Ryan Walk is providing leadership, versatility for Oregon Ducks while playing through pain

Ryan Walk knows that his time left at Oregon is limited. After missing five games last season due to injury, the Ducks’ senior offensive guard is doing everything in his power to stay on the field in 2022.

It hasn’t been easy thus far.

During Oregon’s season-opening loss to Georiga, Walk felt pain in his knee that he said became progressively worse as the game went on. As a result, he was on the shelf for the Ducks’ Week 2 win over Eastern Washington. Last weekend, he played 48 snaps in the win over BYU but headed back to the locker room mid-game to deal with an undisclosed issue.

He later returned and finished the game, though. Like a handful of other Oregon offensive linemen, he’s grinding his way through some injury difficulties in order to remain available.

“I already missed time last year, I don’t want to miss any more,” Walk said.

This Saturday, the Ducks could very well lean on Walk and the rest of their veteran offensive line to carry them through one of the trickiest matchups on this year’s schedule. Oregon has not played a true road game at Washington State, with fans in the stands, since 2018.

In that game, the No. 12 Ducks fell flat against the No. 25 Cougars in a 34-20 loss that was very much affected by the home crowd.

While a handful of the Ducks’ current team leaders were on the team at that point, the only active Oregon players who saw the field that day are long-snapper Karsten Battles and offensive lineman Steven Jones. Those who were on the Oregon sideline that evening can still vividly recall how the crowd noise adversely affected the Oregon offense.

“I addressed that on Sunday — I said, ‘Look, this is something you’ve got to be prepared for. I know that they don’t have the biggest stadium but those fans are loud. They’re into the game and it’s going to be loud up there,'” Walk said. “You’ve got to get prepared for that mentally. Because we’re going to be stepping into a hostile environment and it’s something that we didn’t do a good job of in 2018.”

In addition to his leadership and his experience, Walk’s versatility will be key for Oregon on Saturday. He began the year as the Ducks’ starting left guard. But Jones, Oregon’s starting right guard, is also dealing with an injury and missed the BYU games last weekend, so Walk slid over to right guard and Marcus Harper II got the starting nod at left guard.

Jones was seen with a boot on his foot during pregame warmups, and he has not practiced this week.

It will likely be Harper II and Walk starting at guard once again, with Jackson Powers-Johnson also rotating in.

Oregon’s offensive linemen are a versatile bunch after of years of cross-training at multiple positions under Mario Cristobal and Alex Mirabal. Walk started at center for a handful of games last season while Alex Forsyth was out injured.

“I felt like I transitioned smoothly,” Walk said. “I’ve worked a lot on the left and right. The transition wasn’t anything too crazy for me and it felt pretty comfortable out there.”

Oregon is just one of 10 programs in the country that has not allowed a sack during the 2022 season. While the starting offensive line has been chopped and changed — and could continue to be altered in the coming weeks — the Ducks’ players and coaches are confident that the current group can continue playing at a high level.

“I think we’ve got eight or nine guys who we can win with,” Walk said. “That’s huge for us up front. Injuries are going to happen; it’s part of the game.”