Herald Writer

A promising freshman season came to an abrupt and disappointing end for University of Washington defensive back Austin Joyner on Sept. 12 when he suffered a knee injury on the opening kickoff against Sacramento State.

UW head coach Chris Petersen said after the game that the injury didn’t look good, and on Sept. 14 he confirmed that Joyner, a prized recruit from Marysville-Pilchuck High School, will not play again in 2015.

“Austin is out for the season,” Petersen said during his regular Monday press conference. “He (injured) his knee. It’s real unfortunate. He just kind of planted weird, running down there on the kickoff.”

Petersen declined to describe the extent or nature of the injury, as did Arnold Joyner, Austin’s father. But Arnold Joyner said his son is scheduled to undergo surgery next week.

Petersen said Joyner “can still use this year as a redshirt year,” meaning he will have four years of eligibility remaining, beginning next season.

Joyner will be able to spend the coming year “like most college freshmen do,” Petersen said. “(He can) get dialed into the academics, have time to rehab, and we’ll have a full year to get him back.”

Joyner, who got his first college action against Boise State on Sept. 4, was not available for comment. Petersen has a policy of not making freshmen and injured players available to the media.

But Arnold Joyner said his son “is mentally very good. We talked about it and he’s going to control the things he can control, and the things he can’t, he’s not going to worry about. He has to have surgery and recover, so he going to concentrate on that.

“He’s a competitor. He wants to compete. But he can’t do that (this season), so he’s going to do what he can to get better as soon as he can.”

Arnold Joyner was unable to attend Saturday’s game, but saw it on television. His son “just ran down, like he has other times in games, and he ran into one of blockers, and they both fell. But when he got up, he limped.

“It actually looked pretty benign,” he said. “I couldn’t see where he twisted anything or rolled anything. … And he’s been hit a lot harder than that.”

Despite the disappointment, Arnold Joyner said his son is going to use this opportunity “to make lemonade out of lemons. The UW is going to pay for (a fifth) year of college, so maybe he can get a master’s degree.”

Brandon Carson, who coached Joyner at M-P, said he “was saddened” when he heard about the season-ending injury.

“I was really excited to watch him take that first step at the college level and to really strive,” Carson said. “I know he was going to do really good things this year, though that’s not the case now. But the silver lining is, he gets a redshirt year out of the deal.”

In his years at M-P, where he was a three-time all-state selection and Washington’s Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior, Joyner had sometimes dealt with nagging injuries, “but nothing major,” Carson said.

Joyner will surely have difficult days ahead as he goes through a long and often arduous rehabilitation process. “Knowing him the way I do,” Carson said, “I’m sure he’ll be greatly disappointed. But he’ll bounce back. He’ll hit rehab hard and try to come back better than before.”