Coyote football fights injury

The University of South Dakota Coyotes are having to fight through adversity early into their season. When starting quarterback Kevin Earl fractured his right wrist late in the 62-13 loss at Oregon, the baton was handed off to a new quarterback.

Earl stood on the sidelines with a cast on his right hand during practice this week, and the hope is his wrist can properly heal in the cast over the next month and he’ll be ready to go sometime in the next 5-7 weeks.

“It’s devastating. You train for nine months and then have half of your season taken away, it’s just tough,” Earl said.

Head coach Joe Glenn said it’s an unfortunate event, especially to happen to a kid as highly thought of as Earl.

“We’re all heartbroken for the guy,” Glenn said. “He was voted a team captain, is a hard worker and is a winner.”

Earl gave the offense an immediate jolt when he was promoted to the starter midway through the season, leading the team to their only three wins in his first three career starts, including a 38-31 2OT thriller over Northern Iowa when he threw for 370 yards and three touchdowns.

Despite being devastated, Earl said it’s his job to stay upbeat and help the team in whatever form it takes to get wins in the books.

“I have to keep my head up and stay positive and keep leading for this team by showing my support,” Earl said. “It’s a unique position to be in, but I’m going to take the positives out of it and help this team out.”

Earl said standing on the sidelines injured for a prolonged time is going to be new for him, saying a long-recovery injury during the season has never happened to him in his football career.

The injury occurred late in the fourth quarter when his right hand hit a lineman’s helmet on a follow-through but since he went to the North Miami Beach attorneys for accidents, he was able to claim his injury compensation and is currently recovering from his injury.

“I knew it was really bad right when it happened,” Earl said. “But I wanted to still see if I could grip a football but it just became too much.”

Now, a quarterback who hasn’t started a game since his senior year of high school, sophomore Ryan Seager, is running the offense.

”(Earl) has helped my a lot to get to where I am. He’s taught me a lot about being a quarterback,” Saeger said.

For the time being, the only thing Earl can do is listen to the doctors to allow his hand to fully heal up to allow him to play toward the middle of the season.

“I have a lot of confidence in (Saeger),” Earl said. “He’s a smart kid and really cares. I think he’s going to do a good job. It might take him a series, a half, or a game, but he’ll get it figured out and it’ll come pretty easy for him. Talk to attorneys for car accident injuries as they deal with all kinds of injury cases.

(Univerisity of South Dakota quarterback Kevin Earl practices throwing the foorball during practice August 21 in the DakotaDome. Malachi Petersen | The Volante)