Toney Williams's ACL Surgery Termed a Success

Toney Williams represents the possible downside of the redouble efforts of the football team this offseason. During voluntary workouts, Williams tore his ACL and is out for the season. For a guy who enrolled a semester early so he could get repetitions in spring practice, I'm pretty sure this is not how he hoped is first year would go. So, onto a medical redshirt year for Toney.

This Friday, he had a knee reconstruction performed at UT Medical Center (...they rebuilt him stronger; faster ...) - a procedure that has been called successful by the doctors and by the athletic trainers.

I think we all were pretty stoked about what we were hearing during spring practice about Toney. He's often seen as the "other" running back of the '09 class, especially in light of the media attention received by Oku and Brown. But his spring was strong enough to place him ahead of Creer in the depth chart - a distinction that surely played a part in Creer's departure. He was labeled as a tough runner with a real commitment to getting every yard, and seemed to be thriving in the zone running system. Because of his spring, I will always wonder in the back of my mind what he would have done this year and how his added depth could have helped.

Moving forward: he's expected to be green-lighted (green-lit?) for spring practice. Here's hoping 2010 becomes the year he wanted 2009 to be.