College Football

Isaiah Lewis ejected, Kain Colter out after targeting hit

Michigan State's safety goes helmet-to-helmet with Northwestern's QB, and that's all she wrote for both players.

By Adam Jacobi Nov 23, 2013, 12:40pm EST

The Michigan State-Northwestern game may be early, but its dynamic has already shifted substantially for the rest of the game after this fateful hit:

(via ESPN)

That's a pretty obvious helmet-to-helmet hit, and Michigan State's star safety Isaiah Lewis was summarily ejected from the game. It's too bad for Lewis—honestly, how are you supposed to tackle Colter in that scenario?—but the rules are what they are, and no replay official in the sport would overturn that flag and still have a job the next day.

It's worse for Colter though, as he's the one that had to take that hit. Northwestern offered this hilariously vague injury update:

Kain Colter questionable to return with an "upper extremity injury." #MSUvsNU
— ESPN Big Ten (@ESPN_BigTen) November 23, 2013

As ESPN announcers noted, though, he's had his helmet taken away, so being that this is a head injury you can go ahead and mark him out of the game. That's rough news for Northwestern, who could have used Colter's versatility against the vicious Michigan State defense. Trevor Siemian has been a major downgrade from Colter as both a passer and runner this season, and the Wildcats' worst performances on offense this year have mostly come with Siemian under center.

Former Ohio State long snapper Jon Thoma offered this take on the situation:

The worst part for the Sparty player is that he has to sit in Northwestern's terrible locker room alone for 3 hours.
— Jonathan Thoma (@JonThoma) November 23, 2013