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What's Behren Morton's injury status when Texas Tech football hosts Kent State?
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- What's Behren Morton's injury status when Texas Tech football hosts Kent State?
A few days after quarterback Behren Morton went down with a lower leg injury in the season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Texas Tech football head coach Joey McGuire had another bit of news regarding his fifth-year senior leader.
Morton exited the Red Raiders' 67-7 win in Jones AT&T Stadium after getting hit low on a pass attempt late in the second quarter. He finished the drive and then was removed for backup Will Hammond. McGuire said the plan was to remove Morton after that drive regardless. He happened to get hurt.
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"I think the thing that was the saving grace was his ankle turned and so that kept all the pressure from totally going from leg to all the way up to his knee," McGuire said Monday. "He's really sore, but the X-rays and MRI, they've come back negative."
As McGuire said Saturday after the game, Morton's injury is more about the muscles than anything structural, making the quarterback's status centered around pain tolerance.
"We'll play it day-by-day," McGuire said. "We'll see what he looks like (Tuesday), probably gear him back a little bit if he doesn't feel like 100%, maybe get some seven-on-seven and stuff like that and then just play it day-by-day."
Morton finished the game 16-of-18 passing with 201 yards and four touchdowns before exiting with 8:56 left in the second quarter. Hammond ripped off a 64-yard touchdown run in the second half and threw a touchdown to freshman Leyton Stone in the third quarter. Third-string Wake Forest transfer Mitch Griffis also had a touchdown pass to Bryson Jones in the fourth.
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If Morton is healthy enough to play, McGuire said, he will be on the field Saturday morning against Kent State. The Golden Flashes are coming off a win over Merrimack to open their season and, despite last year's 0-12 record, the Texas Tech coach wants to make sure everybody stays in sync as they gear up for Big 12 play later this month.
"We want to make sure our quarterback's in rhythm," McGuire said. "We want to make sure he's healthy but we also want to make sure he's in rhythm."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Updating the injury status of Texas Tech football QB Behren Morton
