How do you stop a bulldog from attacking?
You run over it, which is exactly what No. 20 Oregon is planning to do when it travels to Fresno State for a Saturday night game.
Both teams’ leading rushers garnered more than 150 yards and a couple of touchdowns in the opener, but Oregon’s starting running back Jonathan Stewart has been nursing an injured ankle that he sustained late in the third quarter of the opener.
Stewart missed practice on Monday and Tuesday, watching from the sideline with a boot, and will be day-to-day, Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said.
Stewart, who rushed for 168 yards – 20 fewer than his total all of last season – and two touchdowns on Saturday, was injured when a tackler landed on his right ankle late in the third quarter. Stewart was carted into the locker room and X-rays returned negative for any broken bones.
Fellow sophomore running back Jeremiah Johnson, who joins Stewart on kickoff returns, rushed for 79 yards and one touchdown on 10 carries in a backup role against Stanford. Whoever starts in the backfield versus Fresno State will be successful, Johnson said.
“If Stew don’t come back, I think I can carry the load,” Johnson said. “The run will help the pass game and when the pass game is going, you pop the run game. We’ve just got to keep working and working it.”
Oregon center Enoka Lucas said the offensive line is ready to repeat its performance in the opener by opening holes.
“They are both great running backs,” he said. “Whoever gets the ball will get some yards no matter what.”
Fresno State has a star running back of its own in junior Dwayne Wright, who earned the title of Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Week for his 26 carries for 158 yards and three touchdowns in a 28-19 victory against Nevada in the opener.
“I think he is a big, physical specimen,” Bellotti said. “He runs with a great deal of power. He breaks a lot of tackles. He doesn’t really care about running around people or making them miss, he’ll just run over them. I think you have to be a great tackling football team and you have to be very tough.”
Fresno State has had a rusher exceed 1,000 yards in each of the last five seasons, including Wright in 2003.
Wright missed most of the past two seasons after suffering a knee injury against Kansas State early in the 2004 season. Johnson – whose brother played against Wright in the opener as a linebacker for Nevada – wasn’t impressed with Wright’s first game back from injury.
Johnson said that running backs from opposing teams always try to prove that they are better, but the truth is that he and Stewart outshine the competition.
“When you’ve got another good back on the opposite team there is always going to be, ‘Who’s the better back,’ but I think we’re going to prove that because our defense is going to go out there and try to nail him and I think they are going to be successful at it,” Johnson said.
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