Baylor head coach gives injury update on Jackie Marshall
The Baylor Bears suffered more than one loss on Friday night. On top of losing their season opener by two scores, the Bears lost one of their best defensive players, Jackie Marshall, due to injury early in the game. Baylor Head Coach Dave Aranda revealed after the game that Marshall suffered a high-ankle sprain and is day-to-day.
"High-ankle sprain for him, and so he's day-to-day," Aranda said after the loss. "That was a hit for us. He's one of our better players on defense. And we went to more four down fronts with him. I think he can play a three-down and two-gap and play inside to outside. Not having him, we don't really have that ability to do that."
In 2024, Marshall was a beast from the interior of Baylor's defensive line. He played 575 snaps and recorded 40 tackles, 31 run stops, 24 pressures, 18 hurries and three sacks. The season opener against Auburn was supposed to be a great chance for Marshall to showcase his talents against an SEC offensive line, but after just eight snaps, his night was cut short.
On Monday, Dave Aranda met with the media and was asked about Marshall's injury. He said he's still not practicing and is day-to-day, but it seems like he's at risk of missing the SMU game. If he were to be out on Saturday, Aranda says they still don't know who would step up in his place.
"That's a good question," said Aranda. "I think that is the question right there. I think there are a lot of struggles on the front of the defense. And just physicality-wise, playing blocks-wise, just things that really would like for us to be beyond at this point. And so we're kind of going back to square one with all of that. We're going to have to be creative, I feel."
The Bears had a ton of trouble defending the run against Auburn with Marshall out. They gave up over 300 yards and four touchdowns on the ground and will need to be much better against a SMU team that ran for 140 yards this weekend.
Hopefully, Marshall can be back in time for Saturday's game, because if he's not, SMU will test Baylor's backup defensive tackles early and often.
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Luke is a writer for the Baylor Bears On SI. He's an LSU graduate and previously covered the Tigers for two years. He also covers the New Orleans Saints and Formula 1. Luke's passion for sports and storytelling led him to become a sports writer.