Sorensen undergoes surgery
Bronco Mendenhall reported at the end of Wednesday’s practice session that center Tom Sorensen underwent exploratory surgery on his shoulder, had some “clean out” work done and will be out two to four weeks.
The procedure was called a “mumford” and included shaving off part of the clavicle.
The coach said three are no other injury issues, even defesive lineman Ian Dulan (shoulder) wore a protective harness and is cleared to play against Northern Iowa. Mendenhall said if Dulan had to practice in the harness, he might be ineffective. “The good news is we have Brett Denney and Bernard Aufutiti who can help us with that while he’s returning.”
Mendenhall said there is no decision on who will be the primary kicker, freshman Justin Sorensen or Mitch Payne. “They were within three percentage points after yesterday’s practice,” said Mendenhall. “The decision will be final tomarrow.”
There is no decision on other positions which list two players on the depth chart as starters with the designation “or” by the position. Mendenhall said the player listed first, before the “or” on the depth chart would likely be the starter.
Mendenhall said he was satisfied with Wednesday’s practice with the exception of a first team period with the defense and the scout offense and he repeated it.
“It was a great lesson because our practice is structured on the number of plays, not by time, so the players control how long we go and as you can see, most of our practices are short but if they don’t do it right, they stay out there until they get it right.”
Thursday’s practice will replicate today’s practice only will be cut short by 10 minutes.
Today’s practice session featured work in helmets and shells. Austin Collie threw a nice TD pass to Spencer Hafoka, working against the scout team.
Max Hall completed a series of touchdown passes in red zone work, choosing several times to go to big target TE Dennis Pitta. O’Neil Chambers saw some work on kickoff cover (defense).
In a fall practice devoid of any big fights, there was a shoving match, very brief, between reserve noseguard Tevita Hola and DL Nick Alletto after Alletto knocked Hola to the turf at the end of a play.
The practice field is 80 yards and near the end of practice Justin Sorensen kicked off from about the 35 yard line and booted the ball over the east fence, it cleared several 40 foot trees on the way to bouncing in the parking lot by the Richards P.E. Building.