Spring Game - Who Will You Be Watching?

StevensTechU · Post by **StevensTechU** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 8:13 am

Two days out from the spring game, just curious who everyone is most excited to see. A bunch of names are popping into my head, but I'll try to limit myself to 3 people/groups.

1- The QBs (Dakota and Travis). Dakota feels like a bit of a known commodity to me in terms of having the talent for this level, but how effectively he runs the offense and how much he goes deep vs. short will be interesting. Everything about Travis will feel new.

2- The OL. Astonishingly, even more than the defense, I feel like the OL is going to determine how far the Ducks go in 2016. The offense is absolutely loaded at RB, WR, TE, and even QB (Dakota is likely a top 10 QB in the country once he's fully got his bearings). Unfortunately we won't see transfer Zac Morgan who could be the starter at RT in the fall, but it'll be fun to see how everyone else does.

3- The DBs. The are the biggest question mark, quickly followed by LB, but the DBs should really be feeling the most pressure. Because of the lack of experience at the other two position groups, the DBs need to go from bad in 2015 to great in 2016 for the defense to perform well as a whole. Arrion needs to play like an all-conference performer, Lovette needs to lock things down on the opposite side, and at least one of the safeties (Tyree, Juwaan, Reggie) needs to be a playmaker like we've seen out of previous Oregon safeties.

duckfan22 · Post by **duckfan22** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 9:01 am

1) For me I think the QB job will take care of its self. I think we will be fine now that
Frost isn't in charge. And on offense it will be pretty vanilla.
2) I will be watching D. Mitchell as his name seems to pop up every days
practice report.
3)But i will be watching the defense the most. Not one player in particular but the
team as a group. Want to see how aggressive they are and how they run to the ball.
Do they tackle in the open field. What do they do when its third and long. Do they make
the qb make mistakes.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:09 am

Mostly I'm a little excited just to be able to watch this years team in a couple of days, but without a doubt it's Prokup and Jonsen, then Mitchell. Other areas of interest for me is our center, do we have someone who can snap the ball this year. also I'm wondering if their going to let Pharaoh play, I wonder how he really moves at this point of his recovery....... Is Mundt going to step it up a notch this year?

GrantDuck · Post by **GrantDuck** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:45 am

I think the OL will be very good by the end of the season. Nebraska game could be a rough one for them, but will be a great learning experience on the road with a hostile and loud crowd early.

For what I'm watching:

-All 3 QB's. Probably pretty obvious.

-Linebackers. Do we have any?

-Interior D-line. IN 4-3, these cats have to step up. Maloata, Kaumatule, Manu, etc.

-Safeties; Charles Nelson was our best safety last year...he's on offense only now. Step up fellas!

StevensTechU · Post by **StevensTechU** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:51 am

GrantDuck wrote:I think the OL will be very good by the end of the season. Nebraska game could be a rough one for them, but will be a great learning experience on the road with a hostile and loud crowd early.

Nebraska's defensive line might be the weakest part of their team this year. Their whole rotation is underclassmen after they lost a ton to graduation, transfers, and retirement. There's going to be a heavy dose of Royce in that game.

GrantDuck · Post by **GrantDuck** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 10:55 am

StevensTechU wrote:
GrantDuck wrote:I think the OL will be very good by the end of the season. Nebraska game could be a rough one for them, but will be a great learning experience on the road with a hostile and loud crowd early.
Nebraska's defensive line might be the weakest part of their team this year. Their whole rotation is underclassmen after they lost a ton to graduation, transfers, and retirement. There's going to be a heavy dose of Royce in that game.

Good to know.

I also left out Dillon Mitchell, want to see if the hype is real!

OregonFan4Life · Post by **OregonFan4Life** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:29 am

I'm mostly excited to watch Pharaoh Brown play again, it'll be fun watching him back on the field. From what I've heard is he's back full strength and almost as good as he used to be, and he was such a great weapon. Beyond that, just excited to see a quality QB dual. It'll be nice knowing that no matter who wins, we'll have good backups in place. I'm also excited to see how the defense plays under new leadership, obviously it'll take Hoke a year or two to get his defense implemented, but it'll be fun to watch a new scheme and style of defense.

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pezsez1 · Post by **pezsez1** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 11:31 am

I'm most excited to see the QBs. For as bad as our defense was last year, our backup QB position was unquestionably our weakest link.

Going into this season, I'm just as interested in who will be our backup as I am in who will be our starter.

I'm not worried about our DBs. They made huge strides down the course of last season, enough to show they've got what it takes to be a strong unit. I'm more curious just to see the overall look of the defense. I want to see how aggressive our DL looks and whether the linebackers can make strong tackles.

Really, though, I don't expect to get any meaningful read on Hoke's defense until the actual games start, so mainly I'm just interested in seeing the QBs.

lmduck · Post by **lmduck** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 1:02 pm

StevensTechU wrote:
GrantDuck wrote:I think the OL will be very good by the end of the season. Nebraska game could be a rough one for them, but will be a great learning experience on the road with a hostile and loud crowd early.
Nebraska's defensive line might be the weakest part of their team this year. Their whole rotation is underclassmen after they lost a ton to graduation, transfers, and retirement. There's going to be a heavy dose of Royce in that game.

Let's hope Steven's.

I am confident/hopeful that Lubick is a much better 'in game' play caller/ manager than Frost was.

Kimber45 · Post by **Kimber45** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:26 pm

On Saturday I'll be looking for effort, execution and tackling. Also praying for no injuries.

On DRV re-watch I'm mostly interested in Mike backers, interior D line, back up RB, and safety play. Also, new faces. Love seeing freshman, redshirt players, and guys that changed position getting new reps: Carlberg, Baker, Lovette, etc.

GrandpaDuck · Post by **GrandpaDuck** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:43 pm

I'll be watching how much 4-3 they'll actually play against a zone read offense like Oregon's and how they'll play the read. Scrape, Spy, hold or crash the end? Defending the Zone Read and Spread has been the Achilles Heal of the 4-3 in the PAC-12. One of the major factors in the majority of teams in the conference dumping it. The only other team since the ZR era in the conference to go from of an odd front to a 4-3 was Cal and they gave up 477 yards rushing to Oregon last year, without Oregon having a good running quarterback.

I assume Hoke conveyed a convincing plan to Helfrich to deal with the spread teams or he wouldn't have hired him. Right? I'm looking forward to get a peek at what that plan is.

OregonFan4Life · Post by **OregonFan4Life** » Thu Apr 28, 2016 5:15 pm

Something I forgot to mention in my first post, I'm excited to watch Tony Brooks-James. He looked great last year but injuries hindered him. Obvious Royce will be #1, and no reason to believe Benoit won't be #2, but I'm excited to see how much Brooks-James contributes. Seemed like every time he touched the ball last year he was going for 15+ yards.

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lawduck · Post by **lawduck** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 12:08 am

StevensTechU wrote:The OL. Astonishingly, even more than the defense, I feel like the OL is going to determine how far the Ducks go in 2016.

Couldn't agree more. OL play will determine how far they go. I'm confident the defense will take care of itself. Dakota will probably be the least nimble QB we've had in four years and there are so many questions on the OL.

thomas time · Post by **thomas time** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 3:34 am

Dillon Mitchell and Dakota for me, then the secondary as a group to see how much they have improved till this point.