Florida head coach Billy Napier discusses the impact of linebacker Shemar James' season-ending knee injury and the timeline for his return to action.
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00:00 just in terms of the challenges that arise with losing one of your better tacklers?
00:04 >> Yeah, no, I think it presents great opportunity for
00:08 those other three guys, and they've all had good weeks.
00:13 And certainly we'll lean on Scooby and
00:17 Taraja to go along that leadership communication component.
00:24 And then those three guys, Wingo has some experience here, and
00:28 certainly Manny's played a lot of football for us, and
00:31 Jaden has shared a lot of promise.
00:33 So this is another week in college football, right?
00:38 I mean, typically, very rarely do you run out there with all 22 starters.
00:43 So that's a room that has depth.
00:46 It's been very competitive in that room to see who would play.
00:49 And if you think back, Shamar missed a pretty significant amount of time, so
00:54 these guys were able to gain a ton of reps.
00:57 >> Is it a week thing with him, or is it more serious, or how would you describe?
01:01 >> Yeah, no, he's done, yeah, he's done.
01:04 He had surgery today, and he's out.
01:09 So he'll be back for spring practice.
01:11 This will be about a four month deal.
01:16 Ultimately, it's much like a shoulder dislocation,
01:22 it's a kneecap dislocation.
01:25 Happened to him in high school, it was an injury he had before.
01:28 Much like a shoulder comes out, if it comes out again, you gotta get it fixed.
01:32 So it's not, everything went well with the surgery,
01:36 it won't be a major factor long term for him.
01:39 >> [INAUDIBLE]
01:44 >> No, I think Shamar's been outstanding.
01:47 I mean, he's our leading tackler.
01:50 More than that, Shamar, he's a great example.
01:54 His practice habits, his character, he's developed a voice.
01:58 That's the thing that I think in particular as of late,
02:03 he really was getting comfortable from a leadership standpoint of being vocal.
02:09 So that's the unfortunate part.
02:13 But I think sometimes if you have the right perspective, injuries can,
02:18 in the long term, you may not realize it when you're in the middle of it.
02:23 But he's been outstanding.
02:25 I mean, we knew he was a good player upon arrival, but he showed it this year.
02:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]