Masoli continues to sit out of Oregon practices. From Rob Mosely at the Register-Guard:
Jeremiah Masoli sat out again today with his knee injury, and at this point it seems likely that Nate Costa will be the starting quarterback at UCLA on Saturday.
"Nate’s our guy this week," tight end Ed Dickson said. "It’s unfortunate what happened to Masoli.
"Nate was competing for the starting job during the summer, and I trust Nate to the fullest."
Costa has been the primary backup to this point. He said the last two days have been about improving his timing with the No. 1 offense.
"I’m getting out there and getting used to those guys," Costa said. "As of now I feel great. ... The timing’s off a little bit. But I feel like yesterday we kind of worked on it, and today I felt really good."
Indeed, Costa seemed very sharp today in pretty much every drill. The receiving corps, though banged up, made a number of nice plays, including a couple by Rory Cavaille (shoulder), who was in full pads for the first time since preseason camp as far as I can remember, and Tyrece Gaines, who was back today after what Chip Kelly said was an excused absence Monday.
Meanwhile, per John Hunt of the Oregonian, Ducks DB Willie Glasper went down with "an apparent knee injury." Gasper had stepped in after Walter Thurmond went down with a season ending knee injury.
First of all I hate reading injury reports. It's the worst part of being a football (or even a sports) fan. We should know that given how our own team has been repeatedly bit by the injury bug over the years. At the same time, I sure hope these injury reports don't lull our players or even fans into any kind of false sense of comfort.
We have already seen how the Ducks have been resilient in battling back from adversity after what appeared to be a crushing opening game on national TV. They have showed the ability to tough it out and get the job done. I have no doubt those guys are going to come out, fired up no matter who is taking the snaps this Saturday.
It will be up to our defense not only match the intensity of what could possibly be the best team in the Pac-10, but also come out and atone for the slow start (defensively) against the Cardinal this past Saturday. We are looking right at you Coach Bullough, Reggie Carter and rest of UCLA defense. Doesn't matter who is out there for Oregon on Saturday. Bruins will need to make a stand and statement right out of the gate to address some of the concerns around their slow starts this coming Saturday.
GO BRUINS.