Sophomore Running Back Paul Lucas To Transfer

Two weeks ago, it all began with the strange news that kicker Garrett Owens was leaving the team to pursue the last year of his college career as a graduate transfer. On Monday, Oregon State’s football program was blindsided by the news that three-star running back recruit Isaiah Miller, had decided to flip his commitment from Oregon State to Missouri. On Tuesday, it was another wave of bad news, as sophomore running back Paul Lucas announced via Twitter that he will also be leaving the program in search of greener pastures elsewhere.

Lucas was coming off a 2016 campaign in which he was scarcely used out of the backfield, totaling just 33 carries for 113 yards on the season, with no touchdowns. He also tallied 5 catches on the season for a total of 76 yards, in his first full season since switching from wide receiver to a running back. Lucas was projected to remain behind starting running back Ryan Nall and rising star Artavis Pierce on the depth chart for the foreseeable future, as both Nall and Pierce are currently still underclassmen.

A three-star recruit coming out of Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix, Lucas originally chose the Beavers over offers from other Pac-12 schools in Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Utah and Washington. For a time during his high school recruiting, Lucas was verbally committed to Arizona State and the belief is that another Pac-12 school with a better depth chart situation is possibly the destination for the talented sophomore.