SE Louisiana All-American suffers season-ending injury

Published Oct. 20, 2015 7:57 p.m. ET

foxsports

Southeastern Louisiana's conference title hopes were dealt a significant blow this past weekend with a one-point defeat to Stephen F. Austin, and the Lions took an even greater loss with versatile senior Xavier Roberson breaking his leg.

The season-ending injury to the STATS Preseason All-American comes one week after Southeastern (3-3, 2-2 Southland) lost one of its all-time leading receivers, senior Jeff Smiley, for the rest of the season to a knee injury.

Roberson finishes his collegiate career No. 1 in program history with 2,108 kick return yards and five touchdowns. He was tops among qualifying players nationally with 32.4 yards per return in his four seasons.

Roberson, Southeastern's leading rusher this season with 258 yards, also ranked second all-time for the Lions with 4,128 all-purpose yards and scored 24 total TDs.

"We've been fighting the injury bug all year long, but I think our guys have done a good job of handling it," coach Ron Roberts said. "From a responsibility standpoint, it's just making sure the next guy up is getting ready to play."

The Lions will try to avoid their first three-game losing streak since an 0-3 start in 2012 when they travel to Houston Baptist (1-5, 0-4) on Saturday.