Billy Napier updates injury status for Shemar James
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The injury bug hit the Florida Gators last week with sophomore linebacker Shemar James suffering a leg injury. James injured his left leg on August third, and UF head coach Billy Napier wasn’t keen on divulging too much information the day following.
“Shemar James lower-body injury, banged up a little bit yesterday,” is all the coach offered.
James was seen during Florida’s open practice on Saturday. The sophomore arrived near the end of practice with a brace on his left knee. Despite not being able to play, James was actively watching and had a play sheet so he could take mental reps on the sideline while the team went through practice.
On Monday, Napier was asked for an update on James’ status.
“Shemar is probably a week to ten days (from returning),” Napier said on Monday. “We’ll probably err on the side of caution.”
Gators linebackers get opportunity with Shemar James out
Florida lost two veteran linebackers to the NFL Draft in Ventrell Miller and Amari Burney. They flipped the room through the transfer portal adding sixth-year senior Teradja Mitchell, redshirt junior Mannie Nunnery, and redshirt freshman Deuce Spurlock. Derek Wingo is back and healthy for his junior season, redshirt sophomore Scooby Williams and freshman Jaden Robinson round out the rest of the linebacker room.
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While James is expected to earn a starting job, the room has a lot of competition for playing time. James’ absence allowed Wingo to slide in next to Mitchell with the first team and gave Williams and Nunnery more opportunity as well.
“That group is very competitive, one of the more competitive groups on our team, and we’re really excited about that group,” Billy Napier said last week. “The growth we’ve seen, the maturity we’ve seen, you take a guy like Scooby, who has made tremendous progress, starting to get Wingo back from injury, then you go Teradja Mitchell, Mannie Nunnery in the mix and then Jaden who is obviously a freshman, all those guys have been here, going all the way back to January, so it’s a very competitive room, and this is going to allow those guys to get more reps, take full advantage of the situation.”
