Despite getting off to a slow start, Iowa State won their home opener over North Dakota 21-3 to go 1-0 on the season. But it may have come at a price, unfortunately. In the first quarter of the game, redshirt junior linebacker Caleb Bacon went down with an injury to his left leg during a punt.
Bacon was being treated on the sideline but did not head to the locker room right away. He was later transported to the locker room on a cart.
“We don’t know a lot about Caleb right now,” head coach Matt Campbell said after the game. “He certainly wasn’t in a position to get back into the game. We’ll know a lot more tomorrow [Sunday]. We’re hoping its not significant. I don’t know that it is or is not right now, but hopefully from that standpoint… we’ve got a laundry list of guys coming out of camp that just had bumps, bruises, dinged up, and a lot of those guys are day-to-day.”
While Caleb’s status is unknown, it will be something to monitor over the next few days. Next Saturday Iowa State will travel to Iowa City to take on their in-state rival Iowa for the Cy-Hawk trophy. The Cyclones will need all the help they can get in that game and missing your best defensive player would certainly not be ideal. Bacon finished second on the team in tackles (60) and was tied for second in sacks (3) in 2023.
Filling in for Caleb was backup linebacker Zach Lovett. The redshirt junior played 13 games as a backup linebacker and as a special teams member in 2023, finishing with 11 tackles, 3.0 sacks and 3.5 tackles for a loss. He finished Saturday with a total of two tackles.
