Oregon starting tight end Terrance Ferguson is out for the remainder of spring practice.
Ferguson, who missed Thursday’s practice due to an unspecified injury, did not participate in UO’s first spring scrimmage Saturday afternoon at Autzen Stadium and won’t play in the remaining seven spring practices.
“He’s going to be down for a while,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said. “For us, we’re going to be precautionary there with him and hold him out for the rest of spring.”
Ferguson led UO tight ends with 32 catches for 391 yards and five touchdowns last season.
Without him the Ducks have just two scholarship tight ends available of the rest of spring; fifth-year junior Patrick Herbert and true freshman Kenyon Sadiq.
Obviously we’re going to have to figure something out for that,” tight ends coach Drew Mehringer said. “Talking with Lanning and (offensive coordinator) Will (Stein) and we have a really good plan going ahead and moving forward for that, but yeah we’d like to get somebody else in there that can help us.”
The spring transfer window opened on Saturday and will remain open for players to enter through April 30. Oregon, which is projected to have 91 scholarship players in the fall — six over the limit, was already likely to pursue a tight end transfer this offseason. Ferguson’s injury unscores how thin the group is and why an addition is all the more necessary.
“The good thing for us is we have a lot of guys on our roster that have played tight end as well at other times,” Lanning said. “They may not be listed at tight end on our roster, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t play tight end. I think we have some position versatility with the guys we have on our team.
“Always, always, always going to look for opportunities to enhance our program if the right people present themself.”
