On the same day he was named to the Lott Trophy watch list, UCLA’s Tony Dye underwent an MRI that will determine how much, if any time the defensive back will miss.
Dye suffered a knee injury during Saturday’s scrimmage after being hit by a teammate, and has been held out of the last two practices. He is expected to receive the results of the MRI on Wednesday.
While head coach Rick Neuheisel told reporters after practice yesterday that the injury is “worse than we initially thought”, Dye seemed much more optimistic about the ultimate extent of the damage.
“They (doctors) said it shouldn’t be anything serious,” Dye said. “It shouldn’t be the ACL. I feel like right now I could play in the spring game, but that’s because I’m stubborn. We’ll see.”
For the Bruins’ sake, here’s to hoping that Dye’s optimism trumps Neuheisel’s mild pessimism as the senior has started the past 25 games at strong safety. Based on his previous level of play, you can expect his name to litter many preseason All-Pac-10 and, in some cases, All-American lists. Provided he’s healthy, of course.
