Kansas defensive end Dorance Armstrong Jr. (2) celebrates after a tackle for a loss during the second quarter on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tenn.

Neither health nor production has ever seemed like an issue for Kansas sophomore defensive end Dorance Armstrong Jr. this season. But head coach David Beaty revealed this week the defense’s sack-master partially tore his right anterior cruciate ligament on the first day of preseason camp.

“I’m losing my breath, going, ‘Oh, my goodness, is this really happening?’ And we thought for a little while that he had torn his ACL,” Beaty said Tuesday, while recalling the injury scare, “and he did have a slight tear in it, but he’s so strong. I mean, it speaks to the volume of work that he did in the offseason, that anybody else it would have been, I think, everything might have been torn. But he is so strong. The work that he did kept him healthy or kept him from having an injury that would have put him out for the year.”

Armstrong, a 6-foot-4 defensive lineman from Houston, quickly rebounded from the knee injury after missing a few weeks of August practices, and enters this week’s game at No. 14 West Virginia (6-1 overall, 3-1 Big 12) tied for the conference lead in sacks (8.0), with Kansas State’s Jordan Willis.

Beaty said the preseason injury won’t require offseason surgery once KU (1-7, 0-5) finishes its 2016 slate Nov. 26 at Kansas State.

“No, he’s well, and he’s — I know I don’t want to overstate that. He’s well,” Beaty said. “He’s not having to do anything. He doesn’t come in and do any extra treatment on that. Once he was well, he was well.”

Moos makes watch list

KU junior Cole Moos is up for college football’s top punting honor, the Ray Guy Award.

Moos, a 5-foot-11 junior who transferred to Kansas from Northeastern Oklahoma A & M, has sent eight punts for 50 or more yards this season and landed 11 punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

Following a career-high 82-yard punt at Baylor on Oct. 15, the Big 12 named Moos, from Broken Arrow, Okla., the conference’s Special Teams Player of the Week.

Moos is one of 66 Ray Guy Award candidates announced this week by the Augusta Sports Council. The list will be narrowed down to 10 semifinalists on Friday, Nov. 11, and the finalists will be revealed on Nov. 22. The winner of the 2016 Ray Guy Award will be announced live on ESPN during The Home Depot College Football Awards Show on Thursday, Dec. 8.