Auburn EDGE rusher [autotag]Eku Leota[/autotag] exited Saturday’s 21-17 loss to LSU in the first quarter due to a suspected injury. Reports surfaced that Leota appeared on the sidelines later in the game with a sling on his right arm.
Monday, head coach [autotag]Bryan Harsin[/autotag] shared the news that Leota will have surgery to repair an injured pectoral muscle, which will cause him to miss the remainder of the 2022 season.
“Eku is a big loss,” Harsin said during his weekly press conference on Monday afternoon. “He’s an emotional leader and one of the top guys on this team.”
Leota’s season ends with 17 recorded tackles, five of those were for a loss. He recorded one stop in the LSU game when he tackled Tiger quarterback Jayden Daniels for no gain on third down in the 1st quarter.
The Northwestern transfer was a key component of the pass rush. He made at least one stop behind the line of scrimmage in every game except the LSU game. He made a season-high two tackles for loss in the 41-12 loss to Penn State on Sept. 17 at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
His 5.0 tackles for loss was second on the team behind [autotag]Derick Hall[/autotag], who has made 7.5 stops behind the line of scrimmage. Auburn will now have to rely on Hall, [autotag]Colby Wooden[/autotag], and [autotag]Marcus Harris[/autotag] to make stops behind the line of scrimmage for the rest of the season.
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