Stanford running back Bryce Love out Saturday vs. UC-Davis

After leaving last week’s game against USC, Stanford running back Bryce Love will miss Saturday’s game against UC-Davis.

After a dismal showing in the season opener against San Diego State, Stanford running back Bryce Love got his Heisman candidacy back on track with 136 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries against USC last Saturday. But the left that game late in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury, and on Tuesday head coach David Shaw announced Love will miss Saturday’s game against UC-Davis.

Shaw suggested after the game against USC that Love could have played if needed, but the game was not in doubt late.

“With the game in hand, we weren’t going to put him back out there,”

Love ran for over 2,100 yards and 19 touchdowns last year, on his way to finishing second in the Heisman voting, and he was easily tabbed as the No. 1 favorite heading into this year.

In Love’s place, fellow senior Cameron Scarlett is in line to start and get a big workload against UC-Davis. He had eight touchdowns last year over 91 carries as Love’s backup, including three-touchdown outings against Rice and UCLA.

The Cardinal should have no trouble with the Aggies of UC-Davis out of the FCS. So if Love is dealing with any sort of physical issue, making sure he’s 100 percent for the next stretch of games against Oregon (Sept. 22), Notre Dame (Sept. 29), Utah (Oct. 6), Arizona State (Oct. 18), Washington State (Oct. 27) and Washington (Nov. 3) is the top priority. Four of those six games, in what looks to be the season-defining stretch for Stanford, are on the road too.

The nature and severity of Love’s injury have to be known before a one-game absence can be considered cause for concern. At this point, sitting out what should be a blowout win with or without him can be considered a worthy precaution.