As BYU was in warmups before the game with the Ducks, the Cougars found out they would be without their top two receivers in Puka Nacua and Gunner Romney.
But Oregon was missing plenty of starters itself. Thankfully for the Ducks, they didn’t miss a beat.
After Oregon’s 41-20 win over No. 14 BYU, head coach Dan Lanning revealed that running back Byron Cardwell, receiver Seven McGee, and linebacker Justin Flowe was held out of the contest mainly due to precautionary reasons.
“Byron (Cardwell) was day-to-day throughout practice this past week and he tested himself wanting to be able to push on Thursday,” Lanning said. “He’s a warrior wanting to go to work. (He) came out wanting to go through warm-ups and I think it was still lingering. You could see he still wasn’t 100 percent, (and we) didn’t want to jeopardize his health. In that situation, if we ask Bryon to, I promise you he would’ve and that is a great example of his character and what he is willing to do for this team.
As for Flowe, the injuries were relatively minor, and he probably could have played if necessary.
“If we had to push Justin (Flowe) and he was able to go through warm-ups today, he could’ve definitely contributed for us today and helped us,” Lanning said. “With that being said, the next guy up in both those situations, those guys prepare really hard, they earn their moments in practice, you earn the right to go play football with the way you practice, and the next guy up in both those positions did a really good job.
McGee saw some time on the field, but not nearly as much as Oregon is used to seeing its hybrid player.
“Seven (McGee) was able to go for us at times but we were in a lot of personnel groups that didn’t always put him on the field, and I think his unselfishness is a great example of Seven saying, ‘I don’t care how we do it, I just want to win the game.’”
Oregon is going to need all three players at full go as the Pac-12 season looms beginning next week at Washington State.