Vincent Smith Progress?
I'm not at liberty to say.
You've said too much already.
Well I guess I failed miserably at my attempt to be funny, haha. Or no one got my attempt at the joke. Better luck to me next time.
I thought it was funny. But for some reason I assumed you'd get nailed for it.
Was that he'd be ready for fall, and that was confirmed as recently as February:
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/vincent-smith-recovering-well
Basically, we can glean that his surgury was technically successful, but that we won't really know if he's "ready to go" until he starts running around in fall practice. Just my uneducated guess.
Does anybody know if he'll be the same RB out there? Like do backs usually fully recover from a torn ACL or are they never the same again?
Lots of players get back to their original form nowadays, but he probably won't be 100% this season.
is a tricky thing. Some people can recover in under a year, and others seem to take longer to get mentally/physically back to playing shape. I tore two ligaments in my left knee playing football my senior year in high school and the docs told me that I'd be "better than I was before the injury" after rehab was finished. Probably the biggest load of crap I ever bought in my life. Modern science is amazing, but no one is ever the same after living through something like that. I really comes down to how quick of a healer he is, and how willing he is to put himself in similar situations so soon.
Not being an athlete, I hadn't considered the fact that even though structurally your body might be just as good (or supposedly better...), you still have to mentally be willing to put yourself back into the same conditions that caused your injury in the first place. Can't be easy.
I had knee surgery and after 2-1/2 months in a cast and rehab, I had a hard time convincing myself that joggin wasn't going to re-injure me. I have to agree that the mental part was much more difficult to overcome than the pain. I can't imagine going back to being a collegiate running back. I guess it helps to be 19 years old. Not only will his body recover quicker, but he is still too young to know that he is mortal.
a traumatic injury. When I was in 6th grade, we were playing soccer in the playground, and this girl kick me in the crotch so hard I was seeing stars. To this day, every time a girl walks by me with her hair in pony tails, I flinch......
playing hoops a few years back. Granted, I'm not 18-20 years old anymore but the recovery was much longer than I expected or was told.
I (partially) tore my MCL and LCL (no surgical repair on those). Cracked the tibial plateau and had a tear in the meniscus (surgically repaired). The surgeon said I'd be good as new by 6 weeks after surgery.
I rehabbed but was still in bad shape two months afterwards. My knee was still like a grapefruit and the surgeon's opinion changed each time I saw him (less rosey). My last follow-up included a cortizone injection with the largest needle I've ever seen (for the record: i hate needles!).
Anyhow, it took me a solid two years to recover fully. I'm sure each case is different and being in my 30's didn't help.
I would love to see Smith 100% and on the field for Uconn.
I had ACL replacement surgery 3 years ago and was pretty much 100% physically within about 8-9 months (with the support of a knee brace for mental support). However, take someone who is in much better shape than me (safe assumption) and add more determination for recovery than me (another safe assumption) with a Mike Barwis recovery regimen, and I would assume he will be at or very near 100% early on this season if not before, IMO.
And you are very correct about the mental aspect of your injury. Forgive my comparison to a highly-trained athlete, but I was playing indoor soccer and basketball and it took a little while for me to be comfortable making the same cuts, stops, etc. out of fear of the same thing happening again. Perhaps that fear is what has me watching guys like Vincent on Saturday rather than joining him. :-)
Can't wait to see him tearing it up this Fall! GO BLUE!
I also had reconstructive surgery to repair a torn ACL and I think that the problem with making cuts and stops is not purely mental. The last thing to come back after my surgery was fine balance and control. The surgery itself and the months of limiting movement during recovery take something away. I hope Smith gets that back soon, but I would not be surprised (or worried about his future) if he was a little off this season. It seems like most athletes in highly competitive sports take about a year to fully recover.
....little did they know that the U-M medical team made some enhancements to Smith when he was under the knife....creating Weapon X.
We can rebuild him...better than he was before...faster than he was before.
He grew jealous of Denard's dilithium, so they gave him a strong dose of adamantium.
I see him walking the halls every day. As far as I can see he has no limp anymore, no cast or boot or anything like that. I think I read an article on Rivals recently that said he was like 80% and should be in the 90%'ish range by the time practice starts in Aug.
i've seen him walking around recently and he has a noticable limp. some may say its just his swagger, but i would call it simply a small limp.
Normally players with ACL injuries get back to 80 to 85% health after 6 months, but usually it takes another year after that to make up the last 100%. I can't imagine that he will be completely comfortable in August and September. I am not in the training room, so I don't know exactly how far along he is, but running on a treadmill can only do so much. Think about Onyewu of the USMNT. He looked stiff and uncomfortable in his first few games back. Or Tom Brady - he needed time to trust the leg and get his mobility back and he doesn't have to make quick cuts or use the right stick to execute a juke move. I am not expecting Vincent Smith to contribute much this fall , but I really hope he proves me wrong. He showed his vast potential late last fall and I wish him a speedy recovery to FULL health.
He has some Wes Welker in him, because that guy is a freak 6 months and he is out there running routes insane
we should be more concerned with the clowned fool at :24 of this video... Vincent will recover, this other gentleman may not
BTW, great play by Forcier as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEP9UpztYB4&feature=youtube_gdata
I don't remember anyone saying more than half... Some (me) have posited that there were upwards of 30k, maybe 35, I don't recall anything more. Unless I missed it.
...that Cox, Toussaint, and Hopkins will more than make up for any recovery delays that Smith may encounter. Can't wait to see the offense click this year!
Those are 3 good RBs, but they don't have Smith's moves. V Smith also was a pretty good receiving threat last year.
Also, RR said that there will be one or more slot guys getting reps at RB. Rumor and conventional wisdom suggests that this be guys like TRob, Gallon or maybe Kelvin Grady - guys who are electric with the ball in their hands and carried the ball a lot in high school, but won't get as many touches at the slot because we have Roundree and Odoms.
If VSmith isn't good to go at the beginning of the year, TRob and/or Gallon might play the tiny shift machine role until he's 100%. And based on how those guys were ranked coming out of high school, they might even be better than he was.
About catching balls, iirc Austin White was really good doing that right? is there a chance if the staff thinks that they need a recieving threat coming out of the backfield that we see him more often(or at all) than we expect playing at RB this season?
He'll almost certainly redshirt. Although I have heard that he's good at receiving out of the backfield, guys like Toussaint and Shaw are also good at catching out of the backfield, and like I said above, don't be surprised if Gallon or TRob line up at RB and catch balls out of the backfield.
Austin White is just so far down the RB totum pole right now that it doesn't make sense to burn his redshirt for a few catches out of the backfield, especially when there are almost half a dozen guys on the team now who can do that as well or better.
White is probably has the best hands of any of the running backs, and to be honest, I'd like to see him play receiver at some point. But he was injured in the spring and behind about 5 other guys, so he's a near lock to redshirt this season.
Michigan's medical staff is one of the best in the country, if not THE BEST, among all major D-1 football programs.
I have no doubt that he will be 100% fine by the time the season begins.
HOWEVER, he will be ~6 months behind everyone else that was busting their ass, getting yoked all spring/summer long. That is where the issue with him will lie. He will be 100% fine, but he won't be in "game shape" until probably midseason.
(Loose example: Fernando Torres of Spain - great soccer player, knee injury, surgery, was able to play in the WC but wasn't his "normal self")
The only player who will head into Aug. camp still injured is Will Heininger. I don't know that anyone can say that Smith is 100% until he's being hit, though.
http://www.wtka.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.podcasts_sel&id=6277
I think Smith is a special talent. I don't know whether to call it vision, intellect, instinct, or a combination of all three, but I would put him in the 99th percentile of using what is between his ears to maximize his physical talent. I am in the corner of those who think that 90 percent or so is the best we can expect out of Smith physically this year, but I also think that his mental skills can enhance his results considerably.
My only concern, though, is that his "other 10 percent" doesn't put him in a compromising position on the field and result in another injury. I am hoping that he can be brought around slowly and make a full comeback in 2011. That will require someone else on the team "stepping up" and giving RR the luxury of keeping Smith "on ice" most of the season.
I tore mine right knee up in 1999 playing soccer in the Coliseum. Apparently, that hard blue rubber floor isn't the best surface...doesn't give an inch! I can honestly say I lost a step in speed and was also subconsciously hesitant to plant on my right foot. I really don't think people who suffer ACL injures are ever the same. I'm hoping I'm wrong because I want to see Vincent Smith become a WorldBeater. And he's an amazing athlete so perhaps his recovery will be much more complete. William McGahee came back pretty strong and there are numerous other examples. All the best to Vincent!
It's actually Willis McGahee.
A high school friend of mine who went to USC was playing basketball at home over the summer before his junior year of college. He came down with a rebound and landed awkwardly, tearing his ACL. He had surgery, got a hard cast, and was on crutches for a little while. At the end of that semester, right as he was getting pretty close to walking normally again, he was home for Christmas and tripped awkwardly (I think his crutch got stuck on something). He pivoted awkwardly and tore the ACL on his other knee.
After another surgery, the recovery process for two ACLs was so rigorous that he had to pull out of school for the winter semester and spend four months on the couch back at home. One of the worst-luck experiences I've ever heard.
So, uh... let's hope that doesn't happen to Vincent...
A gymnast at U of M tore her achillies tendon. She rehabbed her way back and rejoined the team... and promptly tore the OTHER one.
Bottom line; ligaments and tendons suck.
she will too!
Go back to MLive. This isn't middle school.
UP TOP, BRAH!