This one wasn’t pretty.
During the Sun Bowl on New Year’s Eve, Duke defensive end Kobe Smith suffered a gruesome leg injury during a collision with a Blue Devil teammate.
Smith’s shin appeared to go limp after going leg-to-leg with fellow lineman Tyshon Reed, the brutal replay showed.
A cart was brought out for Smith, whose leg was put in an air cast.
Smith was sitting up and awake, receiving hugs and handshakes from his teammates before the cart took off for the locker room.
After showing the horrific injury on the broadcast, CBS play-by-play announcer Brad Nessler said they were “not going to show that one again.”
Smith, a freshman, had 10 total tackles and one forced fumble across four games this season coming into the bowl matchup.
Duke held on to beat Arizona State 42-39, in the thrilling shootout.
The Blue Devils improbably won the ACC championship with an overtime win over No. 16 Virginia.
It was the school’s first outright Atlantic Coast Conference football championship since 1962.
The victory wasn’t enough enough to get Duke and its 8-5 record into the College Football Playoff.
They, instead, opened the door for James Madison to be the second Group of Five team to make the playoff.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
