No. 1 Running Back Cam Davis, 2 Others Lost For the Season With Injuries
On a gray day that turned more dour, Cam Davis — the University of Washington's starting running back throughout spring football and into fall camp — is among three players who have been lost to season-ending injuries, coach Kalen DeBoer disclosed after practice on Tuesday.
Reserve guard Gaard Memmelaar and walk-on safety Sean Toomey-Stout similarly are done for the season, with Toomey-Stout forced into medical retirement.
Ten days before the season opener against Boise State, so many players going down all at once has to be a blow for a Husky team ranked No. 10 in the AP preseason poll and holding onto lofty ambitions.
The Husky coach preferred to look at things in a positive manner.
"Guys have the opportunity to step up and we want that from them — and they will," DeBoer said. "That's what every football season brings is adversity and our team is going to respond in a great way."
Davis, a 6-foot, 212-pound junior from Rancho Cucamonga, California, was injured during last week's scrimmage and suffered "a lower-body injury," DeBoer said, and will have surgery this week.
Memmelaar, a 6-foot-4, 299-pound sophomore, from Caldwell, Idaho, previously injured a knee in practice and also will have surgery this week.
Toomey-Stout, who played in six games last season mostly on special teams, is a 5-foot-10, 192-pound junior from Greenbank, Washington, who had a chronic injury get to the point he could no longer continue playing.
A once flush running back position is now down two players with Davis' injury following the indefinite suspension of freshman back Tybo Rogers, who was impressive in spring ball and had a chance to play this fall. Rogers broke an unspecified team rule shortly into fall camp.
The workhorse Davis returned as the UW's second-leading rusher after carrying the ball 107 times for 522 yards and 13 touchdowns, with the latter total ninth best in school history and among the conference leaders last season.
"Right now, I don't have a specific starter," DeBoer said of his running-back position. "Obviously, we have to put a starter out there for the first play of the year."
Mississippi State transfer Dillon Johnson would be a logical replacement to step in as the No. 1 guy for Davis, yet he's coming off a pair of minor knee surgeries over the past 12 months.
Still, DeBoer said the SEC newcomer could now carry a heavy load if necessary.
"I definitely think so," the coach said. "He's just starting to get his legs under him. We've ramped up practices and reps each week. He's in a good place right now, continuing to climb."
Others who will figure into the position, with DeBoer's staff typically using a committee of running backs, are sophomore Will Nixon, Arizona State junior transfer Daniyel Ngata, sophomore Sam Adams II and sixth-year senior Richard Newton.
Each of those players has received varying numbers of scrimmage snaps over the past three weeks.
Also, DeBoer said sophomore edge rusher Zach Durfee, the Sioux Falls transfer, remains in limbo as the NCAA reviews a waiver request on his behalf to play this season rather than sit out as a double-transfer.
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