In trying to take a look at stories to post on this site I was thinking what is our next foe looking like compared to our preparation to a very important first game. So I did a little research. here’s what I discovered. First with Auburn:
Auburn’s experienced defense is steps ahead of its re-tooled offense as the Tigers power through the third week of preseason camp. That much was evident to seemingly everyone on the field last Thursday for the team’s first fall scrimmage, which saw the defense force stops, create turnovers and run back a defensive score.
And that much shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to any onlookers, knowing defenses usually have a head start with their chance to play full speed and with confidence early in practices while players on offense are still fine-tuning and polishing their plays.
Malzahn isn’t taking it as any reason to panic. He was smiling after this weeks scrimmage, seeing positives coming with the negatives on both sides of the ball. If he was still an offensive coordinator instead of the head coach, he probably wouldn’t be smiling, he joked — but his job is to look over the big picture.
The big picture includes the fact that Auburn’s defense brings back plenty of firepower on the defensive line and in the secondary, and the offense is still searching for its starting quarterback among Joey Gatewood and Bo Nix.
Again, they are playing against a very high powered defense so there’s that.
At Oregon, I can give you the latest I found. Takeaway what you will.
The Oregon Ducks held their 12th practice of fall camp on Thursday morning. The Ducks were back in full pads after being in shells on Wednesday. It was the team’s fourth practice of the week. After scrimmaging on Saturday, they took Sunday off before practicing on Monday. They’ll practice Friday before Saturday’s scrimmage.
The Ducks opened practice with their usual warmups of stretching as a team and then after that broke off into position work. As has been the case all previous practices, the Ducks ran through practice without music. This allowed for better cohesion. On Wednesday we saw freshman wideout JR Waters leave practice in a right boot and on crutches. Waters was not present at Thursday’s practice. He posted on Twitter late Wednesday “thank you all for your prayers. You better believe I’ll be better than ever.”
Waters had been pushing for a rotation spot prior to the injury. He had run with the second-team offense on occasion this spring. He’s a three-star recruit out of Oxnard (Cali.)
Once again, tight end Jacob Breeland was at Thursday’s practice, but not in pads. He was off to the side watching. Running back Darrian Felix, who had been absent on Tuesday and Wednesday, was at Thursday’s practice but like Breeland, was not in pads or wearing a helmet.
Both players had been regulars in the two-deep. Breeland had been with the first string in every practice prior to injury, while Felix had been rotating with the second and third teams, with an occasional first-team showing.
OFFENSIVE “ORGANIZATIONAL CHART”
The Oregon first-team continued their flip-flopping at a few positions. Justin Herbert remained as the first-team quarterback and then Cyrus Habibi-Likio was back with the first-team offense at running back. Hunter Kampmoyer and Ryan Bay were at tight end to start, and then Kampmoyer came off the field and Jaylon Redd came in for the slot position. Juwan Johnson and Johnny Johnson were both starters at wide receiver. Oregon’s offensive line included Penei Sewell at left tackle, Shane Lemiuex at left guard, Jake Hanson at center, Calvin Throckmorton at right guard, and for today Brady Aiello bumped up from second team to first team and was at right tackle.
The second-team offense featured Tyler Shough at running back the Ducks were using freshman Sean Dollars. Tight end included Spencer Webb, and the wide receivers were Bryan Addison, Josh Delgado, and Mycah Pittman. The offensive line starting at left tackle and ending at right tackle was Steven Jones, Dallas Warmack, Ryan Walk, Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu.
The third-team offense was ran by freshman quarterback Cale Millen, and he was joined in the backfield by freshman running back Jayvaun Wilson. At tight end the Ducks had Patrick Herbert and at wide receiver the Ducks were using Jack Vecchi, Matt Mariota, and JJ Tucker. The offensive line starting at left tackle included Jonah Tauanu’u, Sam Poutasi, Dawson Jaramillo, Charlie Landgraf, and Chris Randazzo.
For the second consecutive day, the team did not run through a drill which indicated a defensive hierarchy.
FRESHMEN DL THRIVE IN OKLAHOMA DRILL
While much of the team’s Oklahoma drill period was obstructed by players and staff, we did see a handful of reps. We saw both Brandon Dorlus and Kristian Williams blow up reps. Williams rep was particularly impressive on his rep, moving Christopher Randazzo back to grab Jack Vechi at the line of scrimmage and wrestle him down.
Two offensive linemen also won reps while we watched. Dawson Jaramillo beat Andrew Faoliu on one rep and Ryan Walk and Keyon Ware-Hudson met at the line of scrimmage on a rep and appeared to have the upper hand, but Walk moved Ware-Hudson back enough to allow the back to break free.
Oregon’s running backs were spending a lot of the time during the practice open to the media working on drills that focused on pass protection. Running back coach Jim Mastro will not play players who can’t protect the quarterback, and that’s been a huge focus the last few days in practice. The Ducks work on pass-pro by using a huge medicine ball and the players doing an agility drill and then having to step into the ball and use proper technique to block it. The balls are very heavy, and this puts a huge emphasis on the running backs to use proper form with their hands and also the rest of their body if they want to do it correctly. Mastro had CJ Verdell do one of the drills two times in a row because it wasn’t to his standard.
FUNA CONTINUES TO IMPRESS
Freshman Mase Funa has been impressive through the first two weeks of camp. The one area that Funa could improve right now is his side-to-side agility. That might be some of the lingering ACL injury that cost him his senior season at Mater Dei.
MORE INJURY NOTES
We mentioned Waters, Breeland and Felix injuries previously, but a few others were also sidelined. Tight end Cam McCormick continues to be sidelined as does wide receiver Lance Wilhoite and offensive lineman George Moore.
Gary Baker had been in a red non-contact jersey in previous days, but was back and dressed fully on Thursday.
So now you are up to date on both camps my friends. Obviously the Ducks cross train more of the 1s and 2s at Oregon together than Auburn. I find this interesting as hell. Just practicing to deepness.
I’m out for another week. Back with a little more next week and when I say little I mean it won’t be a novel like this one.
