Mike Dudek out for season with torn ACL

NScale · Apr 9, 2016

Silver lining perhaps, consider when The Ohio State lost their first string quarterback and their second string quarterback and won the national championship with their third string quarterback. The receivers we have left must step up.

Illinnoying Orange · Apr 9, 2016

I feel sick for the kid ... Doesn't seem fair at all ... Hoping for a complete healing and hoping he can get back out on the field to do what he obviously has a passion for

Jacob · Apr 9, 2016

DoctorOrange said:
I long for the days of logging on to IL and seeing something good as the headline. UGH.

anytime I see Coach Lovie Smith, I am reminded something good has happened. It sucks for Dudek but the team will have to adapt and Lovie is a great coach who will help. Dudek will fight to get better and will evolve into a different player and person. This is his lot and I am confident he will make the best of it, no matter how much it must hurt now.

MadSeason · Apr 9, 2016

DoctorOrange said:
I long for the days of logging on to IL and seeing something good as the headline. UGH.

It wasn't long ago with announcement of Lovie Smith. Arguably this is the most exciting time ever to be an Illinois Football fan. It is a bad break for Dudek and I feel horrible for him, but it emphasizes the need for numerous playmakers to step in when inevitable injuries happen.

I believe we now have a staff to make that happen and Dudek will join us next year with an even more talented roster

riffraff · Apr 9, 2016

Dudek worked very hard to get himself to the level he played at before. With two years off the challenge of getting himself back room that level is immense. He has the work ethic but will he have the time after recovery?

PostersLastStand · Apr 10, 2016

The injury bug strikes again. It seems like the movie Ground Hog Day. Every time I check in to see what is happening with the Illini, there is an injury report. I feel for the young man, he is one of my favorites.

NScale · Apr 10, 2016

PostersLastStand said:
The injury bug strikes again. It seems like the movie Ground Hog Day. Every time I check in to see what is happening with the Illini, there is an injury report. I feel for the young man, he is one of my favorites.

Someone should come back with statistics from the other 13 teams in the B1G. I betcha everyone has injuries.

DanvIllini · Apr 10, 2016

NScale said:
Someone should come back with statistics from the other 13 teams in the B1G. I betcha everyone has injuries.

I agree. Football teams probably do. Add this to last years basketball and you create the Groundhog Day feel that op was talking about.

BillyBob1 · Apr 11, 2016

Hopefully all goes well and best wishes to Mikey.

Glad to hear he is going elsewhere to have surgery. This makes 3 knee surgeries this past year performed by Carle ( I believe) surgeons that turned out poorly.

CAIllini · Apr 12, 2016

I'm glad he's going elsewhere too...I had an ACL repaired right around the time Tracey did. When I saw Dudek's scar I was very surprised at the older techniques used; I'm not a surgeon but did a lot of research on mine and used a guy at Stanford who did Frank Gore. Mikey's scar was the old school full incision down the knee whereas mine just has 4 tiny entry points for tools/cameras.

I think just psychologically it would be a good idea to go elsewhere regardless...

Mike Dudek out for season with torn ACL

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