Spring Ball Takeaways: Ducks get back to work in wet Eugene weather
The Oregon Ducks returned to spring football practice after a two-week break on Tuesday morning in a wet and cold Eugene rain at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex. While the weather was drear, the energy was high for a team that got a taste of football once again back in March and has had a couple of weeks to get ready to attack success once again.
With a few new faces on the roster after the break — notably including Ole Miss safety transfer Tysheem Johnson — we got a good look at what this team will take into the spring game at the end of April as far as a roster standpoint.
As always, media members were allowed to watch in for the first 15-20 minutes of practice, which included stretching, special teams, and some individual work. Here are some of the biggest takeaways as we got back into it.
Emotional Leader?
One of the early things that stood out to me at practice was watching the team break from stretches and into special teams drills. It was running back Bucky Irving who was yelling at the squad and getting them fired up, breaking them into a quick set up jumping jacks and then out to their respective drills.
Starting his second year in the program, it appears that Irving is becoming one of the emotional leaders of this team. That isn’t something I’ve seen before, but I plan to ask Dan Lanning about it later today when we talk to him after practice.
Punt Return
Once again, we got special teams work to start the day after an opening stretching period. With Luke Dunne and Ross James rotating as the punter, we saw the following rotation as returners:
Troy Franklin
Tez Johnson
Kris Hutson
Cole Martin
Kick Return
Similarly, while the punt return drill was taking place, there were kick returners getting some work adjacent to them on the field. The kick return rotation went as follows:
Bucky Irving
Noah Whittington
Jordan James
Jayden Limar
Offense vs. Defense Tackling Drills
With the players in full pads for the first time today, we got to see some real thuds in offense vs. defense drills. On one side of the field, you had Bo Nix and Marcus Sanders rotating snaps, while Ty Thompson and Austin Novosad rotated on the other side. Here are how the matchups went:
Left Side
1st Rep Offense: Kris Hutson/Terrance Ferguson/Noah Whittington
1st Rep Defense: Dontae Manning/Keith Brown/JJ Greenfield
2nd Rep Offense: Traeshon Holden/Landen Shepard/Jordan James
2nd Rep Defense: Darren Barkins/Jeffrey Bassa/Bryan Addison
3rd Rep Offense: Tez Johnson/Kenyon Sadiq/Jayden Limar
3rd Rep Defense: Jahlil Florence/Elijah Williams/Cole Martin
4th Rep Offense: Traeshon Holden/Terrence Ferguson/Kilohana Haasenritter
4th Rep Defense: JJ Greenfield/Devon Jackson/Zach Grisham
Right Side
1st Rep Offense: Troy Franklin/Patrick Herbert/Bucky Irving
1st Rep Defense: Mase Funa/Tyler Turner/Matayo Uiagalelei
2nd Rep Offense: Kyler Kasper/Travis Brashear/Dante Dowdell
2nd Rep Defense: Steve Stephens/Evan Williams/Jamal Hill
3rd Rep Offense: Ashton Cozart/Peter Burke/Bucky Irving
3rd Rep Defense: Jestin Jacobs/Will Straton
New Players
There were six new players in the mix for the Oregon Ducks after the spring break period, and they all joined the team with new numbers on Tuesday. They went as follows:
#0 S Tysheem Johnson
#12 QB Matt Rush
#30 DB Solomon Davis
#31 S Kodi DeCambra
#47 LS Colson Brunner
#54 LB Jerry Mixon
New QB in the Mix
This goes along with the new players, but I thought it was interesting to see that the Ducks had a 5th QB in the group alongside Bo Nix, Ty Thompson, Austin Novosad, and Marcus Sanders.
No. 12 Matt Rush is now with the team in a red jersey, and he is a former Washington University player who joins Oregon as a walk-on. We will look to learn more about him going forward.
Notable Absences
There are still a few players who are dinged up at the moment and unable to play, while others go through limited work on the field. The players that we were unable to account for on Tuesday are as follows:
No. 87 WR Von Reames
No. 12 DB Daymon David
There were other players that we were able to see, but they did not go through drills. They are as follows:
No. 14 WR Justius Lowe (walking boot)
No. 83 WR Josh Delgado (scooter)
It should also be noted that both OL Junior Angilau and OL Ty Delgado were in full pads, but they went through limited work on the field.
