UConn Loses DE/LB Greg Lloyd to Lingering Injury for 2010
From the Connecticut Post care of CFTalk, UConn defensive end/linebacker Greg Lloyd will miss the 2010 season with a lingering knee injury.
Lloyd was second on the team in tackles last year, second-team Big East and expected to start this fall at defensive end. He was also mentioned in Tim's UConn preview.
Not necessarily something to celebrate, but for our sake, encouraging news. Their linebacking corps is still game, but their defensive line is that much less dynamic without him.
Was he their best defensive player?
Probably.
Very interesting. When I was writing the preview, I wasn't sure what his role was going to be this year. Still, he was one of the most talented guys on their defense, so losing him is just another (small) bump in our chances to win.
I never root for injuries to players and that sucks for UConn. Hopefully we can take advantage. I know our opponents took advantage of our injuries last year.
No big deal. Their DEs are going to be rendered useless when Denard torches them on the read option anyway.
I don't root for injuries either, but Denard Robinson and broken ankles for opposing defenses are going to go hand in hand.
God bless him and I hope he is able to make it back to a speedy recovery for September 11.
Long plane rides can be hard on the joints, owing to the lack of moisture in the cabin. Avoiding the trip to Ann Arbor would likely be beneficial to his recovery process.
Mobile QB's have also been known to break ankles, surely compounding the healing process. Maybe he can watch while enjoying a Barwis milkshake...
This was actually mentioned in the Rivals preview of UConn that they posted about a week ago. Not saying this is old news, but Rivals left Lloyd out of their line-up for UConn, and still ranked them at #20.
That is one of the dumbest-looking sweatshirts I've ever seen that Edsall is wearing.
After rereading that preview, specifically the projected starters at DE, they have some small ends that are going to be dominated by our OL. Their projected starters are 227 and 231, making them smaller than Mouton and Ezeh, respectively. RVB, our DE, is about the size of their bigger DT. They have a decent sized MLB (240lbs) but their other 2 LBs are 217 and 219 (granted, that 217 is Lawrence Wilson who is supposedly pretty good, albeit undersized).
That's a very small front 7. Those linebackers will have to be very talented to make up for all the mass they're giving up. This bodes very well for us.
Didn't Craig Roh play at about 230-235 last year? Not to say that the rest of their guys don't seem relatively undersized, but you can still be effective at that weight, although it will be more difficult.
The number that sticks in my head is 238 for Roh, but even if he was 230-235 like you say, that's still a lot bigger than 217 and 219. Stephen Hopkins is about 230, give him the ball and tell him to plow.
and also tell him not to fumble.
Even if Roh played at 230 (I think that's even a slight overstatement, but that's about where he was listed), the other bookend was BG at over 260 pounds. Mike Martin, Renaldo Sagesse, and Big Will had plenty of mass in the middle, too. UConn won't have that.
Their DTs are pretty light as well. I believe I mentioned this in the summer preview. If our OL is as physical as we're hoping, we should be able to move the ball on them.
I think people are giving UConn WAY too much credit for beating the Smelly Genitals of South Carolina in their bowl game. I suppose that is because SC an SEC team but, that game was the battle of the terrible QBs.
I know I'm a heathen but UConn is nothing but a solid team who got bowl elligible by beating Rhode Island and Syracuse.
Stop the run and we win.
I had a chance to watch 5 of U Conn's games last year, including their bowl game.
They look solid with few glaring flaws, but not overly impressive. A very good running game with an occasional pass, and not many turn overs. Sound but not flashy. Against the Gamecocks, USC could not catch a pass and looked unprepared. Again, U Conn looked good - but not even very good. Good enough to win.
I will not underestimate or look past U Conn - we are not good enough to do that. But, I feel like we can handle them.
I concur with MCalibur - stop their run and we win. I would throw in "We take care of the ball", we win.
I agree that the victory over SC wasn't such a huge deal, but we'll probably become bowl eligible by beating UMass and Bowling Green.
From your lips to God's ears.
for alternate use of "game"
I'm going to be laughing every time I think of that tonight,
thanks!
lol (see)
While I never celebrate or root for injuries to the teams that we will be facing, injuries are a part of the game, and I am certainly not going to cry over this. UConn is a strong opening day adversary, so anything that ups our chances is fine with me.
Lest anyone think of me as a monster cackling over an injury to a kid, I wish Greg Lloyd a long and prosperous NFL career. I hope that he goes on to be a monster DE / LB, starting somewhere around the second week of this season.
I never like to hear about college players getting injured and having to miss an entire season. I'm sure his team will miss him. For the record though, I think we'll beat Connecticut with or without Lloyd.
it always drives one question to me.
Most rankings have UConn in or near the Top 25 to start the season, and none have Michigan ranked (unless they are complete division 1 rankings, in which case we're about 60, usually). So why is it, then, that most of the game previews I see for this are like, apologetically pro UConn, as though hedging all of their bets, and setting the line so close.
I guess the question is, are the predictors not really sure if UConn is that good, or are they not really sure if Michigan is that bad?
And therin lies the problem with pre-season rankings. What do we really know about any teams until we see them against real competition. I for one, feel rankings should not come out until week four or five.
I agree. Every preseason ranking has UConn ahead of Michigan, without exception it seems. However, the experts are pretty split as to who wins that game. Is the home field advantage enough to bridge that gap?
My opinion is that preseason rankings aren't so much a ranking of who is better than whom as much as it's a prediction of where these teams will finish, record-wise. According to the pollsters, UConn has a pretty decent chance at finished 8-4 or 9-3 before the bowls, and UM is kind of a longshot to have a comparable record. This is not necessarily based on how good the teams are, but more about how hard their schedules are.
IMO, this is a flaw in the system, but it seems to be the way they do it.
Rankings always have lag time associated with them. Remember, Michigan was #25 going into 2008. Pre-season rankings are especially bad…
I think a big part of it is the mystique of UM and the fact that this team "should" be better than it has looked the past two years. Despite the struggles, RR has still recruited like a top-25 program, the players are top-ranking worthy, and to a man, UM probably has more raw talent and ability compared to UConn. But of course, one team is coming off a bowl game and the other is coming off the two worst consecutive years in its history. So while the objective facts say UM is much worse than UConn, conventional wisdom is that UM should be very competitive against what is a good UConn team.
This is big, in my opinion. UConn probably doens't have a lot of depth in general, and all of the preseason predictions for them have talked up their front seven, which they are supposed to rely on as their young secondary was inexperienced and bad last year. Without a major player from the defensive line, it will be that much tougher to stop people.
Agreed, I don't like to have people hurt, but Michigan needs all the help it can get this season.
Let's take all the help we can get with any of these games. I offer no apologies to any opposing teams for their injury problems.
I agree. It's nice to have the pendulum swing back our way for once.
We will see several more UConn players go down with (phantom) injuries before September 4th. They started scouting Denard and now they are SCARED! UConn might as well forfeit.
*Holds breath*
Greg Lloyd is a very good player, don't discount this as just another injury. The kid has been starting for 3 years and was moved to defensive end because of his speed and pass rushing abilities. I never advocate a kid getting injured but this will help Michigan. I still think UConn can't handle the spread'n'shread, so we'll see.
Randy Estall has had problems with fast QB and with it looking more like Denard will be the starting QB. everyone knows the DE has a huge job in the read zone and Lloyd was one of those fast FL kids. If Ucon loses speed at that position I think it gives us a big advantage.
Lloyd can probably take a medical redshirt this year, but it still stinks for him.