Lake McRee injury update: Lincoln Riley provides latest, says 'hit like that does not need to be legal'

USC suffered a brutal injury during the team’s game against Michigan, with tight end Lake McRee cut down by a defender he couldn’t yet see.

McRee caught a pass in the flat in the third quarter. As he turned with the ball in his hands, running toward the sideline, he had his legs cut out from under him by a Michigan defender.

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He appeared to hyper-extend or torque his knee awkwardly.

McRee then tried to run off the field, but ended up staying down on the turf after a brief attempt. He was tended to in the team injury tent, then was spotted on the sidelines quite emotional, day done.

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Fortunately, the damage isn’t as bad as initially feared.

“Yeah, we got good news,” coach Lincoln Riley said on Tuesday, via Ryan Young of Rivals.com. “He’s going to be back this year. He won’t be back for sure probably for the next couple of weeks. But some really positive news given the hit.”

On the season so far, Lake McCree has accounted for 12 catches for 134 yards. He’s been a nice change-up to the more heralded Duce Robinson.

Lincoln Riley wants that type of hit outlawed

The USC coach had more to say on the Lake McRee injury, noting he doesn’t think the contact that induced the injury should be allowed in the sport.

“And I think it’s one, too, that I don’t fault the kid from Michigan,” Riley said. “It’s legal right now, but a hit like that does not need to be legal. Like you think all the things in college football and football in general that we’ve cleaned up, it’s very simple to clean up a defenseless player that you can’t see and you go low on him.”

As noted, the initial prognosis on Lake McRee appeared dire. Just given his reaction on the sidelines it appeared he might miss a considerable chunk of time.

That he’s not is excellent news for USC. But it’s also a moment that should draw scrutiny from the sport’s higher-ups.

“What happened to Lake, honestly, he’s incredibly lucky,” Riley said. “You see it in the NFL and you see it in our game, and I just, that’s something that needs to get some attention to get cleaned up. That makes the game no better and that’s something that just should not happen, in my opinion.”