Charlie Weis was the bearer of bad news on Sunday, a day after Notre Dame snapped Michigan State’s six game winning streak inside Notre Dame Stadium. At his weekly Sunday press conference, Weis told the media what most fans had feared – superstar wide receiver Michael Floyd was likely done for the season after having surgery to repair his broken collarbone.
The first question Weis received on Sunday was about the health status of Floyd. Here’s exactly what Weis had to say.
The only thing I do know, Floyd was going to be operated on this morning. They were bringing him in between 10 and 11 to fix his collarbone. I would anticipate, even though I don’t know duration, I would anticipate him missing the rest of the regular season and being available for the Bowl game if we chose to go in that direction. If he were available, we’ll talk about that down the line.
Floyd broke his collarbone in the second quarter of Saturday’s win over Michigan in on an apparent touchdown in the corner of the end-zone. On the play it appeared Floyd caught a Jimmy Clausen fade pass with both feet in bounds, but the officials ruled it incomplete and replay officials backed up their ruling after Weis challenged.
In the grand scheme of things, the loss of the touchdown pales in comparison to the loss of Floyd who had become one of the most dangerous wide receivers in all of college football. We had a feature on Sunday morning about how Notre Dame would be able to go about replacing Floyd’s production. Weis gave some indication of what direction they would go as well Sunday,
Last night before I went to sleep, I already had a pretty good idea how we’d handle this. We talked about it as the offensive staff.
You never really can replace Michael Floyd, a guy that is that caliber of player. But what you have to do is put other people in position to go ahead and pick up some of that responsibility. Having some veterans in there in that mix certainly makes it a little bit easier to do that.
When asked specifically about whether or not freshman Shaquelle Evans would see more time, Weis didn’t really hold back.
You can anticipate seeing him a heck of a lot more.
Weis did say that Floyd would be eligible for a medical redshirt, but for a player as talented as Floyd that probably wouldn’t matter much. People had already begun discussing whether or not Floyd would be ready for the NFL after next year already so it doesn’t seem too likely that a star like Floyd would stick around for a 5th year.
Jimmy Clausen also suffered an injury Saturday, but his status didn’t seem too serious with Weis joking about his star quarterback. Weis did say that Clausen would be getting an MRI Sunday to definitely determine the extent of his injury.
Very big loss. Hopefully we’ll see more of Shaq though.
Yes, Huge loss, but he’ll be back better than ever. Good test of leadership and desire. He’ll make it through that with flying colors. I expect to see him on the sidelines helping his teammates.
I also expect that others in this large stable of receivers will step up. My only fear is that Weis will try to get cute in his schemes. This offense will produce and it might actualy be better.
When does Aldridge come back? Where is the fullback being used anyway? Just a little more run mix is needed.
Huge loss to the team.
2 years with 2 injuries. His health seems to be a liability. But that is likely due to his physical nature of play.