Georgia State got bad news on all three players who suffered major knee injuries in Saturday’s 45-14 loss at Washington.
Starting running back Kyler Neal was diagnosed with a torn MCL in his left knee and will miss four to eight weeks. Neal, a sophomore, had rushed for 209 yards and a touchdown this season.
Backup running back Jonathan Jean-Bart suffered a torn ACL — the same injury he suffered in the same knee as a senior at Henry County High — and is out indefinitely. Duvall Smith, Dontavis Crocker and Gerald Howse are expected to take over at running back. Smith is the only one of the three that has significant playing time this season, rushing 20 times for 62 yards and a touchdown.
Starting outside linebacker Mackendy Cheridor will have surgery on his meniscus. His return can’t be determined until the procedure is performed and the damage is evaluated. Cheridor, a sophomore, has 13 tackles and a sack this season. If Cheridor is ruled out, Melvin King is expected to start and freshman James Traylor is expected to become the backup.
The Panthers are off this week and will play at Louisiana-Lafayette next week.
Hammon's status: Krysten Hammon decided Wednesday to transfer from Georgia State, according to coach Trent Miles.
The release from his scholarship will be effective at the end of the semester. The only restriction Miles put on Hammon’s transfer was that he can’t enroll at other Sun Belt schools or future opponents.
Hammon, a freshman from Texas, rushed for 197 yards and two touchdowns in two games. He was suspended for the game against Air Force and didn’t travel with the team to Seattle. An attempt to reach Hammon wasn’t successful.
Running depth: Because the Panthers are thin at running back because of injuries and players leaving the program, cornerback Marcus Caffey took a few snaps at the position during Wednesday's practice.
Caffey, 6-foot, 195 pounds, was rated by one scouting service as one of the nation’s best running backs when he signed with Kentucky in 2011 out of Grady High. The Wildcats moved him to cornerback before he left to enroll at Iowa Western Community College. He enrolled in Georgia State earlier this year and has started all four games at cornerback.
Miles said that if Caffey were to play running back, that likely would occur in certain packages and that he also would continue to play cornerback, another position at which the Panthers are thin.
Miles said it’s too early to tell if Caffey will play as a running back.
Punts: Place-kicker Wil Lutz will take over at punter in place of Matt Hubbard.
Hubbard had a disastrous day at Washington, punting several times to Dante Pettis, a dangerous returner, despite Miles saying that Hubbard was told to punt out of bounds.
Hubbard’s punting, combined with an offense that couldn’t generate a first down, resulted in six of the Huskies’ 10 drives in the second half starting in Georgia State territory.
Hubbard has averaged 37.4 yards per punt on 16 attempts this season. His average in three previous seasons was 42.3 yards per punt. He has yet to have a punt longer than 50 yards this season, something he did 38 times the previous three seasons.
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