Quick, someone put sophomore running back Eugene Jarvis in a protective bubble! The Kent State football team can’t afford to lose him to injury, too.

The team is down to the fourth string quarterback now. Julian Edelman was lost for the year with a broken bone in his right forearm, backup Anthony Magazu has been missing in action since injuring his leg against Ohio State and now the quarterback of the future, true freshman Giorgio Morgan, had to be carried off the field by his offensive lineman Saturday.

The Jon Brown era has officially begun, and will last until Magazu shows his face again or the season is over, barring injury.

The quarterback crisis is just one of the injury-plagued problems that this Flashes team has faced. All-world, to the KSU defense at least, defensive back Jack Williams hurt his shoulder in Saturday’s loss. This was after he had an interception and a fumble recovery. He is currently listed as day-to-day.

He joins senior safety Fritz Jacques, who tore his ACL a month ago and redshirt freshman safety Brian Lainhart who is playing with a shoulder injury.

I think it is safe to call the Flashes the walking wounded as they limp their way to the season finish line.

It’s really disheartening to see this final, injury-plagued crawl. This team was supposed to win the Mid-American Conference title this year. A lot of “what ifs” could be said, but in the end it doesn’t really matter. Although they were injury-riddled it was an underachieving season.

With that being said, it is sad that Jarvis is garnering little attention anymore. His season has been magical. He is now the eighth leading rusher in Kent State history with 2,227 career rushing yards. Saturday, he broke Eric Wilkerson’s 1989 record of 1,325 rushing yards in a season; Jarvis has 1,433 on the year.

The pint-sized wonder from Pittsburgh still has two years to run amuck over MAC defenses as well. Barring injuries or setbacks — which seems inevitable the way this season has gone, Jarvis is on pace to amass nearly 4,500 yards for his career. If that is the case, he could easily pass Astron Whatley’s 3,989 yards and become the university’s career rushing leader.

With just two meaningless games left, it may be time to shut down Jarvis to prevent injury, or at least cut his workload back. But Coach Doug Martin says it’s impossible to get Jarvis off the field. Noting his character and his work ethic just doesn’t allow it.

As enjoyable as it is watching Jarvis run the football, in the next two weeks a heavy dose of true freshman Andre Flowers and sophomore Christen Haywood in the backfield would be nice to see. Giving those powerful runners more experience could help build an even stronger backfield for 2008.

Contact sports editor Jonas Fortune at [email protected].