COVID issues sack Stanford quarterback
Less than two hours before its season opener at Oregon on Saturday night, Stanford suffered its first loss.
Quarterback Davis Mills, wide receiver Connor Wedington and defensive end Trey Labounty were ruled out because of COVID-19 testing results and contact tracing protocol, Stanford announced.
The news followed two cancellations of Pac-12 openers this weekend because of coronavirus issues — Washington at Cal and Arizona at Utah.
Mills, a redshirt junior, made six starts and appeared in eight games last season, throwing for 1,960 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“Been waiting a long time for this # year4 #beast,” he tweeted Friday in anticipation of Saturday’s opener.
One of Mills’ top receiving targets, Wedington, also wasn’t on the field against Oregon.
Wedington, who caught 51 passes for 506 yards last season, took to Twitter about an hour before Saturday’s kickoff and said, “I got contact traced, I tested negative for COVID.”
Jack West started in the place of Mills. The redshirt sophomore had made one previous start for the Cardinal, a 34-16 loss last season against UCLA. In that game, West completed 15 of 32 passes for 143 yards and was sacked seven times.
In the first half Saturday, West completed 5 of 10 passes for 82 yards. Stanford trailed Oregon 14-7.