SEATTLE — While tailback Rodney Stewart’s sprained knee raised concern Saturday after the 52-24 loss to Washington, the loss of middle linebacker Doug Rippy means Colorado lost its most productive players on both sides of the ball.
Stewart is the school’s No. 2 career rusher with 3,217 yards, and Rippy was the team’s leading tackler behind safety Anthony Perkins. Rippy also sprained a knee. While both will be examined again today, coach Jon Embree ruled them out of Saturday’s home game against No. 9 Oregon.
“Rodney’s gone for a while,” Embree said.
Behind Rippy on the depth chart is Brady Daigh, one of 13 true freshmen who have played this year. A former Mullen High School star, Daigh had four tackles to more than double his season total of three.
Senior linebacker Josh Hartigan, who finally sat out Saturday with a sore shoulder that has bothered him all year, said he’ll be back against Oregon.
Backup QBs play.
For the rest of his life, Nick Hirschman can say he outplayed a Montana. Both backup quarterbacks played in the rout, with Hirschman hitting 4-of-8 for 52 yards for Colorado. Nick Montana, the redshirt freshman son of NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana, fumbled away his first career snap. He did complete his lone two passes for 10 yards.
Back-to-back 500-plus.
Counting the 553 yards yielded at Stanford the previous week, Colorado had given up 500-plus yards in back-to-back weeks for the first time since 1983 when it gave up 609 to Nebraska, 524 to Oklahoma and 531 to Kansas.
Bye week helped Huskies.
Washington’s bye week helped it get healthy as quarterback Keith Price barely practiced to heal minor leg injuries.
“Getting time off and getting some extra practice time really helped us to execute our game play,” said receiver Devin Aguilar, a Mullen High School graduate . “It helped us to be better prepared.”
Husky tidbits.
Washington has scored at least 30 points in its first six games for the first time. Its seven TDs were scored by seven different players.
John Henderson, The Denver Post
