As the bowl season continues, the “Interviewing the Enemy” series returns. In an exchange of interviews, Noled Out editor Mike Ferguson and Dale Newton, editor of Bloguin’s Oregon site, The Duck Stops Here, discussed the New Year’s Day Rose Bowl match-up between defending national champion Florida State and second-ranked Oregon.
Newton is an avid and very astute fan of Oregon athletics. He’s been operating Duck Stops Here since 2010 and had some very in-depth answers regarding the Ducks’ upcoming match-up against the Seminoles:
Ferguson: The loss of Ifo Ekpre-Olomu could serve as a big loss for an Oregon team that ranks just 103rd in the country against the pass. Against a Florida State team quarterbacked by a former Heisman Trophy winner, how can the Ducks compensate for that loss?
Newton: It’d be more of a concern if that former Heisman Trophy winner hadn’t thrown 17 picks this season, including four versus unranked, 6-5 Florida and three against Louisville.
Even so, Ekpre-Olomu’s injury is a potential game-changer. He’s a Consensus All-American with 40 consecutive starts, the team’s 7th-leading tackler and a senior leader.
A projected first round draft pick before his injury, Ifo will be replaced in the lineup by redshirt freshman Chris Seisay, who played in 11 games this year with 20 tackles and three pass breakups, beaten in the fourth quarter of the UCLA game for two touchdown passes. He’s struggled some in one-on-one coverage and has been turned around in the end zone a handful of times.
Seisay is 6-1, 187, a 3-star recruit from American Canyon High School in American Canyon, California, Defensive Player of the Year as a senior, athletic enough to double as his team’s punter in high school while averaging 21.7 yards a catch as a wide receiver (28 catches for 608 yards). Senior Dior Mathis takes over at nickle back, while safety Erick Dargan, who leads the team with six interceptions, will play a bigger role in coverage, with Reggie Daniels and Tyree Robinson holding down the safety spots.
Secondary coach John Neal has been at Oregon for 12 years, and he’s faced this situation before. In 2009 he lost corners Walter Thurmond and Willie Glasper for the season by game five, and future Pro Bowl safety T.J. Ward was limited to eight games. In game six Talmadge Jackson turned in a pick six to ice the UCLA game. Redshirt freshman John Boyett took over at safety and led the team with 90 tackles. That team went to the Rose Bowl, relying on the “Next Man Up” philosophy that’s allowed the Ducks to compile a 59-6 record since 2010, the best in Division 1 college football.
Oregon’s passing yardage rank, by the way, is a little misleading. The Ducks outscored opponents 602-299 this year. They held comfortable leads in most of their games, forcing opponents to pass in the second half, often against second and third team defenders who got a lot of experience. The PAC-12 Conference featured eight quarterbacks with more than 3,000 yards passing this season–it’s a pass-first league. Over the last five weeks the Ducks have held opponents to 16, 27, 10, 19, and 13 points. Although they are built to outscore people, the defense is better than advertised, partly because opposing fans fixate on yardage numbers that don’t really matter.
Ferguson: Mark Helfrich is 23-3 as the head coach at Oregon, but isn’t really looked upon as a big time coach on the national level. Would beating the reigning national champions and snapping Florida State’s 29-game winning streak get Helfrich completely out of the shadow of Chip Kelly?
Newton: He’s already out of that shadow, and doesn’t care that there ever was one. Chip Kelly is fondly remembered for what he accomplished at Oregon and the way he changed the identity and mindset of Oregon football, but this is Helfrich’s team now, and whatever they accomplish in the playoffs is just gravy.
This was a year the Ducks lost leading returning receiver Bralon Addison in spring football to a torn ACL and a two-year starter at left tackle in Tyler Johnstone in fall camp. All-Conference center Hroniss Grasu missed the last three games. Three-year starter Jake Fisher was lost for three games earlier in September and October. All-league tight end Pharaoh Brown suffered a gruesome season-ending knee injury against Utah. And Ekpre-Olomu went down December 18th in bowl practice.
The Ducks had 11 freshmen play significant roles this year, and true freshman running back Royce Freeman led the team with 1,299 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns.
Helfrich showed the critics and skeptics a lot in his second year as head coach. The Ducks fell at home to Arizona in game five this year 31-24, and that point, it looked like Oregon’s national championship aspirations were in serious doubt. A beaten-up offensive line had given up 12 sacks in two games, and the Wildcats limited them to 144 yards on the ground.
A road game to UCLA came next. The Ducks got left tackle Fisher back, rushed for 258 yards and won 42-30, the first of eight straight victories.
Helfrich proved he could get the team’s attention and rally them from serious adversity. They sustained that level of effort throughout the season and overcame a devastating toll of injuries to win the conference and earn the #2 ranking in the first College Football Playoff, a home-region game in the Rose Bowl. 23-3 is one of the fastest starts by a coach in college football history, identical to what Kelly achieved in his first two seasons.
Ferguson: Royce Freeman, Erick Dargan and of course, Marcus Mariota are all fairly household names among college football fans, but who is an overlooked player for the Ducks that you feel could be make a major impact in the Rose Bowl?
Newton: The entire rest of the roster is overlooked. Seminole fans think the Ducks don’t belong on the field with the defending national champions, that West Coast football is vastly inferior to Southern football and the ‘Noles will dominate the line of scrimmage the way Auburn and LSU did four seasons ago.
The Ducks have upgraded since that go-round. In particular, the defensive line features a couple of power forwards in 6-8, 290 Arik Armstead and 6-7, 290 DeForest Buckner. Outside rushers Tony Washington, Torrodney Prevot and Christian French are quick and athletic. The Ducks have 34 sacks this season, to Florida State’s 17. Physically, they’re a match for FSU, even though many ‘Nole fans don’t consider that a possibility.
Ferguson: Which match-up or aspect of this first official College Football Semifinal do you feel Oregon has the biggest advantage over the Seminoles?
Newton:
PASSING STATISTICS
NAME CMP ATT YDS CMP% YDS/A TD INT RAT
Marcus Mariota 254 372 3783 68.3 10.17 38 2 186.3
Jameis Winston 276 422 3559 65.4 8.43 24 17 147.0
RUSHING STATISTICS
NAME CAR YDS AVG LONG TD
Marcus Mariota 117 669 5.7 61 14
Jameis Winston 49 80 1.6 28 3
Ferguson: What particular aspect of Florida State should Oregon be most concerned about on New Year’s Day?
Newton: The Seminoles are big, physical and athletic and loaded with talent. They’re 29-0 and the defending national champions. Oregon’s players fully respect every opponent and prepare the same way every week, a philosophy they call “a faceless opponent,” a legacy from Kelly. They won’t be concerned about anything, just prepared.
Oregon fans should be most concerned about the Good Jameis. As erratic as Winston has been in his sophomore season, he’s still capable of being an NFL-caliber passer with a pro arm and big game savvy. In his debut as a redshirt freshman against Pittsburgh, he was 25-for-27 passing for 356 yards and four touchdowns, with no picks. He ran for another score.
This year he threw three second half touchdowns to lead them back from a 21-point deficit against Louisville. In the win over Notre Dame on national TV on a Saturday night he was 15-for-16 in the final two quarters, for 181 yards.
The Good Jameis Winston is very good indeed. His Student Conduct Code hearing is behind him and the off-field distractions and infractions have settled into the background. For the four weeks leading up to the Rose Bowl he’ll be asked about the clash of Heisman quarterbacks and poked with leading questions comparing him to Mariota and what was a great season for the Oregon quarterback.
I’ll think we’ll see the Good Jameis in Pasadena. He’s a proud, confident athlete who loves a big stage, and his team will be primed to show that’s he’s the best quarterback in college football. I believe he’s burning to prove it, knowing that NFL scouts are weighing a very big and lucrative decision about which one of them should go first on April 30th.
Winston is likely to play the game of his life in this playoff game, and he has a redshirt freshman cornerback to pick on. Duck fans just have to hope he’ll make a couple of key mistakes and someone in that secondary can respond with a big game of their own, and that Mariota plays within himself, not letting the hype alter what he does so well.
Be sure to follow Dale Newton on Twitter @DSH_Newton and the Student Section at @TheStudentSect.
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