Well, it looked for a while like KU wide receiver **Daymond Patterson** was set to go through a full practice on Wednesday, but it was not to be.
Patterson, a senior who missed last week’s game against Oklahoma because of a head injury, appears to still be dealing with the effects and, evidently, has not yet been cleared by doctors to return to practice.
For the second day in a row, Patterson ran through warm-ups and stretching, but when it came time to go to individual drills, he was sent to the exercise bike. It’s not as if Patterson isn’t trying to get back out there. At one point, as he stood in line to begin receiving drills, strength coach — and former Patterson teammate — **Justin Springer** pulled him out of line and walked him down to head trainer **Murphy Grant** to see if he had been cleared.
Evidently, Grant told them that he was not because Patterson quickly removed his helmet and hit the bike.
I’ve said all week that it’s probably a 50-50 deal with Patterson this week, but it’s definitely clear that the more time he misses the less likely it becomes that he will play against Texas at 11 a.m. Saturday.
At least it does look like Patterson is closer to a full return. We’ll see Saturday. My official guess here is that he’ll miss one more week.
Here’s a quick look at a couple of other things that caught my eye during Wednesday’s practice:
• Offensive lineman **Damon Martin**, who received extended playing time last week at OU and was praised earlier this week by KU coach **Charlie Weis**, was in fact working some with the first team offensive line. Weis opened up the spot at left guard, listing both starter **Duane Zlatnik** and Martin as first-team possibilities. We weren’t out there long enough to get a real look at how Martin has handled the mini-promotion, but confidence can play a big role in things like this and it looked, to me, like Martin was carrying himself with the confidence of a guy who believes he’s a starter. We’ll see how it plays out on Saturday. Unseating Zlatnik would be no small feat.
• I noticed that senior defensive end **Josh Williams** jumped out front and led stretches with the three captains today (Crist, Opurum and Hawkinson). I’m not sure if that’s new or not or if it’s an indication that Williams will be the fourth captain this weekend, but it did make me think of something. I know people had hoped that Williams would be this disruptive force and dominant pass rusher and that many are somewhat bummed out by his stats through seven games — 16 tackles, 1 for-loss, 1 pass break-up, 2 QB hurries, 2 fumble recoveries and 1 forced fumble. But I’m a firm believer that Williams’ presence has been a good thing for this defense. Not only has he been pencilled in — and performed — as a starter each week, but he’s also helped the younger guys understand what it means to work hard and helped them learn to take nothing for granted. Would it be better if Williams had six sacks right now? Of course. But I still think he proved to be a nice pick-up. I feel the same way about all of those fifth-year guys.
• Finally, the Coach Weis song of the day was “Runaway” by **Bon Jovi**.
