BREAKING NEWS: Buckram carted off practice with apparent knee injury

Senior running back Donald Buckram was carted away from the Glory Road practice field after sustaining an apparent knee injury during practice.

According to head coach Mike Price, Buckram tried to jump cut and hit his knee against an offensive lineman.  

"It looked like he kind of hyper-extended it," Price said. "I have to wait and see what doctors say and we are being careful about this."

After being taken from the field, ice was applied to his knee immediately to reduce swelling. The team has scheduled an MRI to find out the severity of the knee injury.

"We don't know when until we get the MRI," head coach Mike Price said. "He's in ice right now, but Dr. Mansfield did look at him, but he can't tell much."

Last year, Buckram had career highs in carries, yards and touchdowns. He ran for 1,594 yards on 259 carries with 18 rushing touchdowns. He had three games last year where he rushed for more than 200 yards. He was the third person in NCAA history to have at least 200 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in the same game against Tulane.

Buckram also had 30 receptions for 453 yards with another three touchdowns. He had a total of 2,047 all purpose yards. Last year's success has led to pre-season recognition and he was one of 30 players nominated for the Walter Camp Award. He is the first Miner to be on that list.

If Buckram is unable to play Sept. 4 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, back up running back Joe Banyard will move up the depth chart to take the starting running back position.  Banyard was on UTEP's scout team last year and did not appear in a game.

He last played for Sweetwater High School in Sweetwater, Texas. During Banyard's career at Sweetwater he rushed for more than 3,200 yards and scored 64 touchdowns.

The Miners are taking extreme pre-caution with Buckram and are going to wait for the results before they determine who will play the running back position. According to Price they are going to wait until "around seven Saturday night" to see whether Buckram plays or not.

Alex Morales may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.