John Brantley Out Against LSU, Possibly Longer

The University of Florida hasn't been particularly forthcoming about player injuries since before Urban Meyer came to town, so getting only a vague assessment of John Brantley's injury is certainly no surprise. Will Muschamp in his press conference today merely said that Brantley has a "lower leg" injury and that updates will come every Monday.

The good news is that Brantley won't require surgery. That fact rules out ligament tears and particularly badly broken bones. It also gives some credence to the reports from the Palm Beach Post's Jason Lieser, who had unnamed sources call the injury a "high ankle sprain". Brantley was seen on campus earlier today on crutches with a boot that almost goes up to his knee.

True freshman Jeff Driskel, who replaced Brantley in the second half of the Alabama game, will start against LSU. Muschamp says though that fellow true freshman Jacoby Brissett and redshirt freshman Tyler Murphy will get reps and have a chance to pass up Driskel. The three of them were listed as even during much of preseason camp before Driskel pulled away from the other two some.

The fact that Muschamp intends to give updates across several Mondays indicates that Brantley's injury is not one that will go away soon. Technically today and next Monday would qualify for the plural form of "Mondays", but only an extreme optimist would call that the likely meaning there. Given what little I know about high ankle sprains, I would be very surprised to see Brantley return before the Georgia game on October 29, which follows the Gators' bye week. It's likely that LSU won't be the only game where Florida will have to go with a freshman quarterback.