Louisville running back Victor Anderson will be held out of all contact drills during the Cardinals' spring practice, which begins next month, offensive coordinator Mike Sanford said.
"We're going to try as best we can to help him learn," Sanford said, "but we've got to be careful there."
Anderson had surgery Nov. 24 to repair a separated shoulder. A season after winning Big East rookie of the year honors, Anderson battled an assortment of injuries in 2009. His last full game was Oct. 10 against Southern Miss, and his final start came against Cincinnati on Oct. 24. He finished with just 473 yards rushing after going over 1,000 as a freshman.
The team had hoped that by having the surgery before last season ended, he'd be fully ready for spring. Anderson is enough of a veteran to pick up what he needs to during spring drills while wearing a non-contact jersey, and new coach Charlie Strong and his staff would rather have Anderson fully healthy for the fall. Still, not having what might be their best overall player available for every drill while a new system is put in place isn't the ideal situation.
I'll have more on Sanford and his plans to turn Louisville into a "Florida-ish" offense coming up later today in the blog.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast
"We're going to try as best we can to help him learn," Sanford said, "but we've got to be careful there."
Anderson had surgery Nov. 24 to repair a separated shoulder. A season after winning Big East rookie of the year honors, Anderson battled an assortment of injuries in 2009. His last full game was Oct. 10 against Southern Miss, and his final start came against Cincinnati on Oct. 24. He finished with just 473 yards rushing after going over 1,000 as a freshman.
The team had hoped that by having the surgery before last season ended, he'd be fully ready for spring. Anderson is enough of a veteran to pick up what he needs to during spring drills while wearing a non-contact jersey, and new coach Charlie Strong and his staff would rather have Anderson fully healthy for the fall. Still, not having what might be their best overall player available for every drill while a new system is put in place isn't the ideal situation.
I'll have more on Sanford and his plans to turn Louisville into a "Florida-ish" offense coming up later today in the blog.
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast
