"Our hypothesis was that the rule changes would not reduce the injury rate back down to the level seen in the fall," said John Albright, M.D., physician with the Sports Medicine Center at the University of Indiana Hospitals and Clinics and first author on the study. "We also discovered some interesting characteristics about the injury rates."

The Big 10 study showed that the spring game was not as bad as expected and was more injury-free than most scrimmages. "However, the two remaining spring scrimmages had the highest injury rates. Interestingly, limited-contact practices defined as 'practice with pads but without tackling' actually produced a higher injury rate than full-contact practices," the study said.

Albright believes playing football at full speed while attempting to avoid contact leads to a pattern of more broken fingers, dislocated elbows or shoulders rather than the lower extremity injuries such as Hooks suffered.

The Big 10 study concluded the only way to reduce spring injury rates is to eliminate or reduce scrimmages and limited-contact practices.

But, interestingly enough, the study offered a reason why spring football is so much more dangerous than fall practices. And this underscores why Hooks may have been injured as he competed with Matt Bauman for a starting spot.

Said Albright, "Spring is the time of year when players are trying to impress the coaches and prove that they are better than the person in front of them on the roster. So it is a relatively competitive time among players.

"During the fall playing season, the practices are very careful to ensure that people do not get injured between games. In the spring, it is much harder to control the safety of the practices because everyone is competing for the playing spots."

Film shows Hooks making a super effort to make a play last Thursday when his knee got torn up. But nobody knocked him around or crashed into his legs. "It was just as if he got hurt jumping," said Reynolds.

Interesting, indeed.

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E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com