DiBona's the only season loss. I know McMillan is fighting a sports hernia but it looks like Scherff will fill that spot. And then Lowery is out until late September but Castillo was expected to win that spot anyway. For the most part, depth has been the only thing compromised right now.
To expand upon things further here ....
- While Scherff appears as though he'll fill MacMillan's spot, he himself has been dinged a bit. That is why Tobin had been practicing at that OG spot for a bit. Of course, to Tobin's credit ... he's pretty good too.
- McMillan, the OG/C from Montana, has been spotted in a boot. At one point in time, he was a back-up at C. Of course, Boffeli was ahead of him anyhow.
- If you read one of the articles in the gazette, it mentions how Alvis has been dinged in fall camp thus far. Considering that we're not swimming with experience on the DL ... he could really use to see as many quality reps as possible.
- Back at the open scrimmage, it was noticed that Daniel was out due to injury. If you then closely parse the UI practice photos and fall-camp summary videos ... at a certain juncture, Daniel just drops off the map. He might already be back ... I don't know ... however, he's definitely dinged up, at the very least.
- Also, if you look at the UI practice photos and fall-camp summary videos ... Carl Davis is conspicuously absent. I have no doubt that he's dinged up too. Just like Alvis ... he's a guy who could use as many quality reps as possible ahead of time ... the quicker he can get down the fundamentals, the better.
Anyhow, while I'm admittedly not as "nervous" about the status of our OL ... I'm a lot more concerned about the
short-term impact of our DL injuries. We're going to be facing a bunch of pass-happy teams early in the season ... and we'll be facing them with a DL that has been dinged and with a secondary that is missing Lowery ... and featuring 2 new starters.
In my estimation, the odds of us dropping a game against either Iowa State or Pitt have just gone up quite a bit.
However, don't get me wrong ... once our guys catch their stride through the season ... I think that team has the potential to develop into a great group. However, it's not going to happen overnight.