MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia free safety Dravon Askew-Henry, a starter in all 26 games his first two years, suffered an ACL injury in practice and will miss the 2016 season.
Coach Dana Holgorsen announced the news Friday afternoon, on the eve of the Mountaineers’ most crucial preseason scrimmage.
“This is a tremendous loss for our football team,” Holgorsen said. “Without a doubt Dravon was one of our leaders on and off the field. We will support him through his recovery and work with him to get him 100 percent back to health.”
The injury reportedly occurred Wednesday and was reminiscent of last October, when All-American candidate Karl Joseph suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice.
Askew-Henry was one of only three returning starters from the 2015 defense and the unquestioned leader of the secondary attempting to replace three draft picks.
Walk-on Shane Commodore, a junior from Morgantown High, worked as the second-team free safety in recent live drills, though junior college newcomer Toyous Avery and former walk-on Khairi Shariff have taken reps there in camp. West Virginia also could shuffle in senior Jeremy Tyler, who has been splitting time between strong safety and Spur.
Askew-Henry emerged as a starter in his first college game—facing Alabama in the 2014 Chick-fil-A Kickoff—and played more than 2,100 snaps the ensuing two seasons. His 59 tackles last fall made him tops among the WVU returnees.