LSU Tigers star linebacker Whit Weeks suffered a fractured fibula against the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday.
Star LSU Tigers linebacker Whit Weeks suffered a fractured fibula on Saturday night against the Texas A&M Aggies, per Wilson Alexander and Pete Nakos of On3Sports. A return this season isn't out of the picture, but there is no specific timetable yet.
Weeks has now had the past two seasons of his career interrupted by injury, a frustrating results for one of the nation's top linebackers. The senior had been off to another great start to this season, combining with TJ Dottery to create one of the top linebacker rooms in college football.
Through four games so far, Weeks has totaled 24 tackles, 2.5 TFLs and a pass breakup. While the Tigers will have the athletes to fill in and make up for the loss, they don't have another contributor like Weeks. He had the athleticism to go along with being an experienced leader in the room.
In his last healthy campaign, Weeks had 125 tackles with 10 TFLs, 3.5 sacks and an interception. There is a reason that he was awarded the No. 7 jersey ahead of this season. The expectations are that he'll be playing on Sundays next year. Missing that type of player is never easy to replace.
With Weeks out, Davhon Keys is expected to see an expanded role. Keys is an exciting younger player who was an important depth piece last year and was continuing that role into this season.
Weeks is also now the third key player lost for significant time in the past two games. As talented as the LSU roster is in total, there is always a line where it starts to become too much. Both Trey'Dez Green and Weeks are their two No. 7 recipients. Arguably, they were their two best players heading into this season. Both could still return, but that's not certain right now.
Dashawn Spears, Phillip Wright and Gabriel Reliford are all out for the season. The unexpected loss of Spears last week hurt, as he is a perfect fit. They were able to account and gameplan for the loss of Reliford, at least, but imagine how good this pass rush would be if they had one of their best athletes.
With just one conference loss so far, the Tigers still have the entire season ahead of them. If they could keep the season afloat while Week and Green recover, they could potentially still see them return for some key games late.
