Miami LB Darrion Owens out for season with knee injury
Miami lost a defensive contributor to a season-ending injury in its Friday night win over Florida Atlantic.
Hurricanes head coach Al Golden announced Sunday that sophomore linebacker Darrion Owens suffered a right knee injury against the Owls. Golden did not offer specifics as to the nature of the injury, but did say it requires surgery.
According to the Miami Herald, Golden said Owens will have surgery “in about 10 days.”
“A tremendous young man and arguably one of our hardest workers,” Golden said of Owens. “We feel badly for him. But we have some guys that have got to step up. We have to have the next-man mentality and get that situated by the time we back to work on Tuesday.”
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Owens made two tackles Friday night before injuring the knee in the first quarter. He also had two tackles in Miami’s Week 1 win over Bethune-Cookman, a game Owens started. He also played in 12 games and totaled 23 tackles in 2014 as a true freshman.
The 6-foot-3, 247-pound Owens wore a lot of hats on the Hurricanes’ defense, providing depth at several spots.
“Darrion was a (strong-side linebacker) for us, a middle linebacker for us and a third-down pass rusher,” Golden said. “He’s very versatile.”
Because of that, Golden mentioned quite a few names to fill the void moving forward, starting with Saturday’s game at home against Nebraska.
From the Miami Herald:
Golden said 6-3, 236-pound senior Tyriq McCord, who has played both rush end and linebacker at UM (2-0), will help compensate for Owens’ absence. Also in the mix, starting rush end Trent Harris, who can slide into the strong-side linebacker spot because Al-Quadin Muhammad is back at rush end.
Redshirt freshman linebacker Mike Smith is also available.
Golden also mentioned Demetrius Jackson doing better at rush end and thus allowing for a possible Harris move.
Even true freshman strong-side linebacker Jamie Gordinier is “on alert,” Golden said, but would play only “if we incurred another injury.”
The Hurricanes were able to pull away from FAU in the second half Friday night, eventually winning 44-20, but the defense allowed nearly 400 yards of offense to a team playing with a backup redshirt freshman quarterback.
The 1-1 Cornhuskers, coming off a 48-9 win over South Alabama, should present a bigger challenge.
Aside from Owens’ injury, Golden did provide good news on Sunday. Starting receivers Stacy Coley (hamstring) and Braxton Berrios (knee) will return to practice on Tuesday, as will middle linebacker Juwon Young. Young hasn’t practiced since preseason while dealing with a sprained foot.
For more Miami news, visit CaneSport.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
