Enright rehabbing, will play against Rice

[PonyPride]

When a team beats an in-division conference rival on the road as heavy underdogs, there is little that can dampen the post-victory enthusiasm. The SMU Mustangs accomplished exactly that Saturday, beating rival Tulsa on the road, 27-13.

One concern coming out of the game was the re-injuring of starting center Mitch Enright’s left ankle, which he originally hurt two weeks before, against Navy.

“I was just blocking someone head-on, and someone else came from the side and just rolled it up,” Enright said Monday. “It didn’t feel too good.”

Enright was not on the field at Gerald J. Ford Stadium with his teammates as they went through their traditional conditioning running. Instead, Enright was inside the SMU training room, getting ice and treatment on his ankle from head trainer Mike Morton.

“I’d rather be out there running healthy than being in (the training room) doing all this treatment,” Enright said. “I’m sick of treatment — a bunch of ice, a lot of rehab stuff. They have a bike in there that’s worse than running. It’s 25 straight minutes of burning the crap out of your legs — it’s not fun.

“Mike’s in there with me. I don’t hate Mike — our relationship’s just not going very (well) right now, because I’m seeing him too much.”

If there’s a positive to be drawn from Enright’s second sprain, it’s that he said Saturday’s injury is less severe than the original one he suffered against Navy.

“Compared to the one against Navy, it’s probably a little less,” Enright said. “But I had made progress in the last two weeks — it was still hurting — and this kind of set me back a little bit. But it will be fine. It feels better than it did after the Navy (sprain).”

Offensive linemen generate extraordinary power from their legs as they block oncoming defensive linemen, especially in the interior of the line, where the center and guards regularly face off against players who are on the north side of 300 pounds. But Enright said that with an injury like his, lateral quickness is harder to get back than the driving power blocking requires.

“Moving back and forth — blocking in open space against linebackers, and things like that,” he said when asked what is the toughest part of recovering from an ankle sprain. “Just making cuts on it — that’s what’s most painful.

“It’s probably going to bother me the rest of the year. The key is just trying to rest it as much as possible. We’re just going to play it by ear, and the key is just to try and get it as healthy as possible for the rest of the year.”

Minor injuries are a part of playing on the offensive line, and the blockers on every team play through them all year. Enright said that in his case, sitting out is not an option.

“Even without injuries, we’re pretty thin this year, just because we have so many young guys,” he said, “so many true freshmen who we don’t particularly want to play, and burn their redshirts. It’s just hard to play your true freshman year. It’s just part of the game, the nicks and bruises and bumps you get as an offensive lineman.”

[Junior]

Keep it up, Mitch. We need you out there!

[ponyscott]

He is a tough boy! We are proud of guys like that...

[BUS]

Heal up guy, We know you want to play but maybe listen to what the coaches say later.

HEAL ITNOJC.

[smu diamond m]

Mitch was in my AARO group back in the day. The guy IS smart and incredibly affable too. Good guy, and I hope to see him out there kicking some [deleted] in the near future

[Cadillac]

At least McJunkin, while young, has a good deal of experience for a Sophomore.

-CoS

[Peruna94&07]

Ok, given the jitteriness of McJunkin what is the chance that we get Mitch back for UTEP/

[indianmustang]

we need healthy MItch