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Nov. 18—GRAND FORKS — The UND football team will close out the season Saturday at Illinois State, and the Fighting Hawks’ offense may be shorthanded.
UND running back Isaiah Smith suffered an injury in last Saturday’s 42-36 home loss to No. 5 South Dakota. Smith was taken away from the Alerus Center for treatment.
“We’ll know more later this afternoon,” UND coach Bubba Schweigert said at his weekly Monday press conference. “We’re hoping he’s available Saturday, but that’s yet to be determined.”
Smith, a senior who was recognized on Senior Day last Saturday at the Alerus, has 674 rushing yards and eight touchdowns this season. He also has 150 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
For his career, Smith has more than 2,000 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns.
He wasn’t the only one to leave the game early against the Coyotes. Starting safety Tyler Erkman was also hurt during the game and returned to the sideline in a sling.
Schweigert was asked if the lack of playoff aspirations in the final game would lead to any personnel changes in the finale.
He stressed playing younger players would only be a result of the injury situation.
“With where we at health-wise, we’re going to have to play some younger players,” Schweigert said. “It was a physical game and has been a physical month. It’s all hands on deck. We have all of our first year guys except one with games to play. We’re still working through that. But we’re going to try to win the game. If that takes playing some younger guys we’re going to do it, but in no way are we looking at this as an experiment.”
UND will travel to Illinois State for the first time in school history. The noon game is exclusively streamed on ESPN-Plus.
The Hawks are 5-6 overall and riding a four-game losing streak.
The No. 14-ranked Redbirds are 8-3 overall and 5-2 in the Missouri Valley Football…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/und-running-back-isaiah-smith-013300136.html
Author : Grand Forks Herald
Publish date : 2024-11-19 01:33:00
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