{"id":379006,"date":"2025-12-31T02:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/379006\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T02:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T02:52:07","slug":"why-evan-stewart-is-trying-to-play-for-oregon-in-college-football-playoff-his-plans-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/379006\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Evan Stewart is trying to play for Oregon in College Football Playoff, his plans for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Evan Stewart<\/a> has not ruled anything out. Now or in the future.<\/p>\n

The Oregon<\/a> receiver, who has missed the whole season due to a torn right patellar tendon, is keeping the door open to returning to the field if the No. 5 Ducks continue in the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope, but I couldn\u2019t tell you honestly,\u201d Stewart said in his first public comments since the 2025 Rose Bowl. \u201cIt\u2019s just day by day, depending on testing, shoot, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senior wide out has a redshirt season available and could also pursue a medical hardship waiver, which would be more difficult to obtain if he did return to the field in the playoffs. But is returning to the field for the first time since the 2024 Big Ten Championship game, against a top 10 opponent in a potential semifinal or national title game truly viable or even worth it? Stewart says yes.<\/p>\n

Stewart believes it would show teammates the value of hard work, particularly in a lonely pursuit like recovering from an injury. Internally, it would achieve a measure of respect for Stewart<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it would prove to myself that I had a major, major injury and I was able to overcome it,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThey know I can\u2019t be out there. but I want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart was listed as a game time decision for Oregon\u2019s first round playoff game against No. 12 seed James Madison and went through pregame warmups at Autzen Stadium in full pads, but changed into street clothes before kickoff. He was ruled out for Thursday\u2019s Orange Bowl against No. 4 Texas Tech on Monday and has not practiced this week.<\/p>\n

Dan Lanning said the change Stewart\u2019s designation didn\u2019t indicate a \u201csetback\u201d happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just like moving Evan up and down so you guys talk about it instead of talking about our team,\u201d Lanning said.<\/p>\n

Stewart said \u201ccomfortability\u201d was why he was ruled out already for the quarterfinal and his knee was improved enough to \u201ctry things\u201d but \u201cnot clicking yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart, who began his career at Texas A&M, has 139 career receptions for 1,776 yards and 11 touchdowns. Last season Stewart caught 48 passes for 613 yards and five touchdowns.<\/p>\n

He envisions playing another season in college, but believes he \u201ccould\u201d succeed if he entered the NFL draft even without playing for what would be more than 16 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust off of athletic capabilities, testing, of course,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIf we\u2019re being honest, I do see myself in college for another year. I haven\u2019t really thought about it too much though. But when the time comes, the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Stewart returns to college football, would playing anywhere other than Oregon be possible?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know about that one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Particularly with Oregon set to return Dakorien Moore and Jeremiah McClellan at receiver and quarterback Dante Moore still deciding what he\u2019ll do, Stewart was and continues to be enticed by the possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still want to play with (Dante Moore),\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIf \u2018Te coming back, I\u2019m going to be lit, I know that for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart didn\u2019t have any emotions or know how to feel when he suffered the injury in May. During August, he began to view it as \u201cprobably the best thing for me\u201d because it allowed him to recover from injuries that nagged during last season.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been difficult to find silver linings in the most significant injury of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut hey,\u201d said Stewart, \u201cwe coming back great.\u201d<\/p>\n

No. 4 Texas Tech (12-1) vs. No. 5 Oregon (12-1)<\/p>\n

When:\u00a0Thursday, January 1Time:\u00a09 a.m. PTWhere:\u00a0Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla.TV: ESPNStream: You can watch this game on DIRECTV<\/a> (free trial) or with Sling<\/a> (a Sling day pass to watch this game and more is just $4.99). Streaming broadcasts for this game will be available on these streaming services locally in Oregon and Washington, but may not be available outside of the Pacific Northwest, depending on your location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. \u2014 Evan Stewart has not ruled anything out. Now or in the future. The Oregon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[18495,1607,64943,399,398,396,397,5693,64944,99],"class_list":["post-379006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-big-ten-football","tag-college-football","tag-ducks-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-oregon-ducks","tag-oregon-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}