Lippincott out for season
Devastated.
That was the word coach Chris Ault used to describe his feelings Saturday after losing running back Luke Lippincott for the rest of the season.
“It’s a huge blow,” Ault said.
Lippincott left in the second quarter of Saturday’s 35-19 loss to Texas Tech after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury, located on the top part of the knee.
The senior running back had eight carries for 36 yards before he left for the locker room on Saturday.
Lippincott, who has been pegged the team’s leader by many of his teammates, led the Western Athletic Conference last season with 1,420 rushing yards.
He was also named to the 2008 Doak Walker Award Watch List, which is given to the best running back in the nation.
“Luke is my boy,” Nevada safety Uche Anyanwu said. “He exemplifies everything it means to be a Nevada back.”
Ault said Nevada would appeal to the NCAA to give the fifth-year senior one more year of eligibility.
“You bet we are going to petition,” Ault said. “I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t get the sixth year. Everybody else in the country gets players back (in these situations).”
The NCAA is lenient in allowing a sixth-year of eligibility to players who have suffered serious injuries, but it might not be as lenient in Lippincott’s case because he has already played in the first two games of this season.
Lippincott will have surgery on the ACL as soon as his medial collateral ligament heals, which should be within the next three weeks, Ault said.
The MCL is located below the ACL, deeper in the knee.
“We have a lot of depth at the (running back) position,” Ault said. “Somebody is going to have to step up. (Our game plan) is not going to change. Our offense is our offense.”
A committee of running backs headed by the Wolf Pack’s 2008 leading rusher sophomore Vai Taua, junior Brandon Fragger and freshman Lampford Mark will replace Lippincott.
“We can’t have a drop off (this season),” said Taua, who walked off the team last season because of personal reasons. The sophomore was reinstated back on the team before the end of the 2007 season. “We have to pick up the best we can.”
Fragger was labeled the backup to Lippincott at the beginning of the season, but will look to contribute evenly with two other backs the rest of the season.
Mark redshirted last season, but was Most Valuable Player his senior year at Buchanan High School in Clovis, Calif.
Mark, Taua and Fragger should fit well into Ault’s Pistol offense system.
Since coming back to coaching in 2004, Ault has had three backs rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season (B.J. Mitchell, Robert Hubbard and Lippincott).
Nevada has also averaged 2,311 rushing yards per year as a team since the 2004 season.
Ault’s Pistol offense, which has the quarterback in a shotgun formation with a running back immediately behind, works well as a north/south running game while also keeping the quarterback off the offensive line.
Nevada running backs averaged 40 carries per game last season.
Nevada’s heavy reliance on its running game puts a lot of pressure on Nevada’s three young backs to replace the senior leadership of Lippincott.
“I’m excited,” Taua said. “We just have to work on our focus.”
Emerson Marcus can be reached at emarcus@nevadasagebrush.com
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