San Diego State wide receiver\/kick returner Jordan Napier, one of the Aztecs\u2019 top playmakers, will miss the remainder of the season because of a knee injury suffered in last week\u2019s win over Boise State.<\/p>\n
Napier will require surgery, SDSU coach Sean Lewis said, although the extent of the damage and what repair will be required will not be known until the surgery is performed.<\/p>\n
Napier\u2019s recovery time can\u2019t be determined until after surgery, but healing will require more than the 4-6 weeks remaining in the regular season and whatever bowl game SDSU plays next month.<\/p>\n
The Aztecs (8-2, 5-1 MW) play San Jose State on Saturday night at Snapdragon Stadium, then close out the regular season Nov. 28 at New Mexico. They also could play in the Mountain West championship on Dec. 5. A bowl appearance could come as early as the Dec. 13 L.A. Bowl or as late as the Dec. 27 Arizona Bowl.<\/p>\n
Napier, a 6-foot-2 sophomore from Fontana, leads the Aztecs with 48 receptions for 629 yards and two touchdowns. He also is their top kickoff and punt returner, highlighted by a 75-yard punt return for a touchdown at Nevada.<\/p>\n
Napier wore a knee brace from thigh to ankle as he watched a morning practice from the sideline this week, with several teammates and coaches offering hugs and well wishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s had an unbelievable response and been a tremendous leader,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cHe\u2019s been not so much focusing on asking, \u2019Why is this happening to me?\u2019 but what is the next step. He has responded like a true champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be there to support him through all of this so that he can get healthy, get recovered and get back to doing what he loves, but still be true to himself and his identity that is so much bigger than football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napier was injured with four minutes remaining in the second quarter when he was hit in the legs by a Boise State defender while reaching up for a pass from Jayden Denegal on a bubble screen.<\/p>\n
While some Aztecs fans were quick to label the play a dirty hit, Lewis considered it an unintended consequence of trying to protect players from concussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way defenders have to strike now, it\u2019s like, if they go high, they\u2019re thrown out for a game because there\u2019s the potential risk of targeting. Now a defender goes low, and our guy\u2019s out for the year,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cAt some point in time, you just have to accept that football is football. If you ask any one of these players, they would tell you they would much rather be hit high than low.\u201d<\/p>\n
Napier is the second SDSU starting wide receiver to be sidelined with a season-ending knee injury. Junior transfer Jacob Bostick was hurt in a win over Nevada.<\/p>\n
Junior transfer Donovan Brown (23 catches, 321 yards, TD) is the only starting wide receiver who is still healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe come out here and work every day,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSomebody else has got to come out here and pick it up.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody goes through injuries in football, so it\u2019s just next man up who can make a play, who can be trusted and who can put that workload on their back and carry the team a little bit. It\u2019s time to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Junior Mikey Welsh, a former walk-on who earned a scholarship this season, replaced Napier against the Broncos. Welsh had a career-high three receptions for 22 yards, giving him 10 catches for 116 yards on the season.<\/p>\n
Junior transfer Nathan Acevedo stepped into Bostick\u2019s spot. He has 10 receptions for 117 yards this year. Sophomore Will Cianfrini (Carlsbad High School) also has received playing time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talk to the receivers about opportunities all the time,\u201d SDSU wide receivers coach Lanear Sampson said. \u201cYou always have to be ready because you never know when your opportunity could come.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re ready, you don\u2019t have to get ready. That\u2019s why you always have to stay ready. Next man up is a real thing, but it\u2019s the day-to-day process and discipline, so that when the time comes you\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sampson said there\u2019s not much to say to the injured players beyond \u201ckeep your head up.\u201d There is a focus on keeping them engaged with their teammates in the receivers room.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou try to keep guys around, because once they get detached from football and they\u2019re doing rehab and things like that, they can get into their own head a little bit,\u201d Sampson said. \u201cNapier is a leader for us, and Bostick is a leader for us. You try to keep those guys around to help the guys that are stepping up playing. Then just lead any way they can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Expect the Aztecs to lean even more on a ground game that produced 277 rushing yards against Boise State. SDSU is averaging 189.7 yards a game rushing, which ranks 31st in the nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego State wide receiver\/kick returner Jordan Napier, one of the Aztecs\u2019 top playmakers, will miss the remainder…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":293174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,186228,3549,186227,7264,103417,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-391628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-jordan-napier","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-state-football","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sean-lewis","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115580593999432356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}