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All week long Butch Jones has been pounding into his team that this game, this road game, is a test of them. That it would challenge them in ways that they never expected. He was talking to his players, he might as well have been talking to the fan base.
It is highly unlikely that the team or just found out about the Walt injury today, like the rest of us did. Remember the rumor that started the rampant speculation started on the ESPN gamepage, and it involved Walt in a neck brace. Its likely that the team has known about this since Monday, possibly Sunday.
Its a shock to us, but it won't be to the team who has been preparing for this game with the assumption that Walt won't be in it. That is comforting, sort of. It doesn't change the prevailing facts in this game, the most relevant of which is that you, me and 9 other guys could probably toss 400 yards of offense on the board. This game is a test, doubly so with Walt, the unquestioned talisman of this team standing on the sideline. But this team can pass it, with or without Walt. I am heading up to Toledo
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