Most of Oregon's media time this off-season's been spent discussing the replacement of Chip Kelly and their new facilities, but a majority of casual fans can't recite you the name of the Ducks' new head coach.
His name is Mark Helfrich, and for the first time since 1996, he'll be coaching on the sidelines during games, instead of the booth. Before Helfrich was the head man, he was the offensive coordinator, a job now held by former receiver coach, Scott Frost. Frost, a former national championship winning quarterback at Nebraska, is on the fast track to becoming a head coach himself one day. Replacing Frost as the receivers coach is Matt Lubick, a noted recruiter who recently coached at Duke.
Oregon's offensive staff has changed (after being the longest tenured unit together), but no matter who's coaching receivers, offensive linemen, tight ends, or 'backs, there's talent littered all over the roster. The team will produce.
It all starts with Marcus Mariota, the sophomore All-Pac 12 quarterback. When asked if he would take Marcus Mariota over Johnny Manziel, whom he both recruited, Helfrich replied, “We wouldn't trade Marcus for the world. Marcus is the backbone of our team.” In another interview, Helfrich expanded on Mariota's talents: “His physical attributes are special. He has a great release, plenty of arm strength, he’s deceptively fast and our guys love to play for him. Marcus is special because he has tremendous ability, but he also has a greater desire to be special.”
As far as the running backs are concerned, De'Anthony Thomas, one of the most electric players in the game, is listed as the first-string runner on the Ducks' new depth chart for the first time in his career. Second on the list is Byron Marshall, a sophomore, who will likely get a majority of the carries, with Thomas splitting time as a slot receiver, too. Presumably third is the true freshman blue-chipper Thomas Tyner. After losing Kenjon Barner to the NFL Draft, there's a lot of questions in the backfield, including how often they'll actually run the ball under Helfrich.
"I've said a bunch of times that you never wanna know the limit on carries your tailback can have, because that means they're hurt. We don't want to be balanced. We have a unique talent at quarterback, and we're certainly going to play to his strengths. But we're also going to do what we've done best. You want to be able to do what you want when you can."
The wide receiver corp has never been the highlight of the Ducks' offense, but they return three special talents for 2013. The first is Josh Huff, a senior with some issues in his past, but has improved greatly, pushing his way to the top of the senior receiver rankings for the 2014 class. Huff was a quarterback in high school, a hybrid running back/receiver (like De'Anthony Thomas) his freshman year, and then made the full transition to receiver his sophomore season. He's also been named one of the best blocking receivers in the game by many. Bralon Addison, the newest hybrid receiver, is coming into his second season with the Ducks and plans to make a bigger impact. Addison has the raw talent to be the best receiver that Oregon's seen in a decade.
Again, while De'Anthony Thomas more of a running back than receiver, Helfrich has hinted he might become more of an impact in the passing game in 2013. “He's another guy that is really becoming a polished player, whether it's protections or route running or aiming points, angles, footwork–all the things that can make him even better.”
The name in the tight end unit is Colt Lyerla, and for good reason; he's in the running to be the top tight end selected in the 2014 NFL Draft. His backup, Pharaoh Brown, had a lot of hype going in to 2013 before an injury slowed him down. Many believed the Ducks would run more 12 personnel sets and split Lyerla out due to the emergence of Brown, but that seems to not be the case any longer. At least not for the first half of the season, as Brown recovers from a lower body injury. It's expected that Lyerla plays more h-back snaps than wide-out snaps in 2013, which is the inverse of what NFL teams are doing with tight ends, but it's not new to see Lyerla in the backfield; he was a high school running back, and he got a couple red zone hand-offs in 2012.
While the offensive line corp did lose Kyle Long, a first round pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, he didn't play all that often in 2012, and the unit returns three key players. Tyler Johnstone (2012 Freshman All-American), Hroniss Grasu (2012 first-team Pac-12), and Jake Fisher (2012 Pac-12 honorable mention) lead the offensive line, only leaving questions unanswered for the guard spots. Unfortunately for draftniks, all three of them are underclassmen, unlikely to declare in 2014.
The starting guards, who were just named this week, are Mana Greig and Hamani Stevens, both seniors. Greig has played in 20 games the past two season and had a offense-leading 395-pound bench press. Stevens, the right guard, was second with a 390-pound bench. Stevens, an undersized guard at 5'11”, started twice at right guard in 2012 and has played in 14 games the past two seasons. Where there is a lack of experience in starting roles, there's experience in years for the Ducks' offensive line.
Oregon's offense has a chance to be the best in the history of the program, with some of the best skill players the program's seen in Mariota, Lyerla, and Thomas, but don't sleep on receiver Josh Huff, who will likely be featured more this year than ever, or the underclass offensive linemen, who'll be big names as the 2015 NFL Draft approaches.
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