Injury means RB Kory Sheets is now the main man for Boilermakers

Posted By Matt Severance on Wednesday, August 20th 2008 under: NCAA Football Tags: jaycen taylor, kory sheets, Purdue football

Purdue senior running back Jaycen Taylor, who rushed for 560 yards in 2007 as part of a shared backfield, will miss this season because of a torn knee ligament.

“At first, the initial shock was hard to take,” said Taylor, who was injured during Sunday’s practice and will redshirt and return in 2009. “But after thinking about it and realizing that I have another year, I can come back and play again, I’ll be all right. I’m fine.”

Taylor has to wait until the swelling in the knee goes down before he can have surgery, and he expects recovery time to be at least five months.

With Taylor sidelined, senior running back Kory Sheets now will get most of the carries. Sheets and Taylor shared time the past two seasons, combining to rush for 1,457 yards in 2006 and 1,419 yards last season.

“Losing a guy like Jaycen, a playmaker, it’s going to be tough,” quarterback Curtis Painter said. “. . . We’re going to lose a little bit, but Kory’s confident enough to take the role and carry the load.”

Taylor missed four games last year with a broken arm. He suffered the injury in the third game but came back and played in the final six games, rushing 20 times for 157 yards and two touchdowns against Northwestern in his second game back. Taylor’s willingness to work and his quick recovery skills helped him avoid taking a redshirt last season. After the injury against Central Michigan, coach Joe Tiller announced that Taylor would miss the season. Instead, Taylor rehabbed diligently and missed only those four games.

Tiller says redshirt freshman Justin Siller has been switched from quarterback to running back in Taylor’s place on the roster.

Now, the team’s emphasis for the rest of fall camp is on trying to keep Sheets healthy. Sophomore Dan Dierking, who started one game last season, is No. 2 on the depth chart.

“We might treat (Sheets) like a quarterback: be live in blocking but not live in tackling,” Tiller said.

Because of their potent offense, the Boilermakers are big-time sleepers in the Big Ten.