Iowa State loses QB Connor Moberly for about 4 weeks

Rogers gave the update at his weekly presser Tuesday, and the beat writers posted it right away.

Alec Busse

@alec_busse

Rogers: Connor Moberly will be out for about four weeks. He got hurt at Arizona. Said Sullivan Schlimgen will give it a go at Baylor. Moberly hurt his right hand/wrist/forearm at Arizona.

Start with the position, because the upstream chatter got it wrong. Moberly isn't a linebacker. He's a sophomore quarterback, 6-foot-4 out of Altoona, and the hometown kid in the Cyclones' QB room. He won 3 state titles at Southeast Polk and has spent his time in Ames fighting for the QB2 job behind Jaylen Raynor. An injury to the throwing-side hand, wrist and forearm is about the worst kind a quarterback can get.

The timeline is ugly too. About 4 weeks from early November takes you to the end of the regular season. So unless the recovery goes faster than Rogers expects, Iowa State plays out the stretch run with a thinner quarterback room. Raynor still starts. The problem is that the next guy behind him just got a lot less proven.

Chris Williams

@ChrisMWilliams

Jimmy Rogers says that Connor Moberly sustained an injury on the second play of the Arizona game. He's out for considerable time. Linebacker Sullivan Schlimgen will "give it a go" against Baylor.

The detail that hurts most is that Moberly got hurt on the second play of the Arizona game. He barely got on the field before he was done. Rogers also called it considerable time, so nobody should expect him back at Baylor or the week after.

The other half of the update is better news for the defense. Sullivan Schlimgen is the sophomore linebacker who followed Rogers and defensive coordinator Jesse Bobbit over from Washington State. He opened his Iowa State career with 9 tackles in each of the first 2 games, against Southeast Missouri and Iowa, and has been a big piece of the middle of that defense. Rogers saying he'll give it a go tells you Schlimgen is banged up. It also tells you the staff expects him to be out there vs. Baylor.

So for Saturday's trip to Waco, keep an eye on 2 things. First, does Schlimgen actually make it through warmups and play his usual snaps? Second, does anyone take a hit that forces Iowa State to reach past its top quarterback? With Moberly in a cast for the next month, the margin at QB is close to zero.