Ten months later: Moses Jenkins’ concussion

By Adam Silverstein
August 24, 2010

While the media and Florida Gators fans spent their days and nights concerned about whether or not then-senior quarterback Tim Tebow would fully recover from a concussion suffered during the Kentucky Wildcats game in Oct. 2009, OGGOA informed its readers that then-junior cornerback Moses Jenkins was having an even more difficult time coming back from his.

Barely even mentioned last season, Jenkins’ concussion occurred at the start of the Kentucky game; he suffered whiplash as well and should have been yet another player Gators fans were seriously concerned about at the time.

Here are the details OGGOA exclusively reported on Oct. 28:

According to a source close to Jenkins, the special teams star encountered complications following the whiplash and concussion he suffered against the Kentucky Wildcats. Because of the extreme trauma caused by the hit, Jenkins experienced a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak that was causing his brain to literally tilt inside the cranium. [CSF acts as a “cushion” and allows the brain to “float.”] This left him with headaches, blurry vision and pain on one side of his face.

Jenkins underwent surgery [for clarification purposes, we’ll call it a “procedure”] at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida on Monday to replace the CSF that was being lost and not reproducing fast enough. He stayed overnight for observation and was visited by head coach Urban Meyer on Tuesday. The source said he is recovering nicely and getting extensive treatment to help the CSF begin circulating properly.

Fast forward 10 months: the mainstream media has finally picked up on Jenkins’ suffering – now that the senior finally decided to talk about it.

“It was a bad deal,” Jenkins told reporters Tuesday. “It was about six weeks [before I started feeling better]. I’d get headaches, my eyes would swell. A lot of light and noise irritated it and my head would just pound, pound, pound. I remember I tried to walk fast or jog and my head would spin. It was crazy. […] They pounded right here in the side of my head, sharp pounding. The sad thing is you can’t take medication for it. You can’t take Advil or Tylenol. You have to rest in dark areas.”

Now fully recovered, Jenkins is “ready to go” and hopes to earn a starting job with Florida – something that has eluded him over his three-year career in which he primarily saw time on special teams. Add redshirt sophomore Jeremy Brown, who is recovering from an injury of his own (back), to the mix and you have a duo of CBs angling for a starting job who both deserve to be rooted for this season.

One Comment

  1. Gatorbuc15 says:

    I do remember reading something about this last year. But I had no idea that it was that bad! I mean the man could have easily died from this! The fact that this wasn’t talked about that much in the media is really absurd! At least his injury is starting to get noticed now, but this happend10 MONTHS ago. It just doesn’t make sense to me how everyone missed this.
    The fact that he can compete for a starting position this year is actually quite miraculous! Not too many people suffer severe head trauma, and just trot back on the field 10 months later! He’s a very fortunate individual, and I will be rooting hard for him to become a starter for the Gators!

    Let’s go Jeremy!

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