For any college football team one of the major keys heading into the season is to try and keep your team healthy. It isn't always an easy task considering how violent a game football is, but if you look at Duke Football today you'd have to say that so far they have failed at keeping their team healthy and they haven't even played a game.
The injuries woes continue to mount for Duke as projected starting safety Jordon Byas underwent surgery on his knee Wednesday. Byas tore the meniscus in his left knee during Duke's final preseason scrimmage last week.
Head coach David Cutcliffe had said on Tuesday night that Byas was going to have an MRI and obviously the results showed a tear which means that Byas is out indefinitely and could potentially miss the entire season, or a huge chunk of it at the very least.
No time table has been announced for his return.
Byas is the fifth projected starter to be lost due to injury. The injury bug has for the Blue Devils had been more like a plague.
It started before spring practice even started when projected starting linebacker Kelby Brown retore his ACL while working out. Projected starting tightend Braxton Deaver missed all of spring practice with an injury, but was poised to return for this season He, however, tore his platella tendon prior to Duke opening camp.
Starting nose guard Jamal Bruce had surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot.
Projected starting wide receiver Blair Holliday suffered the worst injury when he was suffered a seirous head injury following a Fourth of July jet ski accident. Holliday has made significant strides in his recovery talking and walking on his own.
All of those injuries have will hurt the Blue Devils chances of reaching its ultimate goal of posting its first winning record and getting to its first bowl game since 1994.
And all of those injuries don't include the nicks and nagging injuries that have been plaguing Duke seemingly since Cutcliffe arrived on campus.
Starting linebacker David Helton is currently missing time after suffering a concussion and projected starting defensive end Jordan Dewalt-Ondijo is just now getting to practice more after recovering from an injury that has held him out since last season.
At some point you have to wonder if the Duke Football team is jinxed and perhaps needs to sacrifice a chicken or something to shake off this hex that appears to be attached to the program.
The good news is that some of those guys may make it back for some parts of the season and the Blue Devils are substantially more talented and have a great deal more depth than they have had in the past.
Still, you would like to see the team head into the season at full speed and injury free, but nothing seems to come easy for Duke Football these days and they are just going to have to persevere.
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