I completely spaced last week on doing a Q&A, totally my bad. The start of basketball season had me running all around.

But let's get back to it with our third edition of Ask the Editor.

Let's get two of these knocked out here.

MHamp71 asks: "Is Brady Cook out for the season and Drink is playing the optics game right now?"

And Ol Roscoe asks: "What is really wrong with Brady Cook's hand and ankle .... is either broken and can we expect him back any time soon?"

Kyle: This is my chance to be very straight up with you guys. I know my injury updates have been subpar compared to what you used to get. I'm still working on improving my connections within the programs. But also, as college sports become bigger and bigger business, lips get tighter and tighter and teams want to control their own narrative more because more is at stake.

THIS IS NOT ME TRYING TO BACKDOOR TELL YOU SOMETHING.

I'm going to run through a possible scenario, but again, this is JUST SPECULATION.

If a source were to tell me exactly what's wrong with Brady or Mookie Cooper and I then publish that, like say what I THINK is happening in the coaching staff knowing Cook isn't available but working to keep him from being listed "out" on the injury report as long as possible, then that's putting people's jobs at risk and the program might face serious consequences. If I publish that the team is doing that and my source is then found out, they would likely lose their job, the SEC might punish the program and then I'm out a source anyway.

AGAIN, THIS IS SPECULATION ON MY PART. JUST WANT THAT TO BE VERY CLEAR.

I know there's always a workaround, and I'm working on getting to it, but I think it's only going to get harder and harder.

But yes, I think the staff knows Brady isn't playing this week and they knew he wasn't playing last week. After the Alabama game, I heard some immediate talk that his hand/wrist was broken and that would mean don't expect him back until at best a late-December bowl game.

lwv asks: Status of Kewan Lacy? Redshirt? Has Mekhi Miller switched to defense?

Kyle: First, Kewan Lacy has played in four games, so if he's going to redshirt, he can't play again. Drinkwitz has been asked about it a couple of times and seems set on him playing again this season, so the message is at least that he will not redshirt.

I don't really get why you would do that at this point, especially with Nate Noel back on the field. Seems like the perfect opportunity to get another year of development for a guy who at this point is your No. 2 next season in a weakened running-back room, though I'm sure they'll add in the portal there again this year.

If he does play again, it'll probably just be against Mississippi State, and I don't understand burning the redshirt to get your fourth-string running back an extra couple of carries at that point.

Second, where did the Mekhi Miller defense stuff come from? I saw some people talking about it on Twitter during the game, but I never saw him. He's not credited with any defensive snaps played this year and he would have to change his number since Sterling Webb is still playing out there and wearing No. 10.

He hasn't been showing up on offense, but I think that's just a product of him not playing as well as last year and now the offense just doesn't have as many passes to go around.

MIZ...SEC asks: "Do you expect Connor Tollison/Armand Membou to return next season or enter the NFL Draft?"

Kyle: I have my opinion on this, but shout out Kenny for reaching out to Jacob Infante of Windy City Gridiron who does draft analysis.

Here’s what Infante said. “My guess is both of them stay. The agent guy I talked to said he’s not sure if Tollison declares or not, which makes me think he stays cuz he’s a consensus Day 3 guy. Membou I’m not so sure about cuz sometimes those OL types declare early (and I think he tests really well) but I’d put that at 50/50. His stock is just high enough to where it’s a conversation, but not high enough for it to be a foregone conclusion.”

Shoutout both Infante and Kenny again, that’s good stuff.

I agree. Starting with Tollison, I think especially with the injury, he can only raise his stock by coming back for another year. Centers don’t go high in the NFL Draft to begin with and I think coming back to prove he’s recovered will do wonders for his stock next season.

Membou is very good and tackles are always hot commodities, but I’d expect him back for similar reasons. Look what that extra season did for Javon Foster. I think directly having that example laid out shows Membou the path to increasing his stock enough that staying becomes the better option.

Especially now that guys can make money in school, staying and raising your draft position becomes a better and better option.

Zoufan27 asks: "While Drew Pyne looked better (late) in his 2nd game, shouldn't we be worried about the lack of talent we continue to get from the backup QBs?"

Kyle: I'm a pretty big proponent of not expecting a ton from backup quarterbacks. It's obviously not always right, but the truly successful ones tend to be the exceptions. Most teams have one good quarterback, there just aren't all that many truly talented ones out there, even though it feels like it.

I'm more worried when an offensive system doesn't change to best fit what it has available. The Tigers changed a little against Oklahoma to fit Pyne and it ended up working, but I was surprised there wasn't more of a difference. Look at the difference between the offense Texas A&M runs with Conner Weigman vs. Marcel Reed. Now, Cook and Pyne don't have as different of skill sets as those two, but A&M fully flips what it does as an offense depending on who is taking snaps.

It's hard to discount the loss of Sam Horn as the backup late in the process, too. He would have been the backup without his UCL injury, and he would have three years in the system getting used to what was needed. But by the time he got hurt, it was too late in the portal process to go hunting for a good QB.

There's also some talented youth who will be on the team next year, so going forward it might be a different case.

Eli Drinkwitz hasn't had to try to bring in a starter in the portal before, but he's been very good when he's needed to find starting-quality guys at other positions. I'm excited to see what he's able to do at that spot when he's able to actually say the position is available to be won instead of "Come here and sit behind the guy I love so much I want him to date my daughters."

MIZ25! asks: "Who would be your core players in basketball rotations? They don't need to go more than 9/10."

Kyle: Alright, this is going to be somewhat off the top of my head after watching the game against Mississippi Valley State on Thursday.

As my main guards, I'd have Ant Robinson, Tony Perkins and Marques Warrick. I really liked what I saw from Warrick on Thursday and he probably wouldn't have made this group for me before that game, but he can create in the offense and I think he's the best option they have at actually running sets in the half court, which has been such an issue already and through last season.

Ant should get so much time it's crazy. He's incredible defensively and his tenacity going at the basket is something the Tigers were really missing last season. I love watching him. Perkins brings too much high-level experience to ignore. I know he hasn't been great, but I expect him to work into form.

Annor Boateng is going to keep playing through the non-conference schedule, but he just doesn't seem fully ready to me at this point and I don't expect him to see the court a ton once we're into the California/Kansas/Illinois games and into SEC play.

At forwards, you've got the obvious leaders in Tamar Bates and Mark Mitchell. Caleb Grill is going to be part of it because he has the potential to play like he did against Eastern Washington. I've loved what I've seen so far from Marcus Allen, I think he's going to earn himself serious minutes, then Aidan Shaw and Trent Pierce need to be factors going forward.

That leaves me with Josh Gray as my main 5 with Mitchell or Shaw sliding down to the 5 as part of smaller lineups.

So my 10 are, Robinson, Perkins, Warrick, Bates, Mitchell, Grill, Allen, Shaw, Pierce, Gray.

My personal starting 5 at this point would be Robinson, Perkins, Bates, Mitchell, Gray.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss all this and so much more.