Horrific, But Hilarious: Oklahoma DT Isaiah Coe Recounts Gruesome Thumb Injury
NORMAN – Oklahoma defensive tackle Isaiah Coe is one of the team’s more recognizable figures.
A 6-foot-2 and 305 pounds, Coe isn’t hard to miss on the field with his play style and big personality matching his size.
Earlier this season, in a road contest at Iowa State, Coe exited the game with an undisclosed injury.
The Illinois native then caused a bit of a stir on Twitter after the game, when he revealed to the world that had witnessed one of his bones sticking out of the skin – which he simply thought was “cool.”
The injury wound up being to his right thumb, an injury that didn't cost him any games.
That pretty much concludes the amount of information most outside the program knew about what had exactly happened to Coe’s thumb – until this week.
The former junior college transfer spoke to the media following practice on Monday night in Norman, and gladly filled everyone in on the series of events – in hysterical fashion.
“I’m going to take y’all through when it happened,” Coe began. “It happened during the Iowa State game. I hit my head. So the trainers, they came up to me and they were saying, ‘Oh, we were trying to get your head, trying to focus on your head.’ 'My head is good. But I really need y’all to look at my thumb because my thumb looks unusually big.' They just kept looking at my head. 'My head is OK. 'Y’all really need to look at my thumb. I promise you my head is OK.' So they finally took the glove off and then we just saw a big bone sticking out the side of my hand. I was really calm about it. Everybody else was really panicking. But I was really calm. We went back into the locker room and took x-rays and all that.
“I had put out a tweet. Everybody was getting on me like I was really tripping. I said I saw my bone. But I really thought it was cool that I saw my bone. The bone wasn’t fractured, it was just dislocated. So they just popped it back in in the locker room and sewed it up. I thought it was cool. I can really walk around and say that I saw the inside of my hand. I thought that was pretty cool.”
Isaiah Coe (94) high-fiving Jeffery Johnson (77)
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Somewhat amazingly, Coe was able to play through the injury with a large cast on his hand, returning to action the very next week against Baylor.
Part of what made the process easier was that the OU defensive tackle had some experience playing with a cast prior thanks to an injury sustained in high school.
“It wasn't that hard because I played with a cast in high school because I broke my wrist,” Coe said. “And so it was really just getting back. That first game, the Baylor game, was probably the hardest just because it was the first game using it. Still had to work out the kinks. I kind of used it in practice, but they were trying to keep me really safe. So when I really went out there for the Baylor game, it was really my first real time like, really using it in a real game. So when I went out there it kind of went the way it went. But really, from the next game on I was really used to it and I was back to being my normal self.”
Coe said as the weeks went by, he gradually became more and more effective playing through the injury.
After recording no tackles against the Bears, he went for three and five the next two weeks against West Virginia and Oklahoma State.
Now, with less than a week before the Sooners’ final game of the season against No. 13 Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl, Coe says he is back to 100 percent.
“I’m finally back,” Coe said. “Got both of my hands. I’ll have both of my hands for the bowl game. So I’m prepared. I got a little protection under here. But I’m good to go for the bowl game."
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