Manuel hurts ankle, held out as precaution

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Florida State quarterback EJ Manuel suffered a minor ankle injury in Wednesdays practice and did not take part in Thursdays scrimmage. Coach Jimbo Fisher said that a defensive player fell on Manuels right ankle during a two-minute drill Wednesday night. It was swollen up, Fisher said. He would have been out there (Thursday) hobbling and probably would have aggravated the heck out of it. There wasnt any sense in pushing it. Fisher said that Manuel may be able to practice on Friday, but he wasnt certain. If we had a game, he would have played, Fisher said. Manuel, a redshirt senior, has played through thumb, shoulder and leg injuries at various times of his career. He played through a fractured fibula, the non-weight bearing bone in the lower leg, in the Champs Sports Bowl victory over Notre Dame in December. In Thursdays closed scrimmage, the first of August for FSU, redshirt sophomore quarterback Clint Trickett took most of the reps with the first-team offense. Fisher said he is clearly established as the No. 2 quarterback over redshirt freshman Jacob Coker. Statistics were not made available to the media, but Fisher was pleased with Tricketts performance. I thought Clint did some really good things early, Fisher said. He then hit a lull and struggled, made some poor passes. Then he settled back, made some throws and got us in the end zone a couple times. FSU opens up the season against Murray State on Sept. 1.