Cotton-Moya day-to-day with elbow injury

Oct 29, 2016; Ames, IA, USA; Iowa State Cyclones defensive back Kamari Cotton-Moya (5) tackles Kansas State Wildcats quarterback Alex Delton (5) at Jack Trice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell said senior safety Kamari Cotton-Moya is “day-to-day” leading up to the Cyclones’ road trip to Akron. The Bakersfield, Calif. native left the game during the second half of Saturday’s loss to Iowa with an elbow injury.

Cotton-Moya, who has collected 11 tackles and an interception during the Cyclones’ first two games, has often battled injuries during his career in Ames, but Campbell said this should not be something that holds him out for an extended period of time.

“It wasn’t anything lengthy,” Campbell said during his weekly press conference on Monday. “I know I think I said after the game it was his shoulder. It’s more of his elbow than it is his shoulder, so I don’t want to misspeak on that. The biggest thing is right now seeing if we can get him ready to play by Saturday. I don’t know if that’s the case, but he looked pretty good yesterday and we’ll see if we’re able to get him into practice to be able to play this weekend.”

The loss of Cotton-Moya became even more important Saturday when compounded with the fact that Reggie Wilkerson, the other starting safety, missed the game with a hamstring injury he suffered late in Iowa State’s season-opening win over Northern Iowa.

Wilkerson, a graduate transfer from Georgia, is expected to be available when Iowa State takes on the Zips Saturday at 11 a.m. (CBSSports Network).

“Just thought it was in the best interest for him to hold him back so we could get him ready to go. He’ll be available this week, but that was it,” Campbell said. “Again, having a little bit of depth. Obviously, Evrett (Edwards) went in. Thought he did some really good things. Lawrence White obviously when Kamari went down got his first major reps. Honestly, Lawrence did some good things in the football game, but it will be great to get all those guys back so we can have a good rotation in that group.”

Mackenro back with the program

Senior defensive back Mackenro Alexander has returned to the football program after spending the past two weeks away due to legal issues stemming from an incident that left him with multiple charges of assault causing injury.

Alexander most likely will not be available to play for Iowa State this weekend, but he has resumed workouts with the team.

“Still waiting for some of the legal pieces to sort itself out, but he’s certainly back around our football team and back around our football environment,” Campbell said. “So we’ll continue to let it play out and we’ll continue to make really good decisions as we go.”