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One of the biggest injury blows that the Oregon Ducks have received so far this year came last week when it was announced that star running back CJ Verdell would miss the rest of the season with a lower leg injury.
In a year where Oregon has battled a flurry of injuries, this one will be among the most impactful.
Not only was Verdell an important player for the Ducks, be he was arguably the biggest driving force of the offense, totaling 397 yards and 5 touchdowns on the ground, with another 83 yards and two touchdowns receiving as well.
Without his production out of the backfield, it is reasonable to ask where the Ducks will go to get a large portion of their yards and points going forward. You can expect that fellow RB Travis Dye will have a big hand in shouldering the load, but it’s impossible to believe that he will assume the entirety of the load left behind by Verdell.
This is where the freshmen come in. Oregon is luckily pretty deep at the RB spot, with a trio of Seven McGee, Trey Benson, and Byron Cardwell all seeing the field at various times so far this season. We don’t have a large sample size of what they can do just yet, but we’ve seen enough to believe that they can step up when called upon.
“A lot of these young guys have to step up a lot more and they might not have expected to this early, but we’re going to be alright,” Travis Dye said earlier this week. “They’re hungry for it, they want it. It’s going to define itself, who it’s going to be and whoever it is I have full trust.”
While the goal is to replace the production from Verdell, it’s pretty clear that the Ducks’ won’t try to do so with the presence of just one RB, but rather deploy all three players at different times in order to find success. If it is a short down situation or a time where a conventional back is needed, we can expect Benson or Cardwell to get the action, while McGee will likely get the call when a passing situation arises, or should Dye need a breather.
“We feel they’re game ready,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal said. “The way that we rotate, the way we configure the reps from camp all the way till now, they’re pretty evenly split up. Those guys have had a truckload of reps and they’ve performed well to where we feel they’re game ready. There’s no hesitation or reservation there. So we’ll let it eat.”
In a game against the Cal Golden Bears on Friday night where the Ducks are expected to be able to build a lead, we can expect to see what the young guys can do down the stretch. It won’t likely just be one of them that gets the major share of the workload, though. In Eugene, we can now expect a true running back by committee.
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