Miami offered an update on the status of the player expected to be its starting quarterback, although it fell far short of answering the question of if he will play a down at all in 2013.
Late last week, Ryan Williams suffered what the team confirmed was a torn ACL. The non-contact injury to his right knee occurred during the latter portion of a spring scrimmage.
A handful of days later, the school released the following statement attributed to the team doctor:
As was the case at the time of the injury, no timeline for a return was given. Based on previous injuries of similar nature, an early October return -- at the earliest -- would appear, absent any word from the team, to be the best-case scenario at the moment.
Earlier this week and prior to the player’s surgery, head coach Al Golden addressed when he thought Williams might be able to return.
“If [surgery] is in the immediate future, we’ll come up with a plan and we’ll get him rehabbed,” Golden said following Tuesday’s practice. “In terms of what that means in July, August, September, I don’t know. The doctors are going to have to let us know and we’ll go from there. He’s going to go to work. No one is going to do it harder than he is.
“Whatever the shortest timetable is, that’s the timetable he’s going to meet. I promise you that. The rest of us have to go work on our football team and obviously our offense”
Stephen Morris‘s primary backup in 2013, Williams was expected to take over the starting job in 2014. With Williams out, that job is now expected to fall to Kevin Olsen for at least the early part of the upcoming season.