Kempt leaves loss to Iowa with knee injury; status for OU unknown

Dec 30, 2017; Memphis, TN, USA; Iowa State Cyclones quarterback Kyle Kempt (17) attempts a pass against the Memphis Tigers during the first half in the 2017 Liberty Bowl at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

Kyle Kempt certainly did not have his best day on Saturday in Iowa State’s season-opening 13-3 loss to Iowa, but things for the Cyclones’ sixth-year senior starting quarterback hit rock bottom when he was forced to leave the game with a knee injury following the team’s last drive of the third quarter.

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said after the game Kempt left with an MCL injury that he does not consider to be season-ending, but the staff will not know for certain the extent of the injury or his status for next week’s contest against Oklahoma until the coming days.

“That’s going to be interesting. Kyle got his MCL dinged up. I can’t tell you what the extent of that is other than it’s a knee injury,” Campbell said. “Again, we’ve been here. We’ve played a lot of quarterbacks and fortunately for us, Zeb (Noland) came in and I thought Zeb did a really good job to be quite honest with you. He’s a guy that’s started so if Zeb has to start for us or is our guy starting going forward, I know this team’s confident for sure.”

Kempt completed 15-of-21 pass attempts on the day for 126 yards. He was sacked three times before Noland entered the game and finished 4-of-10 for 43 yards. The redshirt sophomore was sacked once and fumbled on the Cyclones’ final offensive drive.

Noland started Iowa State’s win over Baylor last season in place of Kempt, so the Cyclones would not be without any starting experience under center should Kempt be unavailable, but, again, that is not something that will truly be known until sometime next week.

“We’ll find out,” Campbell said. “I don’t think it’s season-ending by any stretch of the imagination. I think more of it is here a little bit day-to-day and we’ll know more of it as we go through the week even for his availability against Oklahoma.”