Speaking Monday on the weekly Big 12 coaches teleconference, Texas A&M’s Mike Sherman said he “feels terrible” about the play in which Colorado freshman tailback Rodney “Speedy” Stewart suffered a fractured right fibula Saturday in College Station, Texas.
Stewart was injured on a horse-collar tackle by Aggies linebacker Von Miller.
“I’ve voted on this in the National Football League, and we really grabbed it (rule prohibiting horse-collar tackles) because players were breaking their legs,” said Sherman, a former Green Bay Packers head coach. “I feel terrible that young man broke his leg with a horse-collar tackle.”
Stewart is out for at least the remainder of the regular season, with a projected healing period of four to six weeks. Through eight games, Stewart ranked fourth among the league’s rushers with 75.4 yards per game.
“That’s part of football, part of life,” Colorado coach Dan Hawkins said on the teleconference when asked about injuries. . . . “It’s a very sad deal that Speedy got hurt. We’ve had other guys step up and step in. It’s kind of been our lot this year. . . . We’re getting our Ph.D. in dealing with adversity.”
CU footnotes.
Hawkins said freshman place-kicker Jameson Davis, who suffered a concussion during a second-half kickoff Saturday, is expected to be available for Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. home game against Iowa State. Davis has handled kickoff duties all season and made his first college field goal when he got the call after Aric Goodman hit the right upright with a 46-yard attempt in the second quarter. Goodman is 3-for-11 this season.
Rams’ bright spot.
Colorado State defensive coordinator Larry Kerr found one positive despite BYU scoring 45 points Saturday with the play of redshirt freshman Elijah-Blu Smith’s starting debut at safety.
“How well he played was a big plus for us,” Kerr said of the safety who only recently converted from backup cornerback status. Smith had six solo stops, a sack and two tackles for 12 yards in losses.
CSU coach Steve Fairchild said: “He did tremendously, I thought, for being put in the spotlight. . . . He played fast, he played physical.”
The penalty, continued.
Fairchild has walked a fine line in his first year on his comments regarding officiating. One of the strangest calls came Saturday when CSU was slapped with a 15-yard celebration penalty on Gartrell Johnson’s late touchdown when former Ram Joey Porter, who plays for the Miami Dolphins, chest-bumped Johnson in the end zone. “I didn’t see it as a penalty,” Fairchild said. He enjoyed having Porter and a number of ex-Rams at the game.
Tom Kensler and Natalie Meisler, The Denver Post
