Stanford QB Edwards Done for Season
Tuesday, October 17, 2006 2:50 PM EDT
The Associated Press
By JOSH DUBOW
Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards will miss the rest of his senior season with a broken right foot, dealing the Cardinal their biggest setback yet in an injury-plagued winless campaign.
Edwards was injured early in Stanford's 20-7 loss Saturday to Arizona that sent the Cardinal (0-7, 0-4 Pac-10) to their worst start since 1960.
"He has really been a tremendous player and leader for us," coach Walt Harris said Tuesday. "We're going to miss him. Clearly, it's an unfortunate accident, but it's been a year for freak accidents. He's a tough one to lose."
Edwards was 94-for-156 for 1,027 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions this season. He became the seventh player at Stanford to top 5,000 career yards passing earlier this season.
Stanford has been decimated by injuries.
Starting receiver Mark Bradford is expected to miss the rest of the season after tearing ligaments in his right foot during the Sept. 9 game. The other starting receiver, Evan Moore, was sidelined a week later with a stress fracture in his right foot. Last month, starting fullback Nick Frank ended his football career after being diagnosed with a narrowing of a vertebra in his spine.
Harris can't remember a year when he has had to deal with so many injuries.
"I think some of it is unlucky," he said. "It's not our year with regards to that. We have to go back to the drawing board and really look at our entire program. We have a lot of areas to get fixed to help our guys do a better job physically so we have better matchups."
With Edwards out most of the game against Arizona, the Cardinal gained 52 yards on offense — less than half the previous worst performance since Stanford began playing football in 1918.
Backup T.C. Ostrander struggled before injuring his knee on the Cardinal's final play, going 8-for-13 for 58 yards and being sacked six times.
Harris said he hopes Ostrander will be healthy enough to play this week against Arizona State. Redshirt freshman Tavita Pritchard will back up Ostrander.
"It's devastating to have my Stanford football career end this way," Edwards said in a statement. "But now I just want to do everything I can to help our other quarterbacks out. I am proud to have played quarterback at Stanford."
