How Much Did Zac Lee's Injury Affect His Play in 2009?

by Jon Johnston on Feb 9, 2010 8:00 AM CST in Nebraska Husker Football Comment 7 comments

After the Holiday Bowl it came out that Zac Lee had suffered an injury early in the season on his throwing arm, and that the injury was serious enough that it required surgery in January. I asked Paragon over at the USC site Conquest Chronicles, SB Nation's resident expert in injuries, to give us some details about Lee's injury, his surgery, and what how it might have affected his play. What I got was way more detail than I can possibly understand, something I should have known when asking a doctor to do a write-up. Epidemiology to you, too, buddy.

It's now come out that Lee will most likely miss spring practice, which is understandable given that the rehabilitation period is 10 to 12 weeks. Lee won't be able to throw the ball during that period, so he will lose some conditioning time over the winter and into the spring.

While Lee refused to use the injury as an excuse for his play this season, it's pretty clear that it would have affected his performance. Specifically, it would have affected his ability to grip the ball, resulting in some problems with control.

Given that the injury would have strained his elbow and that in turn would have extended into his shoulder area, it probably affected his ability to put more power into his throws. Perhaps some of those deep throws to Niles Paul were under thrown for a reason.

The bad news is that Lee needs as much work with the Husker offense as he can get (as do the other quarterbacks). The good news is that he should be completely healed by the time fall rolls around. There are a lot of Husker fans who weren't impressed by Lee this past season, but unless Cody Green improves his accuracy, Lee is still the best shot the Huskers have at quarterback come the 2010 season. Kody Spano and Taylor Martinez have been in Nebraska's system for a year now, but neither has seen the field - both will need impressive spring and fall practices to unseat Lee, who now has a full season of starts under his belt.

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I think the question is...

How much of the concern with Lee was his strength and accuracy?

How much of it was his decision-making?

I’m not sure how I feel, but I hope the majority is with the former.

by Husker_in_KC on Feb 9, 2010 10:30 AM CST reply actions

No question...

…that Zac’s injury played a large role into his role as a quarterback in 2009. He played through the pain which is admirable, but at times he seemed to play scared. I have to wonder if that was due to his wrist and simply not wanting to mess it up further, but regardless it was obviously a hindrance from his position.

- Brandon "Blankman" Cavanaugh #17
http://www.huskerhype.com

by Blankman on Feb 9, 2010 2:23 PM CST reply actions

If this is true...

“Given that the injury would have strained his elbow and that in turn would have extended into his shoulder area, it probably affected his ability to put more power into his throws. Perhaps some of those deep throws to Niles Paul were under thrown for a reason.”

Then Lee should have understood his limitations and not thrown the ball deep. Goes to decision making and that this isn’t intramurals, brutha. Frankly, I think that Lee’s decision making was much better towards the end of the year. And while his skill set is, well, limited (where the belief that he had a gun for an arm came from, no idea), if he continues to make smart decisions and execute within his abilities, we should be fine on offense.

by meatybob on Feb 9, 2010 3:05 PM CST reply actions

Bad decisions

are bad decisions and he made more than his fair share last season. But, I wonder if the injury affected Watson’s play calling and in turn putting Zac in worse situations, like bad down and distances. Third and long and you can’t throw very far accurately will definitely hinder what plays are at your disposal. But this injury also speaks very clearly as to how far Green has to go before being an affective QB at the division one level. The injury to Spano might have been the most costly of the year in terms of affecting the team. Lee could have sat and healed but instead was forced to keep going out there because of the true freshman behind him. I really hope Lee and Spano are healthy next year and can give Green another year to mature, maybe redshirt???

by Huzkerfan on Feb 10, 2010 6:31 PM CST reply actions

I don’t know how much we can actually chalk up his performance last year to decision making with this type of injury.

Maybe the choices we saw him making weren’t bad ones with a healthy arm, but were with an injured one. We have no idea what type of velocity or placement he really has that could’ve made his bad decisions otherwise good ones. For instance, instead of aiming his passes, which he did a lot this season, he has more control to throw to the outside shoulder instead of the inside hip or more velocity to not leave wounded ducks in the air.

We really won’t know to what extent his injury hampered him until next fall…

Hang 'em!!!

by Screwface on Feb 10, 2010 9:48 PM CST via mobile reply actions

He knew

he was hurt and couldn’t make those throws and did it anyway, that is a bad decision.

by Huzkerfan on Feb 14, 2010 3:47 PM CST up reply actions

Let's keep this in mind...

No matter what kind of interviews we saw of him, or what kinds of plays he made throughout the year…Zac Lee was playing to learn. His injury surely would have made a difference, but equally he was dealing with inexperience. Undersized, and not exactly a world-class athlete…he was growing up last year. He may have looked pumped during the 4th quarter at Missouri, but I saw a kid who was just excited that he finally was seeing some progress. Up and down, up and down. This was evident in the bowl game, when he had a little more time to mentally prepare and rest. Next year, he will need to do it in a weeks time instead.
I think the injury will be a non-issue next year, and the most important part will be if he can go out and act like he belongs in the Big 12 as a starting quarterback. If he does, he’ll be fine.

"Not the victory but the action; Not the goal but the game;
In the deed the glory"

GO BIG RED!

by Mr. Corn on Feb 12, 2010 8:52 AM CST reply actions