Palmer's diagnosis changes

by **Pony4Life** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:30 pm

UTEP QB out with shin injury

Matthew Aguilar
El Paso Times

The UTEP football team received some bad news Wednesday.

Jordan Palmer, the redshirt freshman quarterback who efficiently led the 1-4 Miners to their first win of the season last week against Sam Houston State, suffered a hairline fracture of his left tibia -- or shin bone -- and will not play Saturday at 0-4 SMU.

Palmer is expected to be out three to four weeks. Sophomore Orlando Cruz will start Saturday in the Western Athletic Conference opener at SMU, and junior Omar Duarte will back him up. Also, junior Jon Schaper has returned to the quarterback rotation from tight end.

The injury occurred in the second half of the Louisville game Sept. 20.

"I fell on my knee and twisted it," Palmer said. "I kept my mouth shut about it, but it just kept getting worse and worse."

Palmer initially thought he'd be out two to six weeks. But tests administered Wednesday afternoon provided better news.

"The CT scan showed two or three weeks," Palmer said. "It was better news than what I was thinking. Hopefully, I'll be ready to go for Hawaii (on Oct. 25)."

The injury has been nagging.

"When we got back to practice on Monday (after the Louisville game), his knee was stiff, but he got treatment on it and went to practice a little gimpy," Nord said. "Toward the latter part of the week, it felt a lot better. On the first drive of this past game, I called a particular play he usually begs for and he said, 'Coach, is there anything else you can call? My knee is killing me.' Obviously, I was concerned."

Nord said Palmer practiced Monday, but stiffness persisted. He sat out Tuesday.

Matthew Aguilar may be reached at maguilar@elpasotimes.com