Today is the first day of two-a-days, a big day for learning and resilience among Oregon’s new players, a ten hour football workday of practice, meetings and recovery.
Elsewhere in the Duck universe, De’Anthony Thomas of the Kansas City Chiefs and Josh Huff of the Philadelphia Eagles both made a splash in their NFL debuts. Thursday Thomas zoomed for an 80-yard punt return for a TD, and Friday Huff topped him with a 102-yard kickoff return for six points.
Success by Oregon players in the league further enhances the image of the school and helps in recruiting. It attracts kids with similar skills to the Ducks. The Thomas connection has been a draw for several DAT-like players, Tony James, Charles Nelson and Taj Griffin among them. The parade of great running backs and cornerbacks in Eugene has been a selling point also. Arrion Springs and Mattrell McGraw both pointed to the success John Neal has had, molding Jairus Byrd, T.J. Ward and Pat Chung into NFL stars. LaMichael James was a favorite player for a lot of young athletes.
The effect will be exponentially more powerful if Marcus Mariota has the kind of season he’s capable of this year. Mariota could sweep the Heisman Trophy and become the first player picked in the draft. He’s extremely likable, photogenic, and well-spoken, and an exceptional football player, a great threat running and throwing. With the talent and teamwork the Ducks have assembled around him, he could have an historically great season in 2014, perhaps college football’s biggest story.
Draft analyst Bucky Brooks of nfl.com says the Ducks have the third most NFL talent of any college team, just behind Florida State and Alabama.
It’s something to watch, something that could have a bigger impact than the Times Square billboard.
The team continues to gel marvelously. Royce Freeman stands out as a young player who can have immediate impact. Rob Moseley said yesterday that Freeman already looked like the best player on the field during competition day in full pads, a stunning development considering the talent and experience around him.
It sounds like the defensive line is going to be let loose to attack and stunt this year. That will make maximum advantage of the agility and athleticism of DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead and Alex Balducci. It’s great to hear that coaches Aiken and Pellum are planning to be more aggressive with the front seven, more physical.
There’s a lot of concern about the depth at certain position groups, but Oregon’s ramped-up practice pace allows those young players to get a lot of extra reps. In the practice report yesterday Kani Benoit, Tyrell Crosby, Justin Hollins and Henry Mondeaux all got singled out for making good plays.
Those young wide receivers will all get an ample chance to earn playing time and learn the system. Position coach Matt Lubick told Andrew Greif of the Oregonian, “We’re looking for the guy who has those four categories as the most consistent player,” said Lubick, who wants clean routes, effort, good hands and toughness for blocking. “Those are the guys who are going to be on the field.”
The Ducks should be able to get a reliable rotation of five to six receivers out of so much talent.
Around the conference and the nation, a lot has been made of the Ducks having a first-year defensive coordinator, but people forget that division rival Stanford lost a very good one in Derek Mason, whose scheme completely thwarted the Oregon offense the last two years (something fans don’t expect this season). Ted Miller of ESPN observed, “Much of the squeeze Stanford put on Oregon’s offense wasn’t terribly complicated. Mason emphasized containment, winning one-on-one battles, tackling in space and then convinced his defense they were the unstoppable force of nature, not the Ducks. ”
Oregon will be harder to contain this year with three powerful running backs, a healthy Mariota, a veteran offensive line, and some fast, tall, athletic receivers. One thing that gets lost in the frustration of those two losses is that Oregon’s defense did a great job of containing the Stanford offense also, holding them to 26 and 17 points. If the Ducks offense solves its Stanford problem, things should be much different in 2014.
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