As many had predicted, projected starting right guard Marcel Benson will miss the entire 2007 season because of a heart condition.
Benson experienced an irregular heartbeat during the last spring practice, and was eventually diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a heart condition that causes electrical signals to be sent to the ventricles too soon.
Head coach Steve Kragthorpe said that the school will seek a medical redshirt for Benson, who had been preparing for his senior season. He saw action at right tackle in all 13 games last season while backing up Renardo Foster.
Mike Donoghue, who was expected to push Benson for the position even if he'd been healthy, will enter practice as the starter, but will see competition from a number of players including redshirt freshman Jeff Adams.
While this is certainly a blow, the faint ray of light here is that Benson was the most expendable of the five projected starting offensive lineman. Obviously losing any of the three returnig starters would be a much larger deal, and then the only other guy is Breno Giacomini who started at tackle the first half of last season and showed great improvement this spring. Though depth on the o-line is still a major issue, Donoghue is no worse than Benson's equal so the starting unti should still be one of the strongest in the Big East.