Just a week after Missouri received news that Connell Davis was leaving the team, it’s second linebacker gone from the program in as many weeks, starter Sean Weatherspoon went down with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Weatherspoon will finish out the spring, play in the spring game, and have surgery the following Monday.

“We had guys play with that this year so I’m going to keep going until after the spring game and I’ll get it fixed up after the spring game,” said Weatherspoon, who is the third of his roommates to have surgery (Jeremy Maclin and Danario Alexander). “It’s completely torn, so (playing on it) will be painful, but you just have to fight through it.”

As Tuesday’s practice ended, Van Alexander became yet another casualty for the linebacking corps. Alexander picked off the last pass of 11-on-11 drills to win the practice for the defense, but dropped to the ground after starting to take the pick in the other direction. Alexander was getting wheeled away in the bed of a John Deere Gator cart. Coach Gary Pinkel said it was a sprain.

“I blew the whistle, practice over, and I thought he was doing a forward roll,” Pinkel said. “He didn’t get up, so obviously we’ll wait and see what happens… It’s too late to move anybody right now. We may consider it later on. We’ll get (Andrew) Gachkar back (blood clots), Spoon back, Van back, I might be playing linebacker.”

The linebacking depth looks like this if Alexander’s injury is serious:

WEAKSIDE

Weatherspoon
Luke Lambert
Chad Collard (WO)

MIDDLE

Brock Christopher
Jeff Gettys
Cameron McWright (WO)

STRONG

Marlon Galbreath

The linebackers aren’t the only position hit by the injury bug. Safety Gilbert Moye didn’t practice Tuesday after suffering a hamstring pull during last Saturday’s scrimmage. He was limping noticeably after practice, and there is no timetable for his return.

But there was good news…

Safety Hardy Ricks participated in his first full practice of the spring and linebacker Steve Redmond, who participated in the scrimmage, showed no ill effects from off-season surgery.

Some other news and notes…

** There was some platooning at left tackle between Elvis Fisher and Dain Wise. It;s just a matter of time before Wise loses his second starting role in as many years.

** Danario Alexander looks to be on the fast track to recovery from his knee surgery. He caught a couple passes in traffic and made a couple pivots on that bad knee without injury.

** Terrell Resonno, Michael Keck and Andy Maples all worked against the first-string offensive line during one-one drills. Resonno did well, the others not so much. But it was good to see how they would fare against elite competition.

** Speaking of Maples… There haven’t been many fights this spring, but Maples and center J.T. Beasley got into it during 11-on-11 drills today. It wasn’t worth the price of admission because it got broken up pretty quickly, but it did break up the monotony of the practice.

** I am told that receivers Jared Perry and Jeremy Maclin both have targets on their back this spring for talking stuff to the defense. Perry took a wicked hit during 11-on-11 by Del Howard that kept him on the ground off the defensive sideline. The defense taunted Perry while he struggled to his feet and even started chanting head trainer Rex Sharp’s name in jest. Howard and Perry live together, so that might make for an interesting evening.

The team will be back on the field on Thursday and then the last scrimmage before the spring game is on Saturday.