Injury gave Oregon RB Da'Jaun Riggs a 'different perspective'

Injuries are just a part of college football. It happens. Every player will have to deal with some sort of an injury. It's just the nature of the sport. With medical advances today, nearly everyone physically rebounds from injury. It's often the mental aspect of coming back from injury that separates the players that ultimately return from those that just fade into obscurity. Oregon Ducks running back Da'Juan Riggs has physically recovered from his injuries from last season, but it's his attitude that will really let him shine moving forward. It wasn't an easy time of it though for the redshirt sophomore. "I think it was an attitude transformation also. You talk about a guy who had to grow, who did have some flashes his freshman year. It's always frustrating when you feel like you have a glimmer of hope, or you feel like you have something that you deserve or you've earned, and it doesn't come the way you expect it to come," Ducks running back coach Ra'Shaad Samples said. It seems as though Riggs has the mental game going for him as well as the physical game and that will only help the Ducks in the long run. “It bothered me a lot because I know how talented I was, and due to injuries, it had me sitting on the side," Riggs said. "It gave me a different perspective. I was like, ‘I just need to work,’ because any day this game could be taken away from me. So when I got injured, I'll just tell myself when I get back, I'm just gonna work as hard as I could.” Riggs was hampered with a serious groin injury that limited his mobility. It would be easy to understand if Riggs got frustrated and if it did, he would be the last guy on the roster to show it. "I think that bothered him early on in the season," Samples said. "But he's been such a positive person in that room. He's been such a positive light for those guys. All the guys love him. He's the personality of the room. 'Dink' is the guy who makes everybody laugh, makes everybody smile and makes everybody happy to be here. When he's that guy, he plays really good ball. I think he's growing as a person, and it's helping his habits. It's helping his mindset on and off the field, which is allowing him to be a better player." What made dealing with his injuries even that much more difficult was that he was so early in his career at Oregon and he was 3,000 miles away from his home in Washington D.C. “I want to say late freshman year, I started dealing with groin issues," Riggs said. "Turned to be something real bad, to where I couldn't run full speed, and then finally got back from that and hurt my foot. Hurt my foot in practice. I happened to be in a booth, and it took me out of the rest of the season.” Now with Riggs' mental aspect to football severely tested and seemingly passed with flying colors, he just has to focus on his game in between the sidelines as Riggs battles for a much bigger role here in 2026. “I’ve been more focused on the physical part of my game. I'm very good at making people miss, but I wanted to advance my game more and be more physical, which means blocking," he said. "Just instead of trying to juke a guy, if I can't just dip my shoulder and get just get the five, four yards that's there.” Oregon's offense doesn't need Riggs to be that explosion guy all the time. Sometimes just four or five yards here and there is plenty and Riggs seems to be the exact right guy for that job. Contact/Follow @Ducks_Wire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinions. This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Injury gave Oregon RB Da'Jaun Riggs a 'different perspective'