Football Practice Report: March 31

coming: Outdoor practice fields

Format: Full pads

Like everyone else who watched Georgia beat Alabama in the College Football Playoff Championship Game on January 10, members of Oregon’s defense were impressed with the way Georgia’s linebackers roamed from sideline to sideline, making tackles with ferocity.

Unlike most everyone else, though, those members of the Oregon defense came away not just impressed but also eager with anticipation — knowing that Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning was about to move full-time to Eugene and take over as the Ducks’ new head coach.

“Just seeing them boys run around, I was like, wow, we really got this coach,” UO linebacker Noah Sewell Thursday said.

Sewell and other members of Oregon’s defense met with media Thursday afternoon, shortly after the Ducks’ fourth spring practice of the year. After a season that saw the position group thinned by injuries, the Ducks’ inside linebacker room is now teeming with talent, including Sewell, justin flowe, Jackson LaDuke, Jeffrey Bassaconverted outside linebacker Adrian Jackson and two newcomers this week, Devon Jackson and Harrison Taggart.

The veterans — a term that now applies to Bassa after his move from safety early last season — are spending this spring learning the system of Lanning and his staff. The two inside linebacker position have new names: “Money” and “Mack.” But, players said, while they’re having to learn new terminology, other elements of what Lanning, new defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi and the rest of the staff are teaching feels familiar.

“Everyone’s out there flying around, having fun,” Bassa said. “Coach Lanning, he’s a young coach, so he can relate to us a little bit more. He’s flying around out there with us, and all the defensive coaches, they’re running with us too.”

LaDuke was one of the UO linebackers who lost significant time to injury in 2021, along with Flowe. LaDuke spent much of the early season recovering from a knee injury and finally made it back late in the fall, only to be held out of the Alamo Bowl due to COVID.

The illness was brief, LaDuke said. And it certainly didn’t keep him from watching the College Football Playoff, and anticipating the future at Oregon under Lanning.

“It’s really exciting knowing that it’s a guy that can, one, develop players,” LaDuke said. “He’s also a very good recruiter for bringing in new guys. So it’s really exciting to see how they succeeded, and what’s to come for us.”

Notable: When the Ducks returned to practice from a two-week break on Tuesday, Lanning said afterward he saw “some juice” from the Ducks but also suspected that “we could have had another level.” On Thursday, he told players afterward they had successfully raised the bar in their ensuing practice. … For the second straight practice, both the offense and defense could celebrate a win in the Ducks’ “clutch” drill to close practice. The drill required a field goal for the offense to win, but one of the offensive groups finished with style — a touchdown by tight end spencer webb. … Patients and their families from Portland’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital attended practice and met with coaches and players afterward.

quotable:

defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi
On what attracted him to the Oregon job after several years as an NFL assistant
“Plain and simple, for myself and my family to come back (it needed to be) a place I could compete consistently to win a national title, where we could consistently coach first-round draft picks, and a place where we could truly go into any (recruit’s) living room and express the fact that your life is going to be great — no matter how football works out — because of the alumni base, the connections here, the unbelievable resources here.”

On designing and installing the defense Oregon will run during the season
“It’s our job — and what I think makes a great coach — is assessing the personnel, not doing something because your past system did, your past technique, fundamentals. That’s what we’re in the process of doing right now, and it’s a blast. We’re finding out who we are and who we can be. … We’re going to be Oregon, and this is going to be our brand of football.”