or another.  It just occurred to me, that we had a whole bunch of injuries that year, with Chad Henne, Mike Hart, Carlos Brown, Obi Ezeh(?) Chris Graham, Alex Mitchell, and I don't know who else all suffering injuries.  I have no idea what database you are using for your info.  Could you plug 2007 into it?  Not that it means anything other than satisfying my stray curiosity...

 

 

April 24th, 2012 at 3:04 PM | I didn't go to Michigan, but I can see (Score:1 Normal)
bubblelevel
Joined: 06/01/2011
MGoPoints: 219

That your statistics are inconclusive.  Run the same report for the same time frame for any other coach or WVU when Barwis was there for that matter.  Strength coach is not the sole reason for injuries, if it is you should give him credit for injuries that didn't happen.  Also,  Kevin did not injure his tendon at Mike's.  This is a setback but I am confident he will make a roster, but might have to wait one year.  He'll do it.

April 24th, 2012 at 3:05 PM | Then refute it with some (Score:0 Overrated)
April 24th, 2012 at 3:48 PM | It seems odd to me... (Score:3 Normal)
Section 1
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It "seems odd" to me that you would blame injuries on a particular S&C coach; one who coached some of these athletes for a couple of years, then didn't coach them, and then they went back to him for more S&C work.  It "seems odd" to me that you would pick that one variable, and then just rattle off some names of injured players as your proof of comparison to other years, where you haven't supplied any names.  To me, that's just "odd."

If you disagree, then to quote the post above, "refute it with some facts."  Do the math, then show us the math, okay?

 

 

April 24th, 2012 at 5:44 PM | 2012 missed one+ game due to (Score:1 Normal)
panthers5
Joined: 01/12/2010
MGoPoints: -43

2012 missed one+ game due to injury: Fitz Toussaint, Will Heininger, Ricky Barnum, Cam Gordon.

 

There you go.

 

It is near impossible to go back to 2003-07 and look at who was out for WVU week to week.

 

I don't feel it is odd at all to think that we had handfuls of injuries under our prior S&C coach and then KK goes back to the same guy and is injured again. Study Barwis methods and come back and refute that some of his exercises put a ton of stress on tendons and legaments.

 

In 08 UM saw 9 players miss at least one game due to injury.

In 09 UM saw  6 players miss at least one game due to injury.

in 10 UM saw 16 players miss at lest one game due to injury.

 

That is an average of 11 kids per year. This year we had 4.

April 24th, 2012 at 7:28 PM | It is the job (Score:2 Insightful)
MStrength
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of the strength and conditioning coach to design a program that will be balanced in order to prevent injury, provide progressive overload in order to stimulate improvement in strength, speed, and power, and allow adequate recovery time for his athletes between workouts, because without recovery no progress will be seen. Koger may not have torn his achilles tendon working with Barwis, but Barwis' training may have set him up to tear it by creating muscle imbalances or overtraining him, which Barwis has been known to do (See: 6 hour combine prep days). Can every injury be blamed on a strength and conditioning coach? No. But when the vast majority of athletes working with a coach tend to keep getting injured in a specific area, such as the upper/lower leg in this case, you have to begin to question the methods of a coach. I used to be a big Barwis supporter, but after looking at his methods from an unbiased perspective, there definitely seems to be flaws in his program design that are attributing to these injuries.

April 24th, 2012 at 10:39 PM | Thank you for your response. (Score:1 Trolling)
panthers5
Joined: 01/12/2010
MGoPoints: -43

Thank you for your response. People will worship this guy until he dies regardless of what he turns out. I blindly followed him and declared him the best in the biz when he was here. After actually speaking with a few people who knew the s&c world they assured me he is not the best and that there a plenty out there as good or better. It is pretty obvious from the three years here that our guys got shoved around and were hurt a lot.

April 25th, 2012 at 9:47 AM | Sorry that you feel bad about your having "blindly" followed... (Score:1 Normal)
Section 1
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I am sorry, that you feel so bad about your having earlier "blindly followed" Mike Barwis.  Personally, I try to not do anything "blindly."

And for that reason, I question your (and others') spouting off some random names as though you have a serious quantitative basis to question Barwis' methods.  I didn't, and don't, follow Mike Barwis "blindly," and I don't read your assertions blindly either.  I don't "worship" anybody either.  If I had a suggestion for you, it might be to avoid all of those extremes; don't "worship" andybody, and don't take it on faith from a few people you hear from, as to something as important as an epidemiological basis asserting a theory of serious personal injury.  Instead, calmly turn to real experts and real data, using peer-reviewed methodologies.  If you have any of that, by all means feel free to share it.

 

 

April 25th, 2012 at 10:54 AM | LOL. Ok.   When every (Score:2 Insightful)
panthers5
Joined: 01/12/2010
MGoPoints: -43

LOL. Ok.

 

When every publication that had anything to do with UM essentially crowned him the best in the biz and made sweet porn love to Barwis it is hard not to fall into the trap. I don't claim ot be an expert in the strength and conditioning field but I do coach and work very close with our S&C coach, who has played in the NFL, and knows a lot of reputable people in the S&C world. When I asked him about Barwis he laughed and said he has a cult like following because of his past in MMA and his wild motivational speeches that hit youtube. Then came the chocolate milk craze, that he said has been happening for a decade with US Olympic Athletes. Then the hour long interviews where he yells out scientific garbage. Rather then speak in a language everyone can understand, he goes off on rants that very few can follow.

Anyways, part of being a fan is being fanatical, so I followed the S&C coach of the team I obsess over, I doubt anyone else in our fanbase did the same thing (eyes roll).

I aksed our S&C coach time and time again why are we not doing the Barwis program, and his answer was always the same. He said he would never put his kids through that type of workout because it put far too much stress on the joints and tendons. Now I didn't ask him to give me a case study on why and how, so sorry I am disappointing you. Coincidentally, we used Mikey Marrotti system.

 

April 25th, 2012 at 8:22 AM | That proves absolutely (Score:0 Overrated)
April 24th, 2012 at 8:03 PM | "Contributing." Not "attributing." (Score:1 Normal)
Section 1
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And it is a good thing that you didn't say "causing," because any sensible epidemiologist or heallth care professional would tell you that you are out of your mind.  The sample size is too small; the incidents too varied; the injuries too disparate; the methodology totally lacking.  

Yours is the kind of evidence-free anonyomous ranting that the internet is famous for, isn't it?

It is of course possible that "Barwis' training may have set [Koger] up to tear it by creating muscle imbalances or overtraining him .".  .."  It is also possible that Koger's achilles was partially torn by the horn of an invisible unicorn.  Either one "may" have happened.

 

 

April 24th, 2012 at 11:25 PM | And just about anyone (Score:2 Underrated)
MStrength
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Oh noez i used the wrong word. And anyone in the strengtha and conditioning industry who isn't best pals with him will tell you that Barwis is not the "best of the best" and that his methods are predisposing his athletes to injuries. Barwis makes it seem like he is great because he uses big words and talks really fast. Most athletes and people in general aren't educated in exercise physiology and will blindly follow whatever they hear simply because they don't know any better. Barwis also tries to make it sound like his style of training is unique and he is the one who created in when in fact olympic lifting and proprioceptive training are quite common. Barwis gets people to buy in to his methods, but that doesn't mean his methods are right. Barwis does not grasp the concept of training economy. That is, using multi-joint exercises that give you the most transfer over to the playing field and not heaping large amounts of exercises on athletes. Instead, Barwis uses multi-joint exercises, but uses a large amount of volume which very few athletes can handle. He also has a very unbalanced program. I've seen his workouts so I'm not just pulling this out of nowhere. Overtraining and muscle imbalances are two huge causes of injuries. Just because every single athlete was not getting injured and that some athletes made progress does not mean his training style is fantastic. Some athletes succeed in spite of what they do in the weight room and not because of it

April 25th, 2012 at 8:00 AM | Just Blame Mike (Score:1 Normal)
bubblelevel
Joined: 06/01/2011
MGoPoints: 219

Anything referencing an injury to any player that Barwis has a connection to ends up being an opportunity for S&C experts to run with posts on just how much of a snake oil salesman and negligent trainer Mike is.  You can't build your business by tearing down the competition.  You have to get more customers by wanting them to "like" and believe in you.  Barwis' biggest problem is that he stayed in this area and his business is doing well.  Your jumping to way too many conclusions to fit your narratives.  

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