Dan Lanning provides injury update on Bucky Irving following win over Washington State
Oregon running back Bucky Irving ran wild on Saturday and produced one of the best games of his career during the Ducks’ 38-24 win over Washington State.
The star junior ran for 129 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries and caught three passes for 51 yards and a touchdown.
However, early in the fourth quarter, Irving exited the game with an apparent injury. He later returned to the game, and he exited the field under his own power after the final whistle. While speaking with reporters for his postgame press conference, Ducks’ head coach Dan Lanning was asked about Irving’s status.
“I don’t have an update right now, but I know he went in for the last play of the game,” Lanning said. “I think he’s going to be OK. Obviously, we wanna be smart and I’ll get an update from our medical staff.”
When the game was still in the balance early in the third quarter, Irving caught a swing pass from Bo Nix and took it 42 yards to the house to push the Ducks’ lead to 24-13.
On Oregon’s ensuing drive, Irving uncorked a jaw-dropping 43-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 31-16 and enable the Ducks to take control of the game for good.
“I don’t know that anybody wants this team to be more successful than Bucky Irving does,” Lanning said. “He cares about this team. He cares about his teammates. I won’t go into detail about his backstory, but the adversity that this guy has faced — for him to be the remarkable young man that he is, it’s really impressive.
“I have three sons. I hope my sons can grow up and be like Bucky Irving.”
In addition to Irving’s standout performance, the Ducks got a big showing from Jordan James, too, who has been instrumental over the past few weeks. The standout sophomore ran for 103 yards on 13 carries, including an explosive 37-yard run early in the second quarter.
“How they run — they take on the personality of their coach,” Lanning said. (Running backs coach Carlos Locklyn) coaches those guys hard and you get great results from that. Every single day the standard is the standard. You guys get to see it on Saturdays, but I get to see that on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The way those guys practice, the way they run, and the way those guys work. It really carries over from that practice into games.”
