Cornerbacks Coach Phil Elmassion led yet another day of animated one-on-one drills despite the loss of senior cornerback Zack Bowman to an ACL injury sustained in Saturday’s practice. Head Coach Bill Callahan directly addressed the unfortunate loss, but with optimism that Bowman will take a medical redshirt year and return for his senior season.
“First off, we need to announce that we have lost (senior cornerback) Zack Bowman for the season,” Callahan said. “He sustained an ACL injury yesterday in practice. He’s a great kid, and I spoke with him this morning and he’s really disappointed. Just visiting with him, he wants to come back for another year, and that’s tremendous. It’s a tremendous loss for our team, but other guys are stepping up and doing a good job, and he’ll be there to help them out and support them, and that’s great.
Callahan additionally specifically noted when Bowman’s injury took place.
“(The injury happened) during one-on-one (action), which takes place during the nine-on-seven (drills),” Callahan said. “He was defending a corner route, he went up for it, he extended and elevated, and he came down planting his foot, and it looked like a hyperextension, but he hurt his ACL.”
Despite, the loss Callahan expressed confidence in the team’s pool of defensive back-ups for the team to call on. Junior-college transfer Andre Jones has excelled early in fall camp, while true freshmen Anthony West and Major Culbert have been working at safety, but also have the ability to play cornerback. Juniors Titus Brothers and Bryan Wilson have limited game experience, but could also figure into the cornerback mix.
Defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove additionally seemed confident at the defensive resources that they will have throughout fall camp and into the season.
“Despite what happened, we really had a good day. Guys were really moving around, and I was pretty impressed,” Cosgrove said. “We’ll figure it out. We’ve got to continue to evaluate, continue to coach, and continue to look at all the guys. We’ll see the speed of the game a little better when we get the pads on, because guys tend to avoid each other a little more when they don’t have the pads on.”
Cosgrove also specifically pointed out the team’s most veteran corner cornerback in junior Cortney Grixby, who he will rely on not only to step up but also to help develop the younger talents at the position.
“He’s been looking really good through four practices,” Cosgrove said. “He’s a tremendous competitor, and he just gets better every year. We look for big things from him this year. He is going to help all the guys out as a veteran. When they’re on the sideline and he’s got a young guy next to him, he’ll take that young guy and coach him and make him better.”
Atleast it sounds like we'll have him for next year.