Coach Smart implemented a new policy regarding reporting of injuries by media. He addressed that policy for the first time during yesterday’s press conference.
 
 
“The big thing for us is that we’ve got some kids that have been injured at practice, and we all know the situation with their parents – some of the parents got upset because of the way we handled the injury and, really, more our fault for not putting the policy in place to not allow comments on injuries, from the perspective of an injury that happens while the media is viewing. That’s important to keep those kids – that part – safe for them. And the other part is really a big disadvantage for us in the season for us for our opponents to know every kid that’s injured, every kid that’s out, every kid that’s not practicing, when that information gets out for our opponent it can be in detriment to our team and I’m trying to protect the team with that information.”
 
 
Interestingly, for the first time in my memory, there were no players participating at practice in black non-contact jerseys (other than quarterbacks) during Thursday’s media periods. However, Coach Smart mentioned during his presser (below) that Riley Ridley (for one) has not been cleared to return to full-contact work, thus would normally have been wearing black. Problem solved?