On the final day of March, it was learned that Steven Sheffield would be out for eight weeks after undergoing foot surgery, effectively opening the door for Taylor Potts (no relation) to gain an edge in the battle to become Texas Tech’s starting quarterback.
On the fifth day of April, it’s officially all even on the injury front.
According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Potts will undergo surgery on his throwing hand on Tuesday and knock him out of action for at least eight weeks.
“Doctors feel like they have to go in and attach a couple of ligaments that either loosed or detached,” Tech coach Tommy Tuberville said. “They don’t want to take any chances, so they’ll operate on him tomorrow and he’ll have it bandaged up for at least three or four weeks but won’t be able to throw for eight weeks.”
Potts suffered the hand injury on April 3, and it was originally described as a tear of the webbing of his throwing hand that required six stitches to close. Now, not only is it being labeled as a ligament issue, but it’s also caused Potts to lose an advantage Tuberville thought he would have through the remainder of the spring sessions.
“I thought Potts was going to get a little bit of an edge on Sheffield,” Tuberville said, “but it didn’t take long for him to even up with him.”
With both Sheffield and Potts out, sophomore Seth Doege and redshirt freshman Jacob Karam will get the majority of the reps for the remainder of spring practice.