TYLER, Texas (KLTV) – Multiple East Texas football players at the collegiate level suffered injuries in the last couple of weeks, with two of them being season-ending.
UT Health sports medicine doctor Jayesh Patel joined East Texas Now on Tuesday to talk about these injuries and the timetable for a return. Former Tyler Legacy Red Raider Jam Miller suffered a collarbone injury on Saturday and had surgery that same night. Patel says Miller could be back within four-to-six weeks.
“It sounds like they probably put a place and screws in there to stabilize it. In general, I would say four-to-six weeks to come back, as long as rehab goes perfect,” said Patel. “It’s a little harder when it’s a running back and taking all those hits all the time. So, I think it depends on what games are coming up at the end of September and when their bye weeks are.”
Patel says Miller should able to keep his cardio up since it’s a collarbone injury.
“Good thing for him is, it’s a collarbone. He can do a lot of lower stuff like running, pool work and things like that to keep his cardio up,” Patel said. “So, there’s a lot of things they can do rehab wise because it is a collarbone.”
Former Mineola Yellowjacket Dawson Pendergrass suffered a foot injury in camp that required surgery and will have him miss the entire 2025 season. While the details of the injury have not been shared, Patel says a major foot injury that comes to mind is a lisfranc injury.
“A lisfranc injury occurs where the ligaments in the middle of your foot, basically where the arch part is, and it stabilizes your entire foot,” said Patel. “I would suspect it’s something to do with that if he’s out an entire year. If it was a broken bone, you could get back once again in six-to-eight weeks.”
Former Lufkin Panther Kedren Young suffered a torn ACL in a practice and will miss the entire 2025 season for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Patel says that surgery to repair a torn ACL has improved.
“We’ve got other things we can add to stabilize the knee a little bit better…A lot of the reasons that ACL tears is because it’s a rotational thing. If your knee gets stuck, you pivot and it tears,” Patel said. “So, we’ve known to add this extra ligament on the outside that’s helped the stability of the knee.”
Patel says the rehab process is different for every athlete.
“If you look at the data, we should really keep them out for two years for the ACL to mature and really be 100 percent, but we know that nine months is kind of the sweet spot,” said Patel. “If you think about a professional athlete, their job is to work out…They’re doing all the things to allow your body to heal better. If you’re talking about a high school athlete, it’s hard. So, every high school athlete I see, if you’re a Sophomore, Junior, or Senior, I’m telling you nine months. If you’re young, like an eighth grader, or freshman, I’m going to caution you and your parents and say let’s hold you out for a full 12 months because you’re still growing.”
Along with football injuries, East Texas athletes have been bitten by the injury bug at the professional level in baseball. Currently, A.J. Minter, Chase Hampton, Hunter Hollan and Grayson Rodriguez are out for the year. Patel says he sees a lot of baseball injuries in East Texas.
“The main issue we see around here is we throw too much. It’s year round baseball. Your body needs rest and we don’t rest it,” Patel said. “We get a lot of shoulder and elbow injuries and we don’t spend enough time stretching…So, what happens if your shoulder is tight? You put too much stress on your elbow and then you get UCL and Tommy John injuries, and that’s what you’re seeing with a lot of these people.”
Patel says rest and cross training could help prevent a lot of these injuries.
“It’s really a lot of plyometrics… And, doing functional strengthening like agility work. FIFA has a prehab protocol that you’re supposed to do before practice and games every time and it prevents ACL tears. It’s just crazy that coaches don’t necessarily want to spend the 15 minutes warming up and doing that,” said Patel. “When you’re always playing basektball, always playing soccer, always playing baseball, you don’t have a break. So, you’re working those same muscles. Even if you just took the summer off and did other things, it would give you a break.”
Copyright 2025 KLTV. All rights reserved.
link