Two starting receivers ruled out vs. Oregon State
On top of the challenges posed by being unable to practice at home, Stanford will also be shorthanded on the field when it faces Oregon State on Saturday.
Starting wide receivers Michael Wilson and Connor Wedington will miss the game because of undisclosed injuries, coach David Shaw said Tuesday from Corvallis, Oregon, where the Cardinal is practicing.
Wilson leads the team with 19 catches for 261 yards and a touchdown, the only score by a wide receiver this season. Wedington had 15 catches, tied for the second-most on the team, for 157 yards.
Sophomore Elijah Higgins and junior Brycen Tremayne will replace Wilson and Wedington in the starting lineup for the Cardinal (2-2), coming off wins against Cal and Washington.
Higgins, listed at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, had one career catch entering last weekend, but had five receptions for 37 yards in the Cardinal’s 31-26 win over the Huskies after Wilson
went out early. Tremayne, a former walk- on who excels on special teams, had two catches for 59 yards in Seattle.
Their absences will put more pressure on Simi Fehoko, the lone healthy starter who had 15 catches for 244 yards. Fehoko extended Stanford’s final drive
against Washington with receptions on third-and-10 and third-and-11, including a one-handed 25-yard catch, as the Cardinal held on to the ball for the final 7:47 while holding a 31-26 lead.
“As hard as it is to see those two guys not play for us, that’s how excited I am to see Simi step up,” Shaw said. “You can tell when those two guys went down, it’s almost like he grew two inches.”
Osiris St. Brown, the team’s top backup receiver, has already been ruled out for the season.