Three years ago, Jadeveon Clowney heard the same unsolicited advice that Leonard Fournette no doubt receives at every turn.Sit out your junior year.No more free licks.Dont risk injury when you can become a first-round NFL draft pick.Today, Clowney says he did the right thing in playing through criticism and injury during the 2013 season at South Carolina. He says he owed it to his teammates to help them chase championships.Id still have played, Clowney said Wednesday. You can get injured anywhere. It wasnt about me, it was about my team at the time. I loved the group of guys I was playing with. I like those boys like my brothers. Some of them I still talk to to this day. And I was not going to just quit on them.So I would have played and tried to win a national championship. That what its about, he continued. I always thought about it. I always wanted a ring and to go to the national championship. I didnt get it, but I knew I had the chance when I was playing for it instead of sitting at home not doing anything.Those words might as well have come directly from Fournettes mouth, although he has not been able to back up that sentiment lately. A preseason left ankle injury has hobbled LSUs All-American running back throughout the season, and Saturdays game against Florida will likely be the third hell miss by the seasons midway point.Fournette says he will keep playing once he is able to, despite what a growing number of skeptics insinuates each week while he watches from the sideline.Im fine, Fournette said the day after a Sept. 24 loss to Auburn, where the ankle visibly bothered him even as he rushed for 101 yards on 16 carries. Overall Im going to be here playing with my brothers each game. Thats not going to change. Im just ready to play again.Fournette has not played since making those comments on the day LSU athletic director Joe Alleva fired coach Les Miles and replaced him with Ed Orgeron. He sat out Saturdays 42-7 win over Missouri and Orgeron said Wednesday that he does not expect Fournette to be available against the Gators, either.But should he return at all? Fournette already plays a contact-heavy position, and his physical running style only adds to the punishment that his body absorbs.Thats part of the reason Fournettes family took out two $10 million insurance policies -- a detail first reported in May by CBSSports.com -- as he approached what will almost certainly be his final college season.But self-preservation isnt really Fournettes thing. Teammates expect to eventually see the same Leonard who happily bowled over tacklers in meaningless spring practices return to the lineup once his ankle heals.Most guys on this team dont have that sort of thing. We dont have insurance policies on our draft status, LSU fullback J.D. Moore said. But I think his goal right now, his mindset, is hes got to be as healthy as he can be. I dont think it does him or the team any good if hes playing one game and sitting out the next. Thats just not the way he wants to operate. So I think if it takes a little longer on the front end to get him healthy to have more success on the back end, where really thats the meat of our schedule at the end of the year, I think thats his mindset -- trying to be as healthy as he can be.Thats advice that Clowney would likely offer, as well. Playing is one thing. Potentially hurting yourself or your team by playing before your body is ready is another.Say he would have went out there with not that good of an ankle, he might have hurt something else or he might have done something else, said LSUs Ethan Pocic, the?top senior center prospect?in?ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr.s latest 2017 draft rankings. Say me for instance, if I cant go, Im not going to go and maybe put [running back Derrius] Guice [in jeopardy] or the quarterback, because if I cant do my job, I dont want to let my teammates down.Thats the fine line that a superstar with high-first-round potential must walk.Clowney dealt with heavy criticism when a series of minor injuries knocked him out of two games and affected his production during his junior season. Like Fournette in 2016, Clowney -- also a former ESPN No. 1 overall high school prospect and first-team All-American as a sophomore -- entered that fall as a Heisman Trophy contender whose name sat high atop NFL draft boards for the upcoming year.His junior-year downturn generated plenty of debate leading up to the 2014 draft, but Clowney still went No. 1 overall to the Houston Texans. And even if he doesnt go with the very first pick should he enter next years draft, Fournettes ceiling seems just as high. He currently occupies the No. 1 spot?on?ESPN analyst Todd McShays Top 32 list and trails only Texas A&Ms Myles Garrett on Kipers Big Board.As McShay wrote, Resting until hes right will be the best thing for his long-term future. After logging 513 total touches in his previous two seasons, Fournette has little left to prove to NFL scouts.In the meantime, Fournette has maintained his role as a team leader from the sideline, even as teammates recognize his frustration.We all know hes disappointed he isnt playing, Guice said, but whenever I come on the sideline, were hugging, were doing our little handshake or hes just giving me some advice, telling me how I did on the previous play or drive. To me, hes supportive on the sideline. So all the He looks mad, I dont know where that comes from.As Moore indicated, the meat of LSUs schedule still lies ahead. Although the Tigers lost twice in a disappointing September that led to Miles dismissal, they are still in the thick of the SEC West race since games against division rivals Alabama, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Texas A&M await them in the second half of the season. Fournette would be LSUs ace in the hole for that stretch run, assuming that he is healthy and engaged when that key portion of the schedule arrives.It remains to be seen how quickly Fournettes ankle will recover, but Orgeron, for one, does not expect to have any problems keeping his star running back engaged despite the personal interests that would convince many others to sit out.Sometimes it can be [difficult]. But you know, Leonard is a different cat, Orgeron said. Leonard has a high character. Hes a team guy. He wants the team to win, have success. I think he was happy to see the offense have success. 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Trey Burke Jersey . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg.Jason Day has arrived at Royal Troon for the 145th British Open desperate to add the Claret Jug to his trophy cabinet.The world No.1 will spearhead an 11-strong Australian assault on golfs oldest major championship and is making no secret of his desire to atone for last years despair.Day held a share of the third-round lead at St Andrews, but never got going on Sunday and ultimately missed a playoff - won by American Zach Johnson - after leaving a 10-metre birdie putt on the 72nd hole a revolution short.Coming so close last year is definitely a motivational factor in that I would love to one day hold the Claret Jug and be able to put my name down in history with the best that have ever lived and played the game, Day said on Monday. Just to be able to be called the Champion Golfer of the Year would be fantastic.So Im very excited to be here and looking forward to a nice, challenging week.Day has already squeezed in two rounds at Troon since arriving in Scotland on thhe weekend.dddddddddddd.He said surviving the links courses own Amen Corner-style mid-round stretch would be crucial with wind and rain, as ever, forecast for the Open.We played 36 holes already, he said.We had a westerly, south-westerly kind of wind, and apparently thats not the prevailing wind. Its more sort of out of the opposite direction, I guess.It was great. Its a very challenging course. I think midway through the round - 9, 10, was it 11 and 12, even 13 - theyre all pretty difficult holes for that middle stretch.So trying to get through there with how tough the wind and the rain could be is going to be a very difficult task.Former runners-up Adam Scott and Marc Leishman, along with Steven Bowditch, Matt Jones, Rod Pampling, Greg Chalmers, Scott Hend, Marcus Fraser, Nick Cullen and Nate Holman round out Australias representation. ' ' '
