Persa OK; Trumpy out for season
Northwestern received mixed news in Monday’s injury report.
Running back Mike Trumpy suffered a torn ACL in the third quarter of Saturday’s 38-35 loss at Illinois and will miss the rest of the season.
Trumpy, a redshirt sophomore from Wheaton, is Northwestern’s top rusher among running backs with 182 yards on 35 carries. Backup quarterback Kain Colter (266 yards) is the team’s overall rushing leader.
“Losing Mike, it’s tough for him individually,” NU coach Pat Fitzgerald said Monday in Evanston. “It was noncontact and he stuck his foot in the ground and he changed direction.”
This is the second year in a row Trumpy suffered a season-ending injury against the Illini. Last year at Wrigley Field, he hurt his wrist after recording a career-high 129 yards on 13 carries.
“Trumpy’s a little bit down,” said senior running back Jacob Schmidt. “It’s tough. Injuries are part of the game, but when you lose a guy as special as Mike is, that hurts. We’ve got to embrace our roles and play that much better.”
The good news is quarterback Dan Persa is said to be healthy and feeling good.
Seeing his first game action Saturday since suffering a torn Achilles tendon last November, Persa went to the sideline in the fourth quarter favoring that same leg.
Before leaving the field, Persa completed 10 of 14 passes for 123 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Wildcats led the game 28-10 in the third quarter.
“He’s great. He was running around great today,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re going to be smart. He’s a guy that’s coming off a pretty major injury.
“He gets a little dinged up, we’re going to err on the side of being smart. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and I’ve got all the confidence in the world in Kain.”
Colter was on the field for the final two drives, and had an 11-yard run to set up Schmidt’s go-ahead touchdown with 1:15 left.
But that was enough time for Illinois to drive 69 yards in the other direction and score the game-winner with 13 seconds on the clock.
So besides the injuries, Northwestern (2-2) has to recover from a second straight tough loss as it prepares to host No. 12 Michigan on Saturday night at Ryan Field.
The Cats lost to Army on Sept. 17, giving up the winning score with 2:49 left.
“We’re battle-tested, there’s no doubt about that,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve been in three real dogfights and unfortunately came out on the short end of a couple of them.”
When asked to assess the degree of suffering Saturday’s loss provided, Fitzgerald used a couple of examples from his own life to show that he has moved on.
“They’re all tough,” he said. “The worst game I lost was against Oak Lawn High School with Carl Sandburg when I dropped a touchdown pass.
“I’m sorry we don’t have the ‘sky is falling’ attitude around here. You watch the tape, you go home. I have a 2-year-old, 5-year-old and 6-year-old who were playing football Saturday night. I got my tail whupped even worse in that game.”
Without Trumpy at running back, the Wildcats will turn to Schmidt (27 carries, 106 yards) and Treyvon Green, a true freshman from Mesquite, Texas. Green ran for a game-high 67 yards on 17 carries at Illinois.