Running Back Jones Sidelined

Harvard football may have lost its most explosive offensive player for more than a month.

Running back Troy Jones, who has showed great promise in rushing for 100 and 97 yards in the first two games of the season, severely sprained his right ankle.

Jones was leading the team in touchdowns with three. He also paced Harvard's rushing attack and returned all of its kickoffs.

Jones spent last year mired on the bench with a host of injuries. He even endured a brief, unsuccessful experiment at cornerback. It seemed that this season would be a break-out year for him until the latest injury.

"It's not good news," Harvard Coach Tim Murphy said. "He could be out for at least a month. It's a major sprain, and he's in a cast."

The impact is lessened a bit since Harvard's other tailback, sophomore Chris Menick, has proven himself and rushed 15 times for 121 yards last week against Lehigh. He also scored two touchdowns, both on a rush and a reception.

"I'm not worried," Menick said. "In the spring game in Japan, I carried 30 times, so I'm confident I can handle the workload."

"This puts the burden squarely on Chris Menick," Murphy said. "Chuck Nwokocha will also see more playing time, about 10 or 12 carries a game."

Nwokocha has played well in occasional duty this season. He rushed for 75 yards in mop-up duty against Columbia and scored a touchdown on a reception last week.

"For a freshman, Chuck has done a terrific job," Murphy said. "He made a huge play against Lehigh on a screen pass. We'll get an indication of how ready he is for prime time."

"We wish the best for Troy and a speedy recovery," Nwokocha said. "I'll have to step up, and so will Chris to make sure we don't miss a beat."

The timing is especially bad because Harvard plays a tough defense in Bucknell tomorrow.

"We were all disappointed," Menick said. "We felt bad for him because he was really happy to be playing offense after he played cornerback last year. It's got to be tough for him because he had such a hot start."

Harvard's offense is currently third in the nation in rushing offense at 282 yards per game and sixth in total offense with 490 yards per game. Disrupting the chemistry of a unit that has been going so well is obviously a concern.

"We're going to have the same game plan," Menick said. "We'll have a good balanced attack. I'm confident that we can attack Bucknell both passing and rushing."