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No. 1 2015 recruit Josh Sweat carted off with apparent leg injury

The nation's best defensive line prospect went down on Friday night.

By Connor Tapp
Student Sports

Paramedics carried Josh Sweat, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2015 recruiting class, off the football field on Friday night after he suffered an apparent leg injury. Play was halted for several minutes while Sweat was loaded into an ambulance and his Oscar Smith High School (Va.) teammates looked on.

The severity of the injury is still unknown, but it's never good news when an ambulance has to actually drive onto a football field.

Sweat was a five-star prospect before Friday night, and unless this injury turns out to be career-threatening, that's not likely to change. SB Nation recruiting analyst Bud Elliott evaluated Sweat in March:

What makes Sweat such a desired prospect?

First, Sweat has the desired size for a weak-side defensive end. At 6'5 and 230 or so pounds, Sweat has the length teams are looking for, and yet has room to add 20 pounds of muscle so that he won't be a liability against the run.

But what really stands out about Sweat is the ridiculous, incredible burst that most great weak-side pass rushers. He explodes at the snap and overwhelms blockers with his speed. Defensive ends either have this or they don't. And Sweat does.

Sweat isn't the first blue-chip defensive end in the 2015 class to go down with a season-ending injury. Four-star South Carolina commitment Shameik Blackshear is done for the year with a torn ACL. Five-star defensive end (and heavy Florida lean) CeCe Jefferson will miss the rest of his senior season with a torn labrum. Jefferson took to Twitter on Friday night to express sympathy for Sweat.

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