By Hunt Palmer
A month after his bone bruise at Ole Miss, Whit Weeks is still not quite on track to play.
The junior linebacker can put weight on his foot and run, but he has not been able to participate in practice as LSU prepares for Alabama.
“I think he’s probably more doubtful at this time, considering today,” said interim head coach Frank Wilson. “We’ll see today’s practice how he looks, but we’re hopeful.”
Weeks has been seen in a walking boot for multiple weeks, and LSU’s run defense has really struggled to make up for his loss. Both Vanderbilt and Texas A&M ran for over 200 yards on the Tigers.
“He can put weight on it,” Wilson said of Weeks’ foot. “He can straight line run. He’ll be on the practice field. But the game isn’t just linear. Our sport is one of starting, stopping, changing direction, awkward position, bodies falling on you, acceleration, deceleration, jump, come down, those things. That’s the true test. If you walked out today and asked him to run, he could do that.”
“We have to put him in situations to gauge his pain tolerance to see if he could. And he has a high threshold for pain tolerance, but you just don’t know because it’s not just muscles that are in there. Sometimes it’s nerves or other things that can annoy. We’ll just see if that subsides.”
Freshman tackle Carius Curne could be on track to play.
Curne has been a reserve this season, starting at right tackle for Weston Davis at Ole Miss and left tackle for Tyree Adams against Texas A&M. Adams will be unavailable Saturday, so Curne’s potential return could be a huge plus for the Tigers.
“Carius will have a chance,” Wilson said. “I think his progress has been a steady one. He’s played more and more in each one of the practices, so I’m optimistic that he’ll have an opportunity to play for us.”
Should Curne miss the game, sophomore DJ Chester is the likely starter at left tackle.
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