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Banged Up: Rams dealing with training-camp injuries
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Wide receiver Omar Kizzie of Winston-Salem State has a sprained ankle.
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Published: August 13, 2008
As the Winston-Salem State football team settles into its training-camp routine, it's fighting some nagging injuries.
Wide receiver Omar Kizzie, one of the team's best athletes, suffered a high ankle sprain earlier this week and will likely be out for the next few practices. He was wearing a protective boot on his ankle yesterday morning while attending a team meeting at the field house at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Wide receiver Justin Sherrod is fighting through a hamstring problem. Sherrod is trying to come back from ACL surgery last season that forced him to miss the final five games.
Offensive lineman Bennie Barbour has a slight knee injury that has forced him to miss practice, but he is expected back for today's.
"I never worry about Omar because I know how bad he wants to get back to practice," Blount said. "He doesn't want to get behind because there are some younger guys in that receiving corps who won't mind getting the chance to catch some balls in practice."
Kizzie, a redshirt sophomore, plays mostly as an H back in the Rams' spread offense. Last season, he turned into one of the most reliable targets for quarterback Monte Purvis.
Marcus Harris, another redshirt sophomore is taking Kizzie's place in offensive drills.
"Omar is the type that doesn't really say he's hurt," said Harris, who is one of the fastest receivers on the team. "I'm going to hold the job down until he gets back, but I know it's going to be sooner rather than later."
The competition at quarterback is moving forward, with Brian Wynn, a redshirt sophomore, grabbing an early lead to be the starter. However, Blount said that it's going to be awhile before he names a starter. Branden Williams and Tienne Jefferson, both freshmen, along with last year's backup, junior Jarrett Dunston, will continue to get the same amount of snaps in practice.
"One day Brian will look good and then the next it might be Tienne," Blount said.
The Rams were issued full equipment earlier this week and are scheduled to have their first full scrimmage at 9 a.m. Saturday. Blount hopes to find out more about his team during the scrimmage.
"It's a chance to let these young guys get in game-like situations and see how they respond," Blount said.
Harris said that the team members have gotten along very well so far.
"We are not really worried about positions because we feel we can go in there and do the job no matter what position we are in," Harris said. "I just feel like our tempo and our togetherness as a team will take us past a lot of teams that we play.
"Everybody is together and there's no upperclassmen against the lower classmen or anything like that. That's a big part of any team -- having that togetherness."
■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.
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