Wolves without Azubuike
The Red Wolves have lost another member of their backfield for the year.
Arkansas State University Coach Blake Anderson announced Monday during his Sun Belt Conference teleconference call that freshman running back Isaiah Azubuike will miss the rest of the season after undergoing ankle surgery Sunday morning.
Azubuike had to be carted off the field with his right ankle in an air cast during the fourth quarter of ASU’s 52-38 loss to Georgia State in Atlanta on Saturday. Anderson was noncommittal on if Azubuike will be ready in time for spring camp.
“All indications are that he would be full speed by this summer. I don’t know that he’ll be ready for the spring,” Anderson said. “But surgery was needed and some hardware was needed to be put in to hold things together and help him heal properly.”
Azubuike, a native of
St. Louis, will finish his first season at ASU with 181 rushing yards and no touchdowns. To date, he’s tallied the most carries of any running back on the roster this season with
41. Since he played in five games, Azubuike also won’t be eligible to gain back a redshirt year.
“We’ll obviously miss him the rest of the season,” Anderson said. “I thought he was starting to come along and play at a pretty high level for a true freshman.”
With Azubuike out, ASU (3-3, 1-1 Sun Belt) has lost three backfield members to season-ending injuries. Junior running back Ryan Graham, who was No. 2 on the depth chart, suffered a torn ACL against Southern Illinois in Week 4, while junior quarterback Logan Bonner started the first four games before he had to have season-ending surgery for a torn ligament in the thumb of his throwing hand.
Anderson also said Monday that sophomore running back Marcel Murray, who started against Georgia State but did not finish the game because of a nagging ankle issue, is expected to be 100 percent for the Red Wolves’ next game, a Thursday night matchup Oct. 17 against Louisiana-Lafayette in Jonesboro. ASU has an open date this week.
Murray has been nursing an ankle injury ever since the first half of a 43-17 victory over UNLV on Sept.
7. Prior to Saturday, Murray had played only one play in ASU’s previous three games.
“Marcel came out of [Saturday’s game] really no worse than he was going in,” Anderson said. “He obviously didn’t finish, but I would expect him to be full speed when we play [Louisiana] with a week and a half (of rest) under his belt.”
On Saturday, Murray finished with six carries for 58 yards and a touchdown.
With Murray struggling to stay healthy, and with Graham and Azubuike both out for the year, junior DJ Chatman should have an even greater workload during the second half of the season.
Senior running back Jamal Jones, a fifth-stringer who played a key role during the 50-43 victory over Troy, missed the Georgia State game because of an injury, but he should also be more of a factor moving forward. Same goes, potentially, for redshirt freshman Donovan Marshall, who like Azubuike attended Lutheran North High School in St. Louis.