EUGENE, Ore. – After a short week to accommodate a Friday game last week, the 12^th-ranked Oregon football team is back on schedule before playing at No. 25 Washington on Saturday (12:30 p.m., ABC).

The Ducks (5-1, 3-0 Pac-12) were back to work with a walk-through Sunday, less than 48 hours after their 45-3 victory Friday over Colorado. The team will return to the practice field Tuesday and resume preparations for Saturday's game in Seattle.

In between, UO coach Mario Cristobal met Monday morning with local media and offered personnel updates and a look ahead to the rivalry game. What we learned …

1. For the second week in a row, the Ducks have lost a senior starter to a season-ending injury.

A week after Gus Cumberlander was hurt against California, tight end Jacob Breeland was unable to return from a first-half leg injury suffered Friday against the Buffaloes. The injury will sideline Breeland for the remainder of the season, Cristobal said Monday.

A senior from Mission Viejo, Calif., Breeland leads all tight ends at the FBS level with six touchdowns, including Oregon's first touchdown Friday, prior to the injury. He was generating significant NFL draft buzz, and has on tape for evaluators a career body of work at Oregon that includes 74 receptions for 1,225 yards and 13 touchdowns.

"He's a really good player," Cristobal said. "Nowadays these injuries are very fixable. He'll come back and he'll train and we think he's going to play a long time. …

"Jake's not a pity party guy. He's ready to attack the whole process of getting healthy so he can play again."

2. Replacing Breeland in the lineup will be a mix of veteran Ducks and up-and-coming young talent.

Junior Hunter Kampmoyer got the call Friday night after Breeland went down. Originally recruited as a defensive end, Kampmoyer has two career receptions for 25 yards, including his first career touchdown earlier this season, a 21-yard reception against Nevada. Ryan Bay also caught a touchdown against Nevada, among the senior's 14 career receptions for 129 yards.

"Those guys, they've logged a lot of football," Cristobal said. "They understand our system really well, so we have complete confidence in them."

In response to Breeland's injury, redshirt freshman Spencer Webb will move back to tight end, Cristobal said. Recruited to play that position, Webb began working with the receivers late in preseason camp after a series of injuries to that position group. He caught a touchdown pass in the season opener against Auburn.

True freshman Patrick Herbert also practiced at receiver briefly due to the injuries there, but lately he's found a home back at tight end and has been flexing between the travel squad and scout team. Cristobal said his development will be accelerated in case Herbert is needed for a bigger role this season.

3. The Ducks can only hope the depth at tight end steps up as well as the guys pressed into action defensively Friday night.

Starting nickel Jevon Holland and inside linebacker Troy Dye collided on a tackle in the third quarter against Colorado and didn't return to the game. Haki Woods Jr. replaced Holland and made a tackle on the very next play, and later he tipped a pass that was intercepted in the end zone by Verone McKinley III. In the fourth quarter, Colorado went for it on fourth down in the red zone but Woods tackled the receiver behind the line of scrimmage.

At linebacker, Sampson Niu helped spell Dye the rest of the night, and he finished the game with a team-high nine tackles. MJ Cunningham also played WILL linebacker and finished with four tackles plus two quarterback hurries.

"The mother of all learning and teaching (is) repetition," Cristobal said Monday. "… If you just got here as a walk-on, and you're running with the fourth team, you're going to get the same amount of reps as the first team (in practice). It's structured that way because you don't know; somewhere along the line over the course of the season, someone when you least expect it is going to have to play a significant role. Those processes, they pay off in moments and situations like this."

4. Preparation also paid off Friday for the player who replaced Cumberlander in the lineup, freshman edge defender Kayvon Thibodeaux.

The No. 1 athlete in the recruiting class of 2019 by some rankings, Thibodeaux took over Cumberlander's spot as a starter in Oregon's pass-rush packages. He was credited with just one tackle, but his pressure helped collapse the pocket on a sack by La'Mar Winston Jr.

When Thibodeaux arrived on campus, he seemed a perfect fit for the "STUD" outside linebacker spot in first-year defensive coordinator Andy Avalos' system. Thibodeaux did start playing STUD in preseason camp, but he spent spring practice as a defensive end, a decision that looks prescient in the wake of Cumberlander's injury.

The reps in the spring provided a baseline of knowledge that Thibodeaux is employing now. And the addition of STUD responsibilities gave the freshman a wider understanding of the defense as a whole.

"All those reps that he had certainly played a major role," Cristobal said. "… This allows him to think fast, react quickly, and it's paying off."

5. The return of injured receivers Brenden Schooler, Juwan Johnson and Mycah Pittman in October, followed by the injury to Breeland, prompted a question to Cristobal on Monday about the possibility of employing four-receiver sets that eschew a tight end.

"It's not really our personality to do that," Cristobal said, adding that major schematic changes typically have to be installed in spring practice rather than midseason.

The Ducks did run a handful of plays against Colorado with an empty backfield, and also a few with running backs Darrian Felix and CJ Verdell on the field together. So they haven't been averse to experimenting with personnel groups. That said, their identity is running the football with power, and Cristobal said adding another receiver regularly could hinder the run game.