Oregon will be without one of its top wide receivers for the college football national championship game.
Ducks head coach Mark Helfrich said Saturday that freshman wideout Darren Carrington and senior running back Ayele Ford won’t play Monday night against Ohio State after both failing their NCAA drug tests.
Carrington took his drug test the week before the Rose Bowl and the results revealed he had tested positive for marijuana, according to ESPN. The results of Forde’s test weren’t immediately known.
Carrington is the team’s second-leading receiver with 704 yards and four touchdowns on 37 catches. The talented freshman emerged as quarterback Marcus Mariota’s favorite target late in the season. He racked up 291 yards on 14 catches over his last two games and paced the wideouts in Oregon’s Rose Bowl win over Florida State with 165 yards and two touchdowns on seven catches.
Losing one of your top offensive weapons for the biggest game of the season seems a cause for concern, but Helfrich told reporters Saturday he won’t let Carrington’s absence affect his team’s preparation.
“It will not be a distraction,” Helfrich said, via ESPN. “It’s a great, great thing to talk about and the only thing that I’ll talk about from that standpoint is confirm that it’s an NCAA policy that is in play here and he’s ineligible for this game, and we’ll ride.”
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
