The difficult part with injuries is every single one is different. Some guys progress faster than others. Some guys are slower than others. Sometimes it feels like a guy is coming back next week and then he tweaks it and you throw your hands up because it's going to be longer. I broke my right thumb when I played JV basketball in high school. Happened in a preseason game in November. Couldn't do much until like mid-January, and then had to get cleared by the docs, and then get back into form, and I hadn't used my thumb for like two months and hadn't shot a basketball with my right hand (my shooting hand) in that time. So, it was a learning curve getting back acclimated. I say that to provide an example. Johnson broke his foot. If he was expected to be back for Jan. 31 vs. Duke but was still in a ton of pain, it's going to take longer to recover. And he's still working his way back. But it's hard to know exactly what's going on since we aren't at practice observing and actually talking to him and the staff about it. Johnson obviously wants to play. Having interacted with him, he's the kind of guy who would be out there if he could. He's not going to pull a Darryn Petersen and sit if he's healthy. I can understand how to many fans, Young's comments are interpreted as, "We're hoping, but we really don't know, so it's probably more of the same." But when it's a fluid injury situation and you genuinely don't know how a 20-year-old kid is going to feel the next day — if he's going to be in pain or not, especially if he has to be checked out during practice — it's just tough to have a complete read on things. Young can only share what he knows. And fans want to know something, anything. And then it's frustrating when it's not what they want to hear — and I'm not just saying that because I cover the team and have a good relationship with Mike and the staff. It's just difficult because it's like... what do you want him to say? Johnson is done for the year? When they're holding out hope he might come back? That they think he might be back on Saturday? And then fans are pissed when he isn't? What if he doesn't say anything? Fans will want to hear something. It's just a lose-lose-lose situation because no one hears what they want to hear. Only way people will be happy is if or when he returns. But it's like this with every injury in every sport. Kyron Drones' injury at the end of 2024. Justin Robinson's injury in 2019. Hunter Cattoor's injury in 2022. Elizabeth Kitley's injury in 2024. Coaches are always walking a weird line with injuries, because who knows how much the program or the player want out there, but everyone wants to know what's going on all the time. We'll see if Johnson indeed returns. That could be a huge shot in the arm. Imagine if the Hokies were to cap off the regular season with some big-time wins with Johnson back in the fold and he's ready to go for the postseason. Hypothetically, VT wins out. Imagine the argument you could make if you're 16-0 with Tyler Johnson and haven't lost when he's been healthy. Just my two cents. That's a lot of thoughts, but I keep seeing people saying Young is lying or Johnson's going to transfer, etc. People annoyed about not knowing what's going on, thinking VT isn't being truthful. I get it. But it's hard to be truthful when how the person is feeling about the injury is constantly changing — or maybe they aren't making as much progress as you expect. Again, it's just a spot where no one wins, everyone loses, until the player is actually back out there. Then people get to speculate how healthy they actually are, lol.