LSU tailback John Emery, the bright spot in his team’s Week 1 loss to USC, will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in his left knee in Tuesday’s practice, according to multiple reports.
This is tough news for both the team and Emery, who tore the ACL in his right knee last year.
On Sunday night, he looked back to pre-injury form, rushing for 61 yards on 10 carries and adding one reception for 10 yards.
Emery was a five-star recruit in the 2019 class, originally committing to Georgia before switching to his home-state school. He ran for 188 yards as a freshman on LSU’s national championship team and was the second-leading rusher on the 2020 team with 378 yards. He then missed the 2021 season for academic reasons and returned to be the team’s fourth-leading rusher in 2022 with 375 yards. Last season, he appeared in seven games before going down with the injury.
Emery briefly entered the transfer portal this past offseason but elected to return to LSU for his sixth season. He was the team’s leading rusher in the 27-20 loss to USC, with fellow senior Josh Williams next with 33 yards on nine carries.
LSU signed one running back in the 2024 recruiting class, Caden Durham, a top-100 national prospect from Duncanville (Texas) High School. Dunham didn’t have any carries against USC. Sophomore Kaleb Jackson had five carries for 14 yards.
No. 18 LSU hosts Nicholls, an FCS program, on Saturday then begins SEC play at South Carolina. That’s followed by home games against UCLA and South Alabama before the Tigers resume SEC play with a fairly manageable schedule — No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 4 Alabama are the only future opponents currently ranked, and both come to Tiger Stadium.
LSU has been expecting to lean more on its passing game, led by quarterback Garrett Nussmeier and promising receivers. But a complementary running game will be harder to attain without Emery.
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(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
