TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida State defensive end Cornellius "Tank" Carradine will miss the remainder of the season with a torn right ACL, coach Jimbo Fisher confirmed Sunday.
Carradine went down in the fourth quarter of Saturday's loss to Florida after recording a team-high 11 tackles. He'll miss Florida State's game against Georgia Tech for the ACC championship on Saturday as well as the Seminoles' bowl game.
"Of course, he's very sad because he wanted to finish the season. But he understood it and handled it very maturely," Fisher said.
Carradine is FSU's leading tackler with 80 this season, and his 11 sacks rank second in the ACC behind only teammate Bjoern Werner.
Carradine is a first-year starter who only stepped into the job after all-ACC defensive end Brandon Jenkins was lost for the season with a broken foot in FSU's opening game. Carradine quickly adapted to the role, becoming one of the conference's top defenders.
Carradine is ranked No. 19 on ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr.'s big board for next year's NFL draft, the fifth-highest defensive end.
"The draft will still be fine," Fisher said. "It'll rehab and that won't effect those guys much at all. Maybe a round at the most. But he's sad and he's down because he can't be with his teammates. But I think he'll still play in the NFL and be very highly drafted."
With Carradine out, Florida State will turn to a pair of freshmen in Giorgio Newberry and Mario Edwards Jr.
Newberry has 13 tackles this season but has seen only sporadic playing time. Edwards, the top overall recruit in the 2012 signing class according to ESPN, was slated to redshirt to open the season but has seen his role expand with the injury to Jenkins.
Fisher said he was not sure which player would step into the starting role against Georgia Tech this week.
"Mario played a ton of ball the second half of the season, and Giorgio played a lot in different scenarios," Fisher said. "If something like this happens, you're not totally inexperienced."