Louisville CB Clark to miss rest of season with knee injury

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Louisville coach Scott Satterfield says that top cover corner Kei’Trel Clark will miss the remainder of this season after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament during Saturday night’s Atlantic Coast Conference loss at North Carolina State.

Satterfield announced the sophomore cornerback’s diagnosis during his weekly news conference on Monday. He said Clark underwent an MRI and will have surgery on the knee.

Clark had emerged into one of the ACC’s top cover players and led the conference with 12 passes defended, including three interceptions. He’s the third Cardinals starter lost to a season-ending injury, following linebacker Monty Montgomery and receiver Braden Smith.

Satterfield said Clark’s injury “is a tough blow for us” and added that Louisville counted on him a lot.

“It’s a big loss on that side of the ball,” Satterfield said. “We’ve not been great in our pass defense and losing one of our better pass defenders certainly hurts. The other guys will have to rise up and they’re going to have to make plays.”

Louisville (4-4, 2-3) hosts third-place Clemson (5-3, 4-2) on Saturday night.

___

More AP college football:

https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25