Since late last season, we’ve pointed out multiple times that Josh Jackson played through a foot injury for much of the 2017 season. Virginia Tech never announced the injury, and when asked about it, Jackson simply replied, “Don’t worry about that.”

Sometimes you can tell when a runner is hurt by looking at statistical trends. For example, Trey Edmunds in 2013. Here are his numbers from that season:

First four games: 78 carries, 352 yards, 4.5 ypc
Next five games: 47 carries, 95 yards, 2.02 ypc
Final three games: 41 carries, 228 yards, 5.6 ypc

It was pretty obvious when Edmunds was hurt. Before his injury, he averaged nearly 20 carries per game and 4.5 yards per carry. Over his next five games, he averaged fewer than 10 carries per game and only 2.02 yards per carry. For the final three games, he was back up to 5.6 yards per carry and 13.7 carries per game, and those numbers would have been higher were it not for the broken leg he suffered in the final regular season game against UVA.

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