Senior defensive lineman Monte Simmons will miss up to a month of the football season after breaking his ankle in Thursday’s game against Murray State.

After sacking Murray State quarterback Jeff Ehrhardt twice in Thursday’s 41-10 win, Simmons left the game in the third quarter.

Simmons led the Flashes with eight sacks last season.

With Simmons out, Kent State coach Doug Martin said more stress will be on the rest of the defense, but the Flashes have talent behind the second team All-Mid-American Conference player.

“We’ll be a little bit young,” Martin said. “Zack Hitchens is a true freshman that we’ve played already. He played in the game the other night, and he’s a guy who could fill in depth wise, behind Monte, as a backup player. We do have enough people we can move around, and we will be addressing that this week.”

Also, senior defensive lineman Zach Williams is recovering from a back injury suffered in practice last week. Williams, who missed Thursday’s opener against Murray State, started five games last season and recorded 3.5 sacks. He is currently day-to-day.

—Lance Lysowski