COACH DICK JAURON
PM Practice – August 1, 2008
On Alvin Bowen's injury today in practice
It's really unfortunate in the middle of practice to have Alvin Bowen go down like that. It doesn't look like it's going to be a good one, so we'll wait and see. But we anticipate that he's not going to be playing much football this year. It's really tough because he's a hardworking young man and if it's what we think it is, we'll fix it and he'll heal and hopefully play in the future. But it's just tough and tough on him because he's worked so hard to get the opportunity. In any event we all understand, every player understands, that it's part of the game and it happens. It's never easy to see it or to have it happen like that in a very public event. But we're pulling for him.
On today's practice
Other than that it was kind of the dog days of camp, it dragged a little bit I thought at times, but there's always real good things and there's always things you need to work on very early in the season for us. We just have to keep pushing and try to improve a little bit every day, in almost every area. And we can do that if we can keep focused on that, we'll have a chance as we move along.
On why Kawika Mitchell didn't participate in today's practice
Kawika [Mitchell] had soreness and tenderness and kind of going into the day, we talked about, or Bud [Carpenter] and I talked about he and Marcus [Stroud] and Chris Kelsay, and some of our guys that aren't old guys, but that have experience and have played a lot of football to kind of back them off a little bit today. We'll go hard tomorrow and then they'll have almost a two day break there to re-cooperate and get into the next week.
On Will James
William [James] tweaked something on the long ball early in practice, so we took the being conservative approach there, too. I believe Bud said it was a groin, but I'll have to wait until I get inside.
On Bowen being transported to a hospital
I don't think so, not yet. I'm sure that he will be soon and they'll do the tests and stuff, but Bud did say that he was resting comfortably inside.
On James Hardy and Steve Johnson being limited today
James [Hardy] was cleared to go through individual which he did and it was a little bit tight, but he said it felt a lot better than yesterday. And Steve [Johnson] did a little more than that so we're hoping that he'll tolerate it well and then tomorrow he'll be full go, and James will do a little more, and just move away from these things.
On Bowen's progression through camp
He was, I wouldn't want to over exaggerate or under play his progress, he was doing well. He's a rookie so it's very different for him, had lots of stuff thrown at him and he was working really hard at it. His deal, like a lot of young players, is special teams. Snd you just don't know how they'll do until they get into the real thing. I anticipated that he'd do real well in the area. Again, it's just unfortunate from every angle, but hopefully he'll recover and go on and spend a year getting stronger and bigger and come back next year.
