Oregon was dealt a crushing blow against Stanford when CJ Verdell went down with a left leg injury in the third quarter. While he was able to walk off the field, he had to be carted to the locker room.
When speaking to the media on Thursday, Mario Cristobal confirmed what many Duck fans were fearing: Verdell is officially out for the rest of the season.
“It was a low tackle, a legal tackle, nothing wrong with the tackle but [Verdell] certainly suffered an injury, so he will be done for the year.”
The Ducks will now rely heavily on Travis Dye, backed up by a mixture of freshmen in Byron Cardwell, Trey Benson, and Seven McGee.
Oregon has heavily relied on its rushing offense this year. In the game against Stanford, Oregon ran the ball 54 times compared to just 26 passing attempts. Figuring out the best mix of running backs will be paramount to Oregon’s success moving forward, as well as who will pick up for Verdell's carries in the backfield.
Cristobal is confident in Dye's ability.
“Travis is a workhorse too, and he has proven that in a lot of different ways, and Trey’s coming off an injury last year. He looks really good,” Cristobal said when addressing the running back rotation. “Cardwell is going to be a good player. We all know Seven is a good player.”
This is not the first time that Dye has seen more reps due to an injury to Verdell. Verdell missed time late last season due to a thumb injury, and Dye carried the load while he was gone. So far this season, Dye has 382 yards on 60 carries with three total touchdowns.
The freshman duo of Benson and Cardwell will have to prove their worth as they will most likely see more reps. The two of them have combined for just 33 yards and one touchdown. Cardwell saw three carries in the tough defeat at the hands of the Cardinal after Verdell exited the game.
And what about Sean Dollars? According to Cristobal, one of the most anticipated players for Oregon is still going to be out for a while. Dollars suffered a significant leg injury before spring ball.
“Your best case scenario is mid-November, late-November,” Cristobal said about what the return time looks like for the redshirt freshman. “But that’s not a guarantee. When you have an injury as serious as those, you just want to make sure that when they come back that they’re fully healthy to continue playing healthy.”
No matter what the rotation is, it seems it won’t be set by the offensive coordinator, whether that be Joe Moorhead or Jim Mastro, who will call plays in the event of Moorhead's absence.
“We’ll have someone else assigned to that,” Cristobal said of figuring out the running back rotation. “We have enough staff members where there’s an assignment for each position group — an assignment go-to person — and so we’ll be able to handle it.”
Ducks fans will get their first chance to see what Oregon’s running back room looks like when Oregon takes on California next Friday night.
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