If Ole Miss is to have Jeremiah Masoli for this weekend’s road contest at Tennessee, they likely won’t know with any degree of certainty until a little bit later in the week at the earliest.
The Oregon transfer suffered a concussion during the first quarter of Saturday’s win over Louisiana-Lafayette, and was limited in practice again Tuesday.
“We’re watching him very closely and doing all we can to make sure of his situation,” trainer Tim Mullins said yesterday. “Concussions are serious issues, and it’s about how the symptoms are dissipating and going away. He has to pass a set of tests, balance test and then we’ll see how he handles an exertion test.”
Masoli, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger writes, is being tested daily on a variety of parameters, including headaches, nausea, sensitivity to light, irritability, changes in sleep habits and balance tests. While he’s improved somewhat, from vomiting on Sunday because of the injury to responding well to daily tests two days later, head coach Houston Nutt asserts he won’t see the field unless and until he’s fully healthy.
“Again, you just like his attitude because you know he wants to be out here,” Nutt said. “But we’ve got to go by what the doctors say and we can’t put him out there until he’s really 100 percent, especially in a game where it’s live contact.”
At 4-5, the Rebels are two wins shy of bowl eligibility with three games remaining. As two of those games are against ranked teams -- LSU and Mississippi State -- they might want to consider downing the Volunteers if they want to maintain any reasonable shot at becoming eligible for the postseason.
