When you are a Duke Football fan you have to find the good in bad situations and unfortunately you have had to do that a lot over the years.
Case in point, the latest injury report, the first of the season for the Blue Devils heading into their season opener against Florida International.
If you look at the entire list you have to be a bit taken aback by the fact that Duke has 15 names on the entire list and of those, 11 scholarship players are either listed as out for the FIU game or out for the season.
Wide receiver Blair Holliday (head), defensive end Allen Jackson (shoulder), and safety Taylor Sowell (knee) are all done for the season.
The list of those out for at least the FIU game and probably longer is just so long you might as well just sit back and relax as I recap it.
Corner/wide receiver-Jared Boyd (leg), linebacker-Kelby Brown (knee), nose guard-Jamal Bruce, (foot), safety-Jordon Byas (leg), tightend-Braxton Deaver (leg), linebacker-Britton Grier (hand), tightend-Jack Farrell (leg) and offensive guard-Lucas Patrick (ankle), are all out for Saturday's game.
And in that conglomeration of injures, four of which were projected starters, there is some good news. They aren't listed as out for the season, at least yet.
When I heard that Brown had retorn his ACL prior to spring practice I figured him done for this season. Same when I heard Deaver tore his platella tendon this summer and had surgery. I also was expecting Byas who is Duke's latest player to undergo surgery to be done for the year, but as of yet those guys haven't been listed on that least at least.
Granted they aren't likely to be back anytime in the immediate future but the fact that they could potentially come back this season is a positive, in what you would obviously look at otherwise, as a major setback heading into the season opener.
Defensive end Jonathan Woodruff is doubtful with a leg injury, and safety Anthony Young-Wiseman is questionable also with a leg injury.
Of all the players it might be most helpful if Young-Wiseman is good to go by Saturday, seeing as how the Blue Devils are so thin and beat up at the safety position.
On an even more positive note that will likely have some impact in the opener, both defensive ends Kenny Anunike and Jordan Dewalt-Ondijo are listed as probable, and for a defensive line that has been beat up and is a bit young, the addition of these two bookend veterans can only be a positive.
The Blue Devils are expecting Anunike, who was Duke's best rusher last season and was tops in the ACC last season in sacks before suffering a season ending injury against Tulane, to once again to be the best defender on the line.
Dewalt-Ondijo came on strong last season and had a big sack in the game against FIU that set up the Blue Devils' go ahead touchdown. An injury suffered late last season kept him out all of spring practice, and he has just recently been getting back into the mix.
Having Anunike and Dewalt-Ondijo back certain is a big boost and given the sheer size of the list of the injured it is best to try to think on the bright side of life with regard to the others and hope they can make it back sooner than later.
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