SAN DIEGO — On the eve of the 40th Holiday Bowl, Michigan State may not face a completely healthy Luke Falk. A television anchor from Spokane, Wash. tweeted the following picture during yesterday’s tour of the USS Essex:
Worth keeping an eye on: Luke Falk walked into practice today wearing a cast on his left, non-throwing hand/wrist. I hadn’t noticed him wearing anything like that earlier this season. Asked Leach about it and he gave the standard line. pic.twitter.com/TOeas9orAO
— Darnay Tripp (@DarnayTripp) December 26, 2017
While Falk is still expected to play in tomorrow’s matchup, it must be noted that Falk has played with an injury to that hand during play last season. The senior quarterback has been regarded as one of the best in the Pac-12, and is the focal point of the Cougars’ offense. He completed 67 percent of his passes in the regular season for 3,593 yards, 30 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The Cougars will be without two of their top three receivers through suspensions, as well as future NFLer Hercules Mata’afa for the first half of Thursday’s game due to a targeting penalty that Mata’afa picked up in WSU’s loss to rival Washington in their regular season finale.
On longer developing passes, WSU QB Luke Falk fielded the nation's fifth-highest completion percentage, completing 142-of-232 passes thrown 2.6 seconds or longer after the snap. pic.twitter.com/6zSZ0vNO2u
— PFF College (@PFF_College) December 27, 2017
This should only further encourage a Michigan State pass rush that was a major upgrade in 2017 behind the play of sophomore end Kenny Willekes, The Rockford, Mich. native was named as a third-team All-Big Ten player by the media after collecting 14.5 tackles for loss and seven sacks during the regular season.
Press conference coverage from the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego will take place at 10:30 a.m. local time and 1:30 p.m. EST, updates on this story to follow.
