By James Parziale
Bobby Seck can’t catch a break. At least not a beneficial one.
The oft-injured Pride starting quarterback suffered a dislocated kneecap two weeks ago while jogging and is slated to miss the football team’s entire spring practice.
“He’s going to be out three months,” coach Joe Gardi said of Seck, who had surgery on Monday after the swelling subsided. “It is a set back for us.”
That is because the Pride looked like a different team with Seck under center. He threw six touchdowns and five interceptions while averaging 184 yards per game as the starter. The team was 2-2 and put up 30 pointes per game.
“I think what you get out of last year is how well we played with Bobby,” Gardi said.
But Seck has been snake bitten since he joined the Pride. The red-shirt sophomore injured his throwing hand during Spring practice in 2002 and was relegated to just one pass attempt the following Fall.
After breaking his right metacarpal in the season opener at Marshall last season, Seck missed five weeks but returned to guide the blue and gold to its first victory against Northeastern.
Yet Seck sprained his knee in that game and the Pride dropped three more games in his absence. It was not until he returned against No. 7 Villanova that the team won again.
“You need a good trigger man in this offense,” Gardi said. “And Bobby did the job for us when he was in there.”
When backups Anton Clarkson and Andrew English started, the team was winless in eight tries and managed just 16 points per game. The two combined for 10 touchdowns, 20 interceptions and 134 yards through the air. However, Gardi did not cast blame solely on them.
“I think it was the fact that we had a young inexperienced o-line,” he said. “And they are going to be a year older.”
And if Seck isn’t ready for the season-opener on Sept. 2?
“Right now it looks to be Anton,” Gardi said, “but you never know.”
COACHING CARO– USEL CONTINUESCoach Joe Gardi announced Damian Wroblewski as the new offensive line coach and Dennis Mikula (his RB recriting Huggins) as offensive assistant. The moves come after Brian Coon and Jamie Elizondo were all but ready for an introductory press conference, but bailed at the final minute last month.
Wroblewski spent two seasons at the University of Penn as its tackles/tight ends coach and special team coordinator. Mikula departs from Bayley-Ellard High School (NJ) where he was the head coach and director of athletics.
In two other coaching moves, special teams coach Adam Brown, a Pride alumnus, to defensive line coach and running backs coach Carlton Goff to full-time status.
Gardi added that the coaching moves might not be over. One of his coaches will be interviewing for another position at an A-10 school today.
“[The coaching changes] are never over here at Hofstra,” Gardi said.