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ORONO – The University of Maine football team hopped on a plane late Saturday night for a return trip to Bangor knowing that two starters would face a week of treatment for injuries they’d sustained in a 14-10 win over McNeese State.
They also knew that the return of center Ben Lazarski and safety David Cusano from sprained knees in time for this Saturday’s 2:30 p.m. second-round NCAA Division I-AA playoff game at Northern Iowa was not a certainty.
By the time the Bears disembarked at Bangor International Airport at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, the injury list had risen to three with the addition of a player UMaine can ill afford to lose.
The third banged-up Bear: star running back Royston English.
English said that between the time he got on the bus that took the Bears to the airport and the time he got back to Maine, the top of his right foot began to hurt. He said he never felt a twinge during a game, but guessed that somebody may have stepped on the foot.
When he awoke, things got worse.
“Sunday, I couldn’t get out of bed,” English said. “I was calling everybody to get a ride [to the training room] for treatment. I couldn’t get out of bed and couldn’t go. Monday, I was wobbling to the treatment room.”
English, who rushed for 1,182 regular-season yards and added 144 on 33 carries in the win at McNeese State, doesn’t know exactly what’s wrong with his foot.
He used two crutches on Monday and discarded one on Tuesday.
And long after Wednesday’s pep rally at the Memorial Union had broken up, English arrived, “crutch-free,” but still limping significantly.
English hasn’t practiced all week, though he has been watching videotape of Northern Iowa, as well as the Bears’ practice sessions.
Though he has felt better each day, English said he didn’t know what the next three days would hold.
“Am I confident [that I’ll play on Saturday]? I have no answer for that one,” English said. “I would like to be confident. I’ll just have to take it day by day and see how it feels on Friday. If it doesn’t feel good on Friday or Saturday, I can’t do anything about it.”
Price wasn’t right for UMaine
Black Bear fans still wondering why UMaine isn’t hosting this weekend’s playoff game can pick from a laundry list of reasons.
First and foremost: The Bears couldn’t afford to.
Athletic director Suzanne Tyler said that before the NCAA field was selected, UMaine was sent an intent-to-host form.
UMaine didn’t try to host a game because of the substantial guarantee – $50,000 is the minimum – that schools have to make to the NCAA just to be considered. If both schools in a matchup are willing to make the guarantee, other factors, such as attendance, ranking and the quality of facilities also come into play.
But for Maine, it never got that far. It was a simple matter of dollars and cents.
“We are not in the position to make that kind of guarantee,” Tyler said.
But that didn’t immediately bump Orono as a possible home site. Tyler said that after UMaine found out it had qualified for the tournament, she contacted the NCAA and said that if the Black Bears ever wound up playing a game against another team that had not bid for a home site, they’d re-evaluate.
The reason for that: If neither team has made the $50,000 guarantee, the teams are free to negotiate against one another with the NCAA in order to get the game. And at that point, there is no minimum guarantee.
“We were to pay $18,000, $20,000, $22,000,” Tyler said. “But we just don’t have it for $50,000.”
Tyler said Hofstra’s athletic director told her that he wouldn’t be entering a bid at the $50,000 guarantee level, either. But she said both Montana and Sam Houston State – UMaine’s possible third-round opponents if Maine were to defeat Northern Iowa – did.
That means the Bears will be on the road for the duration of the postseason.
Bears make up for lost time
While the UMaine coaching staff didn’t get the chance to begin reviewing videotape of the UNI Panthers until Tuesday, coach Jack Cosgrove and his players say that doesn’t make much difference.
“It’s not a normal week, because you usually start that stuff on Sunday and we didn’t really start until Tuesday morning,” Cosgrove said. “So it kind of backs some things up. But at this time of the year, you reduce practice time anyway. It’s more meetings, preparation, more of that stuff to begin with.”
Right guard Pete Richardson of Millinocket said the players have the easy job.
“Most of the stress from getting the tapes late comes down on the coaches, because they’re the ones studying them,” Richardson said. “The only thing that was different was we practiced later last night. But now we’re on schedule.”
The Black Bears worked out from 8-9:15 p.m. on Tuesday, after the coaches had broken down and studied Northern Iowa’s offensive and defensive schemes.
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