Evan Stewart injury update: Dan Lanning explains what happened to Oregon WR to hold him out of Rose Bowl

Oregon was down one of its top weapons during the Rose Bowl on Thursday as receiver Evan Stewart missed the game with an injury. Dan Lanning provided an update on the wideout afterwards, explaining why he was unable to go.

According to Lanning, Stewart was dealing with an injury ahead of the game and then tweaked it during warmups.

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“Yea, you know, he’s a dynamic player. He’s been great for us all year,” Lanning said. “He kind of got tweaked in pregame and had been able to practice but had been somewhat limited. But we thought he was going to be a potential go.

“You know, leaned on the side of protecting the player, in that situation. I think if you asked Evan, he wanted to be out there on the field, but you don’t want to put him in a situation that’s not going to be safe for him.”

Evan Stewart is a transfer from Texas A&M. He caught 48 passes for 613 yards and five touchdowns on the season. Stewart is a former five-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 8 overall player in the country in the class of 2022, per the On3 Industry Rankings.

Dan Lanning on long layoff between games for Oregon: ‘I think that’s an excuse’

Byes have not necessarily been beneficial to the three teams in the playoff who have played so far as they’ve all been eliminated. However, as for No. 1 Oregon, using that as any reason to explain their exit is an excuse to Dan Lanning.

Lanning answered a question about the effect of the bye on the Ducks’ performance following their 41-21 loss to No. 8 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl for their quarterfinal in the College Football Playoff. He thinks that would be a bad reasoning for their loss as his team had been practicing and preparing well over their time off in between. It was just that, in the end, the Buckeyes were even better prepared.

“Yeah, I think that’s an excuse,” Lanning said postgame.

“You know, um, I thought our guys prepared well going in. Obviously, they had a better plan than us, um, but that’s an excuse. You know, that’s an opportunity that we had to recharge,” Lanning continued. “I thought our guys did practice well, you know. I’d tell you if that wasn’t the case. You know, I thought they had great focus. I just don’t think our plan was good enough and I think they had a great plan to attack us so credit to those guys.”