Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The Northwestern Wildcats started their season off with a nice victory on the road versus Cal, winning 44-30 and showing improvement over last season as the team was able to maintain their lead in the fourth quarter.
Not all the news from the game was good, though, as head coach Pat Fitzgerald announced today that junior starting cornerback Daniel Jones suffered a serious injury to his left knee and will unfortunately miss the rest of the season.
This comes as a major blow to Fitzgerald and the Wildcats’ defense, which has been making phenomenal strides over the past couple of seasons. While their offense has been great, their defense was somewhat lacking. This season, however, they looked ready to make that jump and compete as a top-level Big Ten defense.
Jones was in his first full year as the starter after starting the final seven games of the 2012 season. In 2012, Jones registered 33 tackles in the seven games he played in, 29 of them being solo stops. He also recorded three pass break ups.
He was replaced in the game by Dwight White, a redshirt freshman who was named defensive practice player of the week twice a season ago.
Jones was not the only injury suffered by the Wildcats as quarterback Kain Colter was diagnosed with a concussion during the game and starting running back Venric Mark was battling an apparent leg injury.
The Wildcats will head back to Evanston to face Syracuse next weekend in their 2013 home opener.
Erik Sargent is a college football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Erik_Sargent, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
