CHAMPAIGN, ILL. – And just like that, Shannon Brooks' 2018 season is over after one game.
Gophers coach P.J. Fleck said after Saturday's 55-31 loss at Illinois that Brooks, a senior running back, will miss the rest of the season because of a knee injury suffered in last week's victory over Indiana.
In that game, Brooks rushed 22 times for 154 yards and a touchdown before injuring his right knee while making a cut early in the fourth quarter. That was his 2018 debut after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a workout shortly before spring practice.
Fleck had planned to play Brooks for four games – and four games only – in order to preserve a final year of eligibility for 2019.
With Brooks out, redshirt freshman Mohamed Ibrahim, the team's leading rusher, returned to the lineup after missing last week's game because of a head injury. Ibrahim rushed 18 times for 98 yards and touchdowns of 4 and 1 yards against Illinois. He was injured early in the third quarter and left the game but later returned. True freshman Bryce Williams also played, finishing with five carries for 29 yards.
"We're like a lot of teams at this point,'' Fleck said. "We're banged-up and don't have a lot of depth.''
Captain O'Brien
Gophers redshirt freshman long snapper Casey O'Brien was on the travel roster and served as a captain for Saturday's game. O'Brien, a Cretin-Derham Hall graduate, has battled a rare form of bone cancer and said in a team meeting this week that he received a clean scan.
"Casey's been around the program for a while and has continued to defy the odds with cancer,'' Fleck said. "He's such a motivational, inspirational person in our program, and he's never traveled before. To bring him on a trip and give him that experience. … This is about creating moments and memories.
