Now that Colorado is merely trying to achieve damage control, news that Oregon’s two best offensive players are hurt sounds good on the surface.
Bad news lies underneath, however. LaMichael James, the nation’s leading rusher (170.4 yards per game) who sat out Saturday’s win over Arizona State with a dislocated elbow, says he will be able to play when the ninth-ranked, 5-1 Ducks visit Folsom Field on Saturday.
“I feel really good,” James told reporters after the game. “I think if I had to play, I would play … I don’t know if I would be 100 percent. I’d probably be, like, 80. But I could play, definitely.”
Oregon quarterback Darron Thomas is another matter. While he said, “I expect to play (at Colorado),” he left the stadium with a brace on his knee. In a Sunday teleconference call, coach Chip Kelly revealed nothing, as is his custom.
It seems logical that Kelly will play it safe and not play Thomas against the 1-6 Buffs, whose inexperience and injuries have left them nearly helpless defensively.
Besides, backup Bryan Bennett came on in the second half and led two TD drives in the third quarter and two field goal drives in the fourth.
“He drove the ball even better than me,” Thomas told reporters.
Oh, yes, if Kelly decides to rest James another week too? His backup, junior Kenjon Barner, rushed for 171 yards against the Sun Devils.
Lattimore out for year.
The biggest injury news of the year came down Sunday when South Carolina announced tailback Marcus Lattimore is out for the year with ligament damage in his knee.
The nation’s top prep tailback from two years ago was hurt when a Mississippi State defender fell on him while trying to tackle receiver Bruce Ellington.
It wasn’t pretty on many levels. Lattimore’s mom, Yolanda Smith, ran to the field and began sobbing after talking to doctors.
Lattimore, a sophomore, already has 30 career TDs, only three off the school record. He represents 35 percent of the Gamecocks’ offense, and his injury comes one week after they booted quarterback Stephen Garcia.
Due to injuries to three other tailbacks, replacing Lattimore will be true freshman Brandon Wilds, who began the season fifth on the depth chart.
Alabama D scary.
Alabama’s defense is putting up numbers that are entering the realm of comical. Besides leading the country in total defense (184.1 yards per game), scoring defense (7.0 points per game) and fewest yards per play (3.2), it has only allowed six TDs in seven games.
In Saturday’s 52-7 win at Mississippi, the Crimson Tide had 14 tackles for loss, five sacks and the Rebels netted zero yards in their last 18 plays in the first half.
A scout told Sports Illustrated recently that Alabama’s defense has “seven or eight” first- or second- round NFL draft choices.
Sun Devils in control.
Despite Arizona State’s loss at Oregon, it is basically a Nov. 5 win at UCLA from winning the South Division. The 24th-ranked Sun Devils are 3-1 (5-2 overall) and tied with USC, which is ineligible. The Bruins are 2-1, but the dregs of the division — Arizona, Colorado and Utah — are all 0-3.
Arizona State doesn’t have a team currently with a winning record left on its schedule.
Broyles isn’t finished.
Oklahoma’s Ryan Broyles may put the NCAA career receptions record to a level at which only your great-great-grandchildren will see it broken.
His 13 catches at Kansas give him 326, surpassing the previous mark of 316 by Purdue’s Taylor Stubblefield. At his present pace of 10 per game and with six regular-season games and a bowl left, Broyles would finish with 396 catches.
That’s an average of 99 a year for four years. Good luck, future receivers.
