CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State flanker James Rodgers will miss the rest of the season with a left knee injury.
The senior was injured Saturday in the second quarter of the No. 24 Beavers' 29-27 victory over Arizona when he was taken down by Wildcat safety Adam Hall.
The exact nature of the injury was not released on Monday. Rodgers had an MRI the day before.
Rodgers was tackled by Hall at the end of a 56-yard catch that would have been a touchdown had the Beavers not been called for an ineligible receiver penalty. Hall told the Arizona Daily Star on Monday that he hit Rodgers at the 2-yard line and attempted to strip the ball before the OSU star crossed the goal line.
"He stepped on my foot, and we got tangled up," he said.
Hall ran back to the sidelines, oblivious to the fact Rodgers was hurt. Hall called the injury "one of those fluke things."
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"It's hard to see it happen to a great player," Hall said. "I pray and wish him the best of recoveries. It's one of those things that happens in football. It happens in every sport."
Rodgers ranked sixth in the nation with an average of 176.75 all-purpose yards this season. He was averaging 18.33 yards on punt returns and 28.67 yards on kickoff returns.
Against Arizona, he had seven catches for 102 yards and a touchdown.
Hokie continues playing with severed pinkie
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech left guard Greg Nosal earned tough-guy points on Saturday, postponing the reattachment of a torn-off tip of his left pinkie to keep playing.
Turns out, he had no idea how severely he was hurt.
Nosal said Monday night his pinkie got caught in a facemask, and he "just felt like it was a really bad cut."
Nosal said he spent the rest of the series squeezing his hand between plays, trying to apply pressure to the wound, then looked down and saw that his glove was covered in blood.
As he trotted off at the end of the series, he said: "I take my glove off, and I look down, and I see my bone sticking out. I immediately ran over to (trainer Mike) Goforth. And I was like, 'Will you guys tape this up?' And he grabbed my arm and ran me into the locker room."
Goforth asked Nosal where it happened on the field, and Nosal didn't understand why.
"Finally, as were walking to the X-ray room, I'm like, 'Why do they want to know? Did my finger fall off?' And he's like, 'I'll tell you when you're laying down.'"
The coaches wanted to find the severed tip of Nosal's finger, and after they ran out onto the field looking for it, he suggested it might still be in his glove. It was, and after team surgeon Marc Seigel determined it could be reattached, they gave Nosal a choice:
Let us do it now, or we'll put the tip on ice, tape you up and you can play again.
The 6-foot-6-inch, 293-pound redshirt junior decided to play, and with help from pain killers he rejoined his team in the second half and played into the fourth quarter.
The finger tip was stitched back on in the fourth quarter, after the pain medication had started to wear off. The Hokies led 31-7 and were substituting liberally in a 45-21 victory.
"You talk about a tough guy," Hokies coach Frank Beamer said Monday. "For him to continue to play, it says a lot about him and what his effort for this football team is."
As for Nosal, he's been surprised the injury has gotten so much attention.
"I guess it's a big deal if your pinkie got ripped off," he said.
