Arizona State's Cameron Skattebo limited vs. Colorado. Was it strategy or injury?

Cameron Skattebo, a Arizona State fan favorite, saw a reduced role in a 27-24 loss to Colorado on Saturday at Mountain America Stadium.

The hard-nosed runner, who catches the ball out of the back field, takes direct snaps, punts and even has a couple of pass completions, touched the ball just 16 times. One of those touches was on a 53-yard punt.

Skattebo came into the game with a team-high 318 rushing yards as well as 228 receiving yards. Three times this season, he's produced more than 110 yards of offense.

But Skattebo had only 19 yards on five carries in the first half against Colorado. Even hobbled quarterback Trenton Bourguet had more.

Coach Kenny Dillingham was discriminating when it came to using Skattebo. Was this by strategic design or necessitated by injury?

Skattebo finished with 49 yards on 13 carries and two catches for 17 yards. Three other players had a total of seven rushing attempts and Bourguet finished with nine, although that counted sacks.

After the game, Dillingham said Skattebo was sick and a bit banged up.

"He was out all week, didn't practice. Sick and then a few other banged up injuries so we were trying to get some of the young bucks running. We couldn't use him as a lead guy because he was sick and had he had the ailing things."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Did injury or strategy reduce Cameron Skattebo's role vs. Colorado?