One of the subplots to Florida’s loss to Georgia was the absence of Vernell Brown III. Even though he was listed as “Probable” on Wednesday and Jon Sumrall had expressed optimism all week, Brown wound up missing his fourth straight game.
After Florida’s loss, Sumrall explained the week Brown had and what led him to missing on Saturday.
Jon Sumrall explains Vernell Brown III being out again
In his post game press conference, Sumrall explained that even as recent as Wednesday he still felt good about Brown being able to play, but that a setback during the week took him out:
“So Monday, Tuesday, he looked like old VB3, like the guy that we saw the first three or four weeks, three and a half weeks of the year. Wednesday, the second half of Wednesday's practice, he had one movement on a cut in a two-minute drill period that we do every Wednesday, that had a little bit of what, at the time, we thought was just a little bit of a setback. And so we pulled him just from some reps, the rest of that practice on Wednesday.
But after he went to the training room that day, he said, hey, ‘I felt really good. I feel, I feel better.’ And then the next day when he woke up, it was a little bit swollen on him. Got the swelling down, but as he tried to come back, we we listed him probable on Wednesday, because Wednesday when he left the training room, he was like, ‘I feel pretty good. I feel like I'm gonna be able to give it a go.’
And then sometimes you sleep on things like that. Woke up Thursday morning and had some swelling in it, and got the swelling calmed down, but just wasn't able to get back to where he was earlier in the week.”
This is probably the most transparent answer Sumrall has given on what has been going wrong in Brown’s attempt to return to play. As we noted yesterday, part of the confusion and source of fan frustration is that Sumrall had been classifying VB3’s as a “confidence” and “pain management” issue. Ever since the injury against Ole Miss, Sumrall has made it seem for five weeks like Brown could return at any moment, and Sumrall hadn’t been classifying Brown being out as a setback issue. This is the first time he has highlighted it as a swelling issue.
And if we are being fair, if there is swelling in the knee, then it isn’t realistic to expect Brown to return to play.
So we’ll see if Sumrall’s tone changes moving forward and if he is less optimistic about Brown coming back until he actually does come back.
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