Mario Cristobal not Ruling Out a Return to Play for Safety Bennett Williams in 2021

As Oregon prepares to face Washington State this week, it sounds like there could be some positive news on the injury front for the Ducks' secondary, albeit not in the immediate future. 

Starting safety Bennett Williams, who suffered a freak accident non-contact injury leading up to the Stanford game in September, has a chance to play again this season.

"There's a chance, there's a chance," Head Coach Cristobal told reporters Wednesday when asked if Williams could be available again this season.

Williams hasn't played since Oregon's win over Arizona on Sept. 25, a game that saw him snag two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

At the time of his injury he totaled 20 tackles, one tackle for loss and three interceptions on the year.

In his absence the Ducks have rotated in a lot of different players at safety including Jordan Happle, Jamal Hill, Steve Stephens IV, Bryan Addison and true freshman Daymon David. 

Hill now occupies Williams' spot at the STAR position on dime packages, and Happle saw significant playing time at the other safety opposite Verone McKinley last week in Seattle. This personnel shift stemmed from Stephens' injury sustained in the Colorado game that turned out to be more significant than the staff thought following a reevaluation leading up to last week's game.

Happle came away with an interception against the Huskies last week despite wearing a heavy club on his right hand that he says he's still practicing with this week. However, Oregon led the nation in turnover margin when McKinley, Williams, Wright and James were all on the field at the same time and haven't been forcing turnovers at nearly as high a clip in the six weeks since his absence.

The Ducks still have a lot of work to do down the stretch before they can even come close to sniffing their postseason goals, but it's fair to say it'd be a tremendous boost to have a player of Williams' caliber back at any point this season.