Auburn injury report: Champ Anthony to 'miss some time' with thumb injury
Auburn football will be without a key member of its defensive backfield in its home-opener against the Ball State Cardinals on Saturday night.
Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze revealed Monday that free safety Champ Anthony will "miss some time" after breaking his thumb during Auburn's 38-24 season-opening win at Baylor on Friday. The injury is severe enough that it will require surgery, which will cause him to miss an undetermined number of games this season. The injury comes as a blow to Anthony, as last Friday's game was his first since breaking his leg in Auburn's game against Arkansas last September.
Who is set to step up in Anthony's place? The depth chart for Saturday's game features much uncertainty , as every defensive position is listed as "or." However, Freeze was asked if true freshman Eric Winters could maintain the free safety role while Anthony recovers.
“I really don’t know on who’s starting and who’s not, but as far as more time, I think it is reasonable to expect that for sure," Freeze said of Winters possibly starting at free safety this week. "I think the opportunity is there for several guys. That was my challenge this morning: go have a great week. Those of you who didn’t get the number of snaps that you’d hoped, go have a great week and make this a different week. Eric (Winters) played a lot of snaps, but it’s a reasonable assumption to say if Champ (Anthony) is down that his snaps go even go up more.”
Anthony played 56 snaps in Friday's win, making four tackles in his return. Winters, in his first game in an Auburn uniform, played in 16 snaps and made three tackles while earning an 80.2 grade from Pro Football Focus in tackling . Jahquez Robinson and Taye Seymore are other possibilities for the free safety position, so practice this week will provide many opportunities for every candidate to prove themselves ahead of Saturday's game.
In other injury news, Freeze mentioned that running back Damari Alston is nursing a shoulder injury and is "questionable" for Saturday's game.
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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn injury report: Champ Anthony will 'miss some time'
