Strelow is reporting that once doctors got inside Willy Korn’s shoulder, they found that there were more problems than they had initially realized, and that his shoulder had been messed up ever since he broke his collarbone.

But when doctors went in to clean up the injury, they discovered the labrum had been frayed in two more locations. Loose bone fragments were removed, and it was also discovered that a minor procedure was needed on his rotator cuff stemming from the fractured collarbone Korn suffered as a freshman.

“To be honest, it had never felt the same since that injury,” Korn said.

The collarbone injury had been treated with ice and rehabilitation instead of surgery.

This brings up an interesting point, at least in my mind. I recognize and realize that most college football players don’t want to be on the sidelines recovering from surgeries. Nor do coaches want their players to be making constant trips to the doctor to have every ache and pain looked into. So at what point then does a coach have to say, “forget about being tough, I need you to be healthy.”

Speaking of healthy, SportingGnomes’ favorite Rendrick Taylor is back at practice.

He is still trying to shed at least 15 pounds from his current 260, and since his return to practice, coaches have worked him at both running back and tight end.

Tight end … wow, what a novel concept for someone who had so apparently outgrown the receiver position.

At 245, we may have to downgrade him to just Manbear, or perhaps Manpig. Either way, here’s to hoping that he can he can have a healthy and productive ’09 season.

The season has yet to begin and we are in the midst of a second injury report. Tommy Bowden announced Monday that Defensive Tackle, and senior starter, Rashaad Jackson has torn a quad tendon and will require surgery. The recovery will expect to sideline Jackson until midseason. Rashaad will go under the knife this coming Tuesday. Jamie Cumbie will be picking up Jackson’s spot. We gnomes wish him the best and a speedy recovery.

*Story Update* As mentioned above, Jamie Cumbie will be picking up the duties of Jackson. This past Tuesday Jamie Cumbie suffered a broken hand during practice. Cumbie’s current status is unknown. Let the season begin!

Updated Update 8/13/08 “Jamie Cumbie and Brandon Thompson, who both suffered broken hands earlier in the week, went through every drill [on Wednesday].”

Cullen Harper had arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder Monday. What what what! No worries he’ll be back for bowl practice in no time for the final game. Good thing the Tigers have Rendrick Taylor to offer up some of his super human Manbearpig life force points to aid in a speedy recovery.

I am not sure if this was about the same time that the Tigers started dropping like flies last year (Billie) but they have started the year off strong with another ACL tear (Waters first game injury last year). Clemson’s media darling, Ray Ray McElrathby will be out the entire season due to an ACL tear. The injury occured in a non contact drill where RayRay recalls his knee just giving out. No pain was mentioned when the injury first occured which led to th initial diagnosis of a severe sprain or twist.
This puts the Tigers into a predicament as they were already thin on running backs and Ray Ray was their third man. Luckily, Sadat Chambers seems to be picking up the offense pretty well to take over at 3rd man. This may be a good thing for Ray Ray as well as he supposedly was getting run ragged with school, caring for his brother and keeping up with team requirements. I believe that he will be able to take a red shirt as he came in as a true freshman last year and played. I could be wrong as I did not see any mention of it in any of the articles that I have read so far. We can always hope that it is a speedy recovery and he can use the red shirt to learn the RB position a little better for the coming years.
As for the rest of the team, they might want to take an insurance policy out on James Davis and CJ Spiller’s legs as the team can not afford to lose any more running backs.

Invest in orthopedic surgeons: Hamlin had surgery for a stress fracture in the foot he didn’t already break, and ManBearPig also had “minor foot surgery.” Hamlin’s injury should mean more reps for DeAndre McDaniel.

Clemson golf is heading into the third and final round of play at the Puerto Rico Classic. They’re currently tied for fourth. It turns out the Clemson golf team doesn’t stop their low scoring on the course; they extend that ethic to the classroom where they averaged a stellar 2.30 last fall. Good work there, men.

Travis Storrer, signed a contract to play with the Chillicothe Paints.

Some guy on FoxSports says that Gaines Adams was the “star of the day” at the NFL combine yesterday. “Basically he made himself a whole lot of money this week, confirming all the positives regarding his athleticism and explosiveness.”

There is good news on the Manbearpig, ahem, Rendrick Taylor front. It turns out that his season ending injury wasn’t as bad as initially reported. But for no reason that I can easily discern, no one in the media bothered to report that it wasn’t that bad until just recently. Well now Rendrick is already back practicing at full speed.

I got tackled a few times today and fell on the elbow and it didn’t hurt at all. I bounced up excited and ready to get out there and make another play. Today was a real good day for me. I felt like I got a lot of my confidence back to take hit on and get out there and make plays.

I for one am certainly glad to have him back.

From today’s press conference, via Scout.com:

Do you think the cold weather affect James [Davis's] shoulder?
Bowden: I don’t know. You know you get on the sideline and you see the television cameras are there and the sideline. Is Erin Andrews working the sideline? Then he’ll probably play.

Bowden says it will be a gameday decision on whether Davis will play or not. And I can’t tell from his quotes if Davis’s shoulder is 50%, or if there’s a 50-50 chance of him playing.

Thomas Hunter is going for an MRI on his shoulder, but Davis isn’t having one for his. Reggie Merriweather is definitely back at 100% if Davis can’t play. Stuckey is near 100%.

The woes that have affected the Defense over the season have become infectious and are now spreading into the offense. After the third play of the game Roman Fry went down with what was first listed as a minor knee injury. Well true to Clemson form this season Fry is OUT FOR THE SEASON due to a torn ACL. And before you click away in false hopes, yes he was already redshirted and no it was not medically. So add that one to the list of Seniors who have ended their careers this season on the DL. in a nutshell… this sucks. Luckily we have depth at the line positions as well as Fry’s replacement through out the night proceeded to create holes for Jaames and CJ.