There are several things we know about the Oregon Ducks football team right now:
-Marcus Mariota will be healthy (and probably a Heisman Hopeful) next season.
-The entire offensive line from last year is returning (including potential first rounder Hroniss Grasu) next season.
-The two main running backs from last year will be returning next season (each gained 6.2 yards per carry).
-The Ducks have at least one elite cornerback (Ifo Ekpre-Olomu) next season.
For the most part, as is the case with most of college football during the spring, everything else is a question mark. But with the return of Mariota, Grasu and Ekpre-Olomu, there will be big expectations for the boys from Eugene. But it will be tough to bounce back from a disappointing season where the Ducks did not even qualify for a BCS Bowl. We all know what the Ducks will have, but what will the Ducks need going into Coach Mark Helfrich’s second season.
The Ducks’ first task will be to replace wide receivers Josh Huff and Daryle Hawkins, who gained 39 percent of Oregon’s receiving yards and 47 percent of their receiving touchdowns last season. Coming out of the slot, Bralon Addison showed many spurts of greatness last year. Addison gained 890 yards and seven touchdowns.
Keanon Lowe will be in his third year on the team, and in the middle of last season, he showed the ability to be a solid starter. The Ducks will also likely use their talented running backs in the passing game, as they have over the past several years.
Helfrich would be wise to rely on a trio of tight ends in Pharaoh Brown, Evan Baylis, and John Mundt. Mundt, who will be a sophomore next year, had the most receiving yards of the bunch with 281, including a 57 yard reception against Tennessee. Not only is using more tight ends a recent fad in college football and the NFL, having more bigger bodies on the field is better for Marcus Mariota, who was visibly less nimble after his injury late in the year.
Speaking of Mariota, he absolutely has to stay healthy. Mariota, who decided to stay in school for another year, is the most valuable player on the Ducks offense. He threw the ball 386 times last year, no one else on the Oregon roster threw more than 13. While there is always a possibility of someone coming off the bench and playing well (a la Ohio State’s Kenny Guiton coming in for Braxton Miller), but you never want to take that chance. Mariota is not a big guy, and we have all seen that he is not injury prone. The linemen will have to make sure he stays upright, and he will have to avoid as many hits as he can.
The Oregon Ducks will also have a brand new defensive coordinator after Nick Aliotti retired. Anytime you have a new coach at a pivotal position, you should wait until the season starts to start making statements, but linebackers coach Don Pellum was promoted to defensive coordinator. In 2013, the Ducks led the Pac-12 in yards-per-play, ranked seventh in the nation.
While the Ducks will have Ekpre-Olomu, linebacker Derrick Malone and defensive end/outside linebacker Tony Washington returning to play, Oregon suffered against teams who could run the ball well last year. In their loss to Stanford, the Ducks gave up 157 yards to Tyler Gaffney. In their loss to Arizona, the Ducks gave up 206 yards and four touchdowns to Ka’Deem Carey. In both games, the Ducks could not get their defense off the field and the opponents’ starting running back carried the ball over 45 times. The Ducks take particular pride in their defense’s ability to stop the pass, but are not very good at stopping the run. And when their offense is not putting up big numbers, their opponents are more than happy to run the ball.
If the Ducks want to be in the first ever College Football Playoff Tournament, they will need to tighten up their defense and keep Mariota healthy. These are things they could not do late in the season last year and it cost them a spot in the Rose Bowl. If the Ducks can do that, there is no reason why they should not make the Playoffs.
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