Oregon coach Mike Bellotti was on a conference call with the Seattle-area media today, and the biggest question about his team is its quarterback situation. While there is no official diagnosis on Nate Costa, who injured his knee last week, Bellotti said he doesn’t expect Costa to play, meaning Justin Roper is the likely starter. Costa was the projected starter in fall camp, but Roper had been playing well and was starting to push Roper for that job.
Tyrone Willingham, Jake Locker, and a handful of other players spoke with the media today as well. Locker said his hamstring is still coming along well, and that he expects to be fine for the Oregon game.
As a mentioned in my last post, there were a few surprises on the depth chart, most notably freshman Senio Kelemete listed as a starting defensive tackle. Kelemete missed the first week and a half of practice because of a mixup with the NCAA Clearinghouse, but apparently has played well enough since joining the team late to win a starting job.
“The nice thing about Senio is, when we looked at him coming out of high school, we though that of all of our defensive players, this young man might have shown himself as one of the better ones in terms of his overall play, ability to hold the point, get to the football,” Willingham said. “His late arrival has made things quite interesting and quite exciting the last week or so, but he’s come in, and we’ve given a fair opportunity to all, and he has shown himself to be able to do some things just a little bit different than some of the other guys. We’ll involve all of the guys in what we think are their roles and their strengths.”
Darin Harris is the starting strong safety ahead of Victor Aiyewa, who started fall camp as the likely starter. Willingham said Harris has played well during fall camp, and that while Aiyewa’s groin injury hurt his chances of starting, Harris also did enough on his own merit to earn the starting job.
Tripper Johnson, who is listed as the backup free safety, was listed in this week’s practice notes as a sophomore. The 26-year-old walk-on has been listed as a junior in fall camp before today, but was petitioning to earn a third year of eligibility. Willingham said that is still being sorted out, but that they hope to get Johnson an extra year.
Jared Ballman, who will handle punts and kickoffs, missed Friday and Saturday’s practices because of a death in the family.
A couple of injuries still appear to be issues, as cornerback Byron Davenport (ankle) and safety Jason Wells (knee) aren’t on the depth chart for Saturday. Willingham also said that Michael Gottlieb (hamstring) is still a question mark, though he is listed as the starter.
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