One of the biggest question marks for Texas A&M entering the 2014 season is its defense. Unfortunately for the Aggies, one of the positive certainties on that side of the ball will be sidelined for the foreseeable future.
In discussing the release of the latest two-deep depth chart Wednesday, head coach Kevin Sumlin confirmed that De’Vante Harris will be sidelined for at least another month due to what’s being described as a urinary tract injury (not infection). The odd injury* means the starting cornerback will definitely miss the opener against South Carolina (Aug. 28) as well as games against Lamar (Sept. 6) and Rice (Sept. 13). Going by the strictest sense of the timeline presented by Sumlin, the Sept. 20 SMU game is out as well.
A&M resumes SEC play the following week against Arkansas.
Harris has started 18 games the past two seasons for the Aggies. That total would’ve been higher but he was one of three TAMU defensive starters suspended for the first two games of the 2013 season.
On the plus side, Sumlin confirmed that redshirt freshman Victor Davis is out of the doghouse and no longer under suspension. The defensive back was arrested last month on a charge of shoplifting and then indefinitely suspended.
Davis, a three-star 2013 recruit who redshirted as a true freshman, is expected to take over as the starter for Harris, or at least get the initial crack at it.
(*for those who are curious, the National Institutes of Health describes a urinary tract injury as a "[t]raumatic injury of the bladder and urethra [involving] damage caused by an outside force.)