Nine Golden Eagles, eight starters out Saturday at Murray State
It's been a tough week for the Tech football team, including some new injuries, and the Golden Eagles will go into the game Saturday afternoon at Murray State missing nine players including eight who have been starters.
Cass Barnes to start at quarterback for first time
since 2007 season
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- A couple of new injuries, an apendectomy, some
old injuries that haven't quite healed. The list of missing players
is long as Tennessee Tech heads to Murray State Saturday to face
the Racers in a 1 p.m. Ohio Valley Conference contest.
Hoping to win their fourth in a row, the Golden Eagles will be
missing nine players including eight starters at kickoff, leaving
head coach Watson Brown scratching his head.
"It's the luck of the draw, but you have to play the hand you're
dealt," Brown said. "We've been lucky up to this point, but it hit
us hard this week. We hope to get quite a few of these guys back by
next week, but right now they're just not ready."
The team is already missing starting offensive tackle Malcolm Jones
for the season, and has been without defensive end Charlie Seivers
for several weeks. Tech suffered a handful of injuries two weeks
ago at Tennessee State, but Brown was hopeful that many of them
would be back in action at Murray State following an open date last
weekend.
Instead, the team lost a few more this week including starting
guard Scott Schweitzer with an apendectomy. Also missing from the
starting lineup on offense, in addition to Jones and Schweitzer,
will be tight end Cory Powers (concussion), runningback Jocques
Crawford, runningback Tremaine Hudson (shoulder) and quarterback
Tre Lamb (knee).
On defense, Tech will be missing linebacker Will Johnson (ankle)
and cornerback Caleb Mitchell (turf toe).
The injuries will give two Golden Eagles the opportunity to make
the first start of their careers. Ryan St. John will fill
Schweitzer spot on the offensive line, while freshman DaJuan Brown
will line up in place of Powers at tight end.
In the backfield, Dontey Gay will handle the plays that Crawford
would have had and redshirt freshman Ronquez Beech will fill in for
Hudson. On defense, Justin Vann returns to the starting spot
at linebacker and Mauricio Wallace will start at cornerback.
The most visible change will be at quarterback, where senior
Cass Barnes (pictured) will start for the first time this season in
Lamb's absence. Brown has announced that junior Clint Brewster and
redshirt freshman Ryan Tilghman will be the second and third
options at quarterback behind Barnes.
The senior from Tullahoma played quarterback as a freshman in 2007
and started a couple of games due to injuries to Lee Sweeney and
Josh Lowery. He wa 8-for-13 passing for 95 yards and two
touchdowns, and he rushed 43 times for 163 yards and five
touchdowns in nine games. After seeing action in place of the
injured Sweeney against Austin Peay, he got the start against
Tenessee State and his first collegiate completion went for a
touchdown against the Tigers. Ironically, he was 5-for-6 in that
game (same as his season total this year) for 44 yards. He finished
the year ranked first in the OVC in pass efficiency with a 158.3
quarterback rating.
He moved to wide receiver for the 2008 and 2009 seasons, but was
swithed back to signal-caller this spring. In 2010, Barnes has
played in five games. He is 5-for-6 passing for 11 yards, and had
rushed 19 times for 57 yards.
