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By Kevin Clerici
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 10, 1996
Oregon might be 2-0 this season, but the team suffered a huge loss when starting quarterback Tony Graziani was injured in the first half of the Ducks' 44-30 win over Nevada on Saturday.The left-handed senior was injured just before halftime, when he was hit from the blind side while releasing a pass.
A magnetic resonance imaging examination Sunday failed to show any extensive damage to Graziani's injured right knee, and team officials are estimating he will be out of the lineup for four to six weeks.
Oregon trainer Dean Adams said the doctors were unsure if Graziani had stretched or slightly torn the knee's medial tendon.
Senior Ryan Perry-Smith, who replaced Graziani in the second half, will start when Oregon hosts Colorado State on Saturday.
Graziani lead the team to an overtime win against Fresno State two weeks ago, connecting with tight end Josh Wilcox on the first Oregon play in overtime.
Adams said the injury should heal without surgery.
Defensive back Kenny Wheaton, who also left the game in the second quarter, has a bruised left calf and may be able to play next week.
Wheaton is the secondary's best cover man and was a second-team All-Pacific 10 Conference cornerback last season.
Washington, coming off its 45-42 loss to Arizona State, starts this week with a similar situation to Arizona - who is going to be the quarterback?
With the team trailing by three touchdowns, Washington head coach Jim Lambright benched starter Shane Fortney for redshirt freshman Brock Huard, who promptly brought the team back to tie the game. Washington lost on a field goal in the final seconds.
However, Lambright said he will stick with Fortney for the Huskies' home opener against Brigham Young on Saturday.
Huard, the younger brother to Damon Huard, UW's career leader in passing with 5,692 yards and total offense with 5,813, will get more work in practice this week, Lambright said.
Fortney, a junior, is known as the better runner of the two, but lacks the arm that Huard is known for. Huard, who came to Washington as the Gatorade national high school player of the year in 1994, was the Huskies' third-string quarterback last season and traveled with the team on all road games.
Lambright said at the beginning of the season that he expected both to play, but wanted a starter to emerge.
Tim Carey was tired of being Stanford's back-up quarterback.
And when Stanford head coach Tyrone Willingham decided to start 19-year-old Chad Hutchinson against Utah last week, Carey decided he was tired of Stanford, too.
Carey, a junior, transferred to Hawaii and will be eligible to play next season. NCAA rules insist that a transfer player must sit out a year, so Carey will still have two years of eligibility left as a Rainbow.
Last season at Stanford, Carey was forced to watch Mark Butterfield lead the team to a 7-4 record and a Sun Bowl berth, playing only one set of downs all season, against Oregon State.
This season was supposed to be his, but the emergence of Hutchinson during fall drills put Carey back onto his all-too-familiar spot next to the head coach.
Willingham may have made the decision because he couldn't pass up the chance to use Hutchinson's athletic ability. A first-round draft choice by the Atlanta Braves in 1995, Hutchinson possesses a major-league arm and has a pro figure, standing 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds.
Hutchinson was 23-of-40 passing with 265 yards, a touchdown and an interception against Utah in the Cardinal's 17-10 loss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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