VALDOSTA— Russ Callaway entered Sunday afternoon’s scrimmage at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium as the No. 1 quarterback on the Valdosta State depth chart.

Unfortunately for Callaway, his day ended early when he went to the ground with a right knee injury. Callaway was carried off the field by members of the athletic training staff and teammate Kyle Fox for further evaluation.

“It was pretty heard breaking,” Fox said. “I have been best friends with him since freshman year when we came in together. It is just really hard to see him go down after he got hurt over a year ago. I hope for the best and hopefully he can come back and work out and he can be fine.”

After a trip to the locker room by VSU head coach David Dean and quarterbacks coach Robby Brown, Callaway was seen sitting on a chair outside of the tunnel from the locker room with his knee heavily wrapped while his teammates finished the remainder of the scrimmage.

“He was rolling out and he stopped to throw and he just fell,” Coach Dean said of the injury. “He was getting up and coming off and we were wanting him to just get down. Last time he tried fighting through and I did not want him to hurt anymore. We brought him in here and we were talking to him and he said it felt pretty good right now. Hopefully it will be good news.”

The right knee is the same knee that Callaway tore his ACL in over a year ago, and according to Callaway the feeling he had on Sunday afternoon was similar to his previous knee injury.

With Callaway out for an unknown time, the door to the starting quarterback position seemed to open to redshirt junior Jimmy Coy. Coy finished the day 14-22 with 189 with two touchdowns (1 rushing). Although Coy posted the most impressive numbers of any quarterback in Sundays scrimmage, he does not know if that makes him the front runner for the job.

“That is the coach’s decision. That is not mine,” Coy said. “I am going to go out there every day and do what I can to make this team better. That is what we are all trying to do right now, just click as an offense. I think we are improving.”

Coy was impressed with the offensive production throughout the scrimmage.

“We moved the ball pretty well at times today and we looked pretty good as a whole unit,” Coy said. “That is what we are really trying to do is come together as a unit and move the ball down the field.”

Redshirt freshman Brett Whitmire finished the day 12-17 for 90 yards passing.

“I thought all of our quarterbacks did very well,” VSU head coach David Dean said. “I thought Austen Roberts stepped up and made some big throws as well. For the most part I thought all of our quarterbacks that played in the game did outstanding. They put us in the right positions and they made the right checks.”

Although the injury of Callaway overshadowed the second half of the scrimmage, Dean felt as though the intensity was still there and there were positives and negatives to learn from.

“I saw good and bad on both sides,” Dean said. “Defensively I thought we gave up to many big plays and we can’t do that. We did that too much early in the season last year and that cost us some ball games. They also gave up to long drives to our offense but on the flip side, offensively it was good to see us drive the ball. We had two drives that went over 12 plays, which is exciting to see.”

Despite two long drives that resulted in points for the offensive unit, the Blazers struggled in red zone practice. The Blazers held six red zone possessions and failed to score in a single one.

“We were 0-6 in that period,” Dean said. “When we get into a situation where we get the ball into the red zone we have to be able to finish and we just didn’t do that and that is just disappointing to see.”

Despite the injury to Callaway, the Blazers were able to pick the intensity back up— something Dean likes to see in his team.

“I think we have a much more physical team than what we had last year,” Dean said. “That has shown in the first week of practice and that is exciting to see. I want us to be a physical football team. I want us to be able to knock some people off the line.”

The Blazers resume practice on Monday, which is when they hope to learn more about the injury to quarterback Russ Callaway.