Two days removed from a 53-16 win over the Washington Huskies, the No. 1 Oregon football team returned to business Monday morning at the Moshofsky Center. The question on everyone’s mind surrounded the health of backup quarterback Nate Costa, who was carted off the field after suffering what appeared to be a knee injury midway through the third quarter on Saturday.
Second-year head coach Chip Kelly said Costa had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for Monday morning and the staff will assess the quarterback depth pending the outcome of Costa’s meeting. In place of the fifth-year senior, true freshman Bryan Bennett, who is redshirting this season, took snaps with the second-team offense, earning a coveted red quarterback jersey and leaving behind the No. 10 scout team jersey of Cal starting quarterback Brock Mansion, which was picked up by Dustin Haines.
Bennett earned the third-string quarterback position coming out of fall camp, and redshirt freshman Daryle Hawkins secured the fourth spot. Both young signal callers will get a bump up in the rotation this week, though Hawkins still saw a lot of time at wide receiver on Monday.
Kelly and Oregon players alike hope this Saturday’s trip to Berkeley won’t come down to the backup quarterback.
“I hope he doesn’t have to play, that’s the only thing,” sophomore LaMichael James said of true freshman Bennett. “Bryan, he really, really is a good player. I’m sure if something happened to Darron — of course I hope not — I’m sure he’ll fulfill everybody’s expectations. He really is a tremendous player and so is Daryle.”
The Ducks were in a similar situation last year when the team traveled to UCLA without a healthy Jeremiah Masoli. Costa, then Masoli’s backup, started in his place and took every snap in order to preserve Darron Thomas’ redshirt season. Thomas had already burned through a redshirt against Boise State during the 2008 season, so Kelly was quick to keep Thomas on the sideline.
With Oregon now nine games into the season, having to burn Bennett’s redshirt at this point is something the Ducks hope to avoid. Having been in the same situation before, Thomas sympathized with Bennett’s current predicament.
“It’s kind of hard mentally for Bryan,” Thomas said. “I told him I went through the same thing, but you always got to be ready at all times. You never know, you’re still on the team even though you’re redshirting … you’ve got to be ready to play.”
Thomas had a strong showing in the final 11-on-11 period of practice, completing all three of his pass attempts and adding a long run up the middle to set up a touchdown reception in the corner by true freshman Josh Huff. Despite some speculation about Huff suffering a concussion against Washington, the Houston native was working with the first team offense as normal with no signs of injury.
During Bennett’s time to run the second string in 11-on-11s, the freshman found Hawkins on a deep post over the middle on a long third-and-20. Bennett then tried to hustle to line to spike the ball and stop the clock, but he muffed the snap under center and the clock ran out to conclude practice.
Thomas was impressed with Bennett’s day overall.
“He did a good job,” Thomas said. “He can throw the ball really well. He came out and did better than he thought he would do.”
Thomas and Kelly both said the approach remains the same against Cal, regardless of Costa’s availability. Thomas did admit, however, that he doesn’t want to put Bennett in an avoidable situation.
“We’ll be a little bit more cautious ’cause you got a youngster backing you up,” Thomas said.
Elsewhere on the injury front, sophomore wide receiver Justin Hoffman and senior linebacker Spencer Paysinger both wore protective red jerseys, though they continued to practice with their respective units. Junior cornerback Anthony Gildon was in a red jersey for the third straight week, and sophomore cornerback Cliff Harris missed most of practice because of an unspecified appointment.
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