Bye week brings good news for 2 Indiana football starters battling injuries

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BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti said Monday that wide receiver Elijah Sarratt and defensive end Mikail Kamara will start in the Old Oaken Bucket game against Purdue on Friday night.

Sarratt suffered a lower body injury in the early moments of IU's 55-10 win over Maryland that forced him to miss the next two games while Kamara exited the game against Wisconsin after the first drive with a shoulder injury. It ended Sarratt's streak of 46 straight games with a reception.

Cignetti said he was awaiting more information from IU's training staff on starting left guard Drew Evans, who has missed the team's last three games. The coach has been tightlipped about Evans injury and return timeline, but said he would know more later in the week.

IU football receiver Elijah Sarratt will get chance to build on memorable Bucket Game debut

Sarratt had a memorable debut in the IU-Purdue rivalry last year with 165 yards receiving, the highest total for the Hoosiers in the Bucket Game and No. 2 in the history of the series. He has 45 receptions for 609 yards and 10 touchdowns this season.

Indiana got key contributions from sophomore Charlie Becker with Sarratt out of the lineup. He had back-to-back 100-yard games and has caught at least one pass of 40-yards or more in each of IU's last three games. He has 19 catches for 383 yards (21.6 yards per catch) with two touchdowns.

"Becker has taken advantage of his opportunities before the Penn State game, and really proud of him to come up big the way he did in that game," Cignetti said. "I thought he just showed a lot right there. We knew he had skills. He was long. He's always done a great job on special teams. He made some good catches when he had a chance to play this season."

IU defensive end Mikail Kamara has history of shoulder issues

Indiana was already short-handed at defensive end when Kamara went out with an injury and Maryland transfer Kellan Wyatt suffering a season-ending knee injury earlier this year. Kamara and Stephen Daley played the bulk of the snaps with Wyatt out of the lineup.

Kamara hasn't reached the sack totals he was hoping for at the start of the season — he wanted to break IU's single-season record — but leads the team with 34 quarterback pressures, a number that's tied for sixth most in the FBS, according to PFF.

The senior defensive end has a long history of shoulder issues going back to his prep career at Stone Bridge High School.

"Mikail Kamara has been dealing with kind of a shoulder nerve stinger issue, which is pretty common for a football player," Cignetti said after the Wisconsin game. "Those things tend to show up a lot more this time of year, a culmination of all the banging."

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana football injury report: Elijah Sarratt, Mikail Kamara vs Purdue

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