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Podcast: Autzen Audibles: DuckTerritory's Oregon athletics podcast Episode: Auzen Audibles Podast: Where Oregon’s offense stands after spring football Transcript: Welcome into the Asuna Audibles podcast. I'm at Frame, Eric Scopel, John Evans on the show. We were off a little bit here and there as spring football ended and we recapped everything from the game. And now it's kind of diving into getting you up to speed on kind of what we can make from all of spring football, all of the reviewing of the spring game and how the program is kind of projecting out going into the off season. And believe it or not, fall camp starts in about two months and one week, two months and two weeks. We're really close to hitting that excitement period where the build up here. So we're going to dive into some 2D projections. And today we're starting with the offensive side of the football. Later this week we'll do our 2D projection for the defense. Eric, you built this projection for the defense so we'll have you kind of lead the charge with your explanations of it. John and I will give our thoughts just kind of after that and also some opposing themes for the position groups. But let's start at quarterback where there really isn't any mystery at number one. It's more so what happens. What's the pecking order behind Sante Moore? Yeah, I mean, we'll talk. Let's do a little Dante talk and kind of things we want to see after we tackle this. But I'm curious to see what fans in the comments say about the Brock Thomas Dylan Riola component here. And I would never suggest I think Brock is going to be a long term starter or like a full time starter in 2027. I do think it's reasonable coming out of the spring game to suggest that these guys are on like relatively even footing going into fall to be the number two. And like I wouldn't be one, you know, I guess it wouldn't be completely surprising to me. Maybe you guys just agree that if like, let's say they actually handle Boise State better than they did a couple of years ago and that game came down to the fourth quarter of the final quarter. And the final couple minutes. And there's an opportunity for a number two quarterback to get in the game. I think that's pretty plausible with the way Boise State in order to get kind of the trajectories of where they're at right now. Maybe we'll let it look silly. Let's just say hypothetically that happens. Would it be totally shocking to see Brock Thomas enter the field first and mop up duty over Dylan Riola? My answer is kind of no. I don't know. Like just off the cuff there, Matt, John. What do you think? Does that sound crazy to you guys? To me, that's what I'm expecting. And you've seen them like do their like kind of rotate the back of quarterbacks and stuff like that, especially early in the season. And if they're trying to maintain a red shirt for Riola where they only play him four games anyways, like throughout the entire season as a backup, I would not be surprised to see Thomas early on. Especially like you look good in the spring game. He's going to be comfortable in the offense more than, you know, maybe more than right. Although, you know, I think right all of it will settle in and stuff like that. I think we've seen him rotate those backup quarterbacks and especially with the red shirt thing, I think Thomas could definitely get in there for sure. I fully anticipate like if week one against Boise State, this game gets out of hand, a backup quarterback can get into the game for a majority of the fourth quarter. Is that likely? I don't know. But if that's the situation, I feel like we'll see Brock Thomas come in third. Dylan, Ryola will be the first quarterback in most of the third of most of the fourth quarter or more is available where they know. Hey, Ryola's going to get two or three series. He's going to get two or three drives. Let's let him really get his feet wet. But if it's a game like USC or if it's a game like Nebraska, maybe that's not the best one because of the tie there, but like Illinois on the road for. I don't think Ohio State would be that way, but maybe a Michigan where you got to look at it and say this is probably going to be a close game. And then as the game plays out, all of a sudden it gets away from the opponent and Oregon goes, Oh, we've already played Dylan, Ryola two times. We've still got two or three more games. We feel really confident it's going to be a blowout. Let's save him for this game and let's throw in Brock Thomas or an Achilles Smith just because there's only one or two possessions in that situation. That's where I feel like we'll see Brock Thomas come in over Dylan, Ryola. But if it's early in the year. Or if it's a late game against like a Michigan State or Northwestern or what have you and. Oregon gets up big. I fully expect Ryola to be the first quarterback. It's going to be interchanging all year and I wouldn't read too much into pecking order throughout the season. And I guess with Riola and the red shirt, I wonder. I wonder how much that factors into the thinking at all in part because you know the NCAA is looking at expanding it to five years. And this would be year three. How likely is it Dylan's even going to be around? For the you know, I mean like how valuable it does a red shirt year or even this year really matter in terms of his eligibility clock. I think that's that's interesting for me as well. But I'm kind of on board of like it feels like these two guys are interchangeable from the perspective of like what they can achieve on the field in a backup role. And I think pretty clearly if Dante Moore is not in the picture for whatever reason, Dylan Ryola is the quarterback that starts games or finishes games if something happens like we looked at Wisconsin in 2025. Brock Thomas comes in. I think of Dylan Ryla's on the roster. That's the natural in a game that was two scores and like in the third quarter. I think it's a natural progression to go like, Oh, there's Dylan will be handling those roles. But I don't know. Brock I think it's overlooked a little bit. I wrote about in the 2D projection where I guess just to discuss that component of this. I have them both listed here behind Dante. You know, I've got Dante and then Dylan or Brock. I think Brock is while I think we all acknowledge and coming out of the spring game, probably the best throw of the day. Maybe is the touch that Dylan showed on that hitch route to Stewart for the long touchdown or at least that was the way I came out feeling. But like Brock said nothing wrong when he's gotten into football games to say he can't be somebody in this role. And I think to me, it really comes down to like if we're just to like the actual competition of this and not including some of the redshirt rules and I want to say some of the politics of it. Dylan clearly has a higher ceiling. And I think the longer this competition plays out, those moments of kind of elevating the offense will show up more and more. And that's why Dylan ultimately probably will be the guy. By the end of the year, you feel it's pretty clear cut number two. And then I imagine going into 27, this is his job. But there's probably also something like beneficial for him to actually have to go out and compete for this role and not just be given something. Right. And Brock is, as we talked about, year three in the offense, pretty competent, comfortable running things. A nice piece to challenge him at the very least. I think to compete that you're definitely, I think just like you're saying, just some of the challenge you have motivated him a little bit. But I think that like your point where if it's like a lot of opportunity in a fourth quarter where they really feel like they can kind of get, you know, get rival with some reps and stuff like that, I think that's the spot for him. Whereas it's like if it's like you were saying, if it's a one driver or something like that, they can get Thomas in there. Like I'm just thinking back to when it was it was daunting. And Austin noticed that behind Dylan Gabriel a couple years ago. I feel like I'm going to go play out pretty similar with that. We're both those guys played a little bit. I feel like Dante played more when they wanted to get like actual reps. But I think Thomas will get in there similarly to notice that did. It's really anything else that quarterback you guys want to talk about. I mean, a Keeley, we hear about the arm talent. I don't think he factors into this really in 2026. He feels like maybe if he makes a big step, he can be in that competition with Dylan. Maybe he maybe it ends up being that Dylan versus a Keeley ultimately just because of the upside. But there's still some work to do. I think coming out of the spring guy, I think he believed he completed less than 50% of his passes. And we saw the big arm on the touchdown pass or not the touchdown. A long pass down field of the Corian. But there were some moments in between that were a little bit up and down probably. Yeah, I don't think there's much up to debate right now beyond these two. Everything's kind of locked in hierarchy wise. You hope to see better development, more development from a Keeley between now and the spring game next year because we're probably not going to see a ton of him. I was just going to ask, do we think we see because he didn't play at all in 25. Do we think we see a Keeley take a snap in 26? Maybe. Yeah, I think it's pretty the best. I think. Especially when you got two backups in front of him like Portland State's going to be the game where the baby happens. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. But all right, let's move to running back a position group where they lost a lot of talent. They also bring back a lot of talent. It's going to be a younger room. There's certainly experience here, but from an age perspective, it's a really young group and that feels like year one of the day and landing era has finally cycled through the program. I should say finally as if it was a bad thing, but it's just not normal to see this many years of the kind of one or two of the core guys make it all the way through. No winning since graduation from the University of Oregon and his departure onto an NFL roster for. For an UDFA, opens the door for a new era. And it's going to be interesting to just see how impactful maybe for me, the presence of Noah, winning to no longer being there, how has that felt? Because he was such a big culture guy, big practice guy, a guy that really set the tone, heart and soul of that room. He's now, for the last couple of years, he's now gone and how does that transpire without him? Younger group, for sure. Yeah, it's a position group that I'm extremely excited about, and I think Oregon fans should be, in part because, you know, and I don't know if this is like totally fair, but I, that Penn State backfield with Nick Singleton and K-Tron Allen, where they were like basically the primary running backs for four straight years on some really good Penn State teams. I know it ended really sour in this last year. Boy, did that spiral the wrong way, but I kind of look at Jordan Davis and D.R. Hill Jr. as maybe calling similar career paths were the primary runners for three or four years on really, really good Oregon teams. And I think what we saw in 2025 was really just the tip of the iceberg. I think there's so much there for both of these guys. And, you know, I know Jordan, I think was probably kind of limited in terms of combat from injury this spring, you know, as we recall, had the shoulder issue that kept him out of the peach pole. But man, those two guys, I think, are going to really do some special things during their time here. And, you know, to your point, I'm not about the NOAA Whittington absence. Like, these are now the veterans on this team, essentially, right? I mean, Dink Riggs is here. He's a year older than those two guys. Haven't really seen anything since his true freshman season in that Washington game that suggests he's really ready to go. Timmy and Price comes over from Colorado. He kind of feels that maybe some of that veteran stuff in the back end, because I think he's a 60 running back. But like, I don't know how much he factors onto the fields. And so like, that's where you get into this interesting kind of dynamic where we've got Jordan and D. Air and we can talk individually about some of the things we want to see from them. But like, clearly, they're the one and two. I don't really know what happens after. And that's why on my two deep, I just have those two listed. And then it's just kind of like, we'll see what happens. And Oregon does usually utilize three to four backs. So, I don't know, the room's in kind of an interesting spot where you feel awesome about the two players at the top. And these are going to be the guys who probably play 80 plus percent of the snaps. So it's not like there's really that much concern. But I don't have coming out of the spring game, where I don't think anybody average more than like four yards per carry, five yards per carry. I don't have a real sense necessarily of who that number three is going to be. It's a young room, but just having Davis and Hillback makes it feel like there's a lot of continuity there. Like, even though, you know, they're their sophomores, it feels like collectively they can kind of like make one veteran Noah Whittington type leader within the room. And I think those guys are, they've, some of the limited time we've talked to them, they seem like very mature. You know, young men who can kind of like figure things out and leave that room. But I think because you have a set like one to at the top of that running that room, it kind of, it kind of, you don't need that depth as much because you, you can just rely on one to, that's like your starters, you can give almost all your carries to them. And then can kind of just like plug those semi and price guys, you know, dink rigs and some of the freshmen into roles where you need them. But it feels like there's, that's really, really stable just because you have those two coming back. And like you're saying, they're going to be here next year as well, potentially even the year after that, they, you know, Davis in already with like 16 touchdowns last year, this, this, you know, he's going to continue to rack those up as, you know, up on the career leaderboards and stuff like that. So. Yeah, I'll be curious to see where the, where the growth, where's the focus of improvement for the two guys up top Jordan Davidson, Deerhill, where do we see the improvements? And can they all weight themselves from talented freshmen to becoming maybe like one of them being a top 10 running back in college football next season? Is that, is that expected? Is that are they already there? And we feel like that's, that's the level or can they both get there? I don't know that answer. I think the growth is them playing less like specialized roles. It's like, it's, you know, Deerhill doing a little more path protection stuff. Davis in doing a little more pass catching. It's like a expansion where they can be like, you interchangeable every down backs almost. Yeah. And I think if you look at PFF, they already had these guys in that kind of range, as top 10 runners nationally this past season, I think the ceiling is there to take that next step. And, you know, especially with some of the, I mean, this was a pretty strong running back draft, I thought coming out and there were some pretty talented players that left. I'll be curious to see what kind of, what the competition look like. We're just doing like a top 10 running backs list. I haven't done the exercise. I'm not sure I could probably scour the internet right now and find some lists. But I think they're in that conversation absolutely. And to John's point, I think the thing that's exciting and that kind of minimizes some of the concerns or questions about that number of three back is, these two guys can kind of do it all. Like, right? Like neither of them right now are maybe perfect, well rounded all around backs because they both have some gaps. But the other one kind of, they're so well complimented, right? Like, deer, deer's straight line speed and ability to be a factor as a pass catcher kind of offsets some of the issues that Jordan has, right? And then you look at Jordan and maybe his, you know, between the tackle running and his pass blocking kind of offset some of the concerns we have with deer. And so together they kind of create, right, that all purpose they can play all three downs and be productive. So what I think the gap for that third role, I guess I'm curious, almost what they're looking for aside from just somebody to kind of fill in here and there and like kind of just to talk it out. Like, who do we think ultimately gets there, you know, amongst that group? And I think it's hard coming out of a spring game where again, you know, really weren't a lot of guys that popped. And then if you just say, what other data points exist, like we're looking at high school film, we're looking at Colorado film for price where he missed half the year, we're looking at, you know, whatever limited snaps rigs is played. There's just not a whole lot of information to go off of for these four other guys. And frankly, like I'd probably lean price and maybe one of these true freshmen is emerging not to totally overlook rigs. But at this point, it's kind of, it feels to me like, maybe that's just not a guy who ends up making it work at this level. I'd be surprised if like a third got really factors in in terms of like touches. Like, I think price could play a role, but it'd be more of like a blocker or extra running back kind of stuff like that instead of like actually being either trying to like, you know, feed touches to like like the era or Jordan Davis and whereas like the third running back last year. Yeah, I was going to say, what are the likelihoods that we see like the month of September last season, it felt like Oregon was giving five running backs between five to 10 carries a game. And do we see that translate over again where they're so hyper focused on making sure every one's getting grabs, everyone's staying healthy, they're not going to get dinged up or do they kind of lead into the top two a little bit more to non-point and maybe the third guy just gets the scraps or and on top of that, like what do they do if Chuderian ball and Brandon Smith are clearly ready to play? But there's minimal snaps available because they're high on both those guys. And it sounds like Chuderian ball has position versatility. It sounds like Brandon Smith showed up and was, or saw samples was like, yeah, this guy's going to help us. Like we just need to get him up to speed. He's going to, he's going to be able to help us. What if they're both good enough, just, I mean, you have a scenario like last year where they've got four guys that are all playing. Do they try and play them all or do they sit one of them down and just say, unfortunately, we're going to redshirt you just so that you don't have what happened last year, we're at the end of the year in the playoffs. We only have like two guys that were healthy and didn't bounce because they were all kind of frustrated with their opportunity or their role. Yeah, isn't that annoying that that has to factor into this? And I was just looking back through the four years Dan had been here previously and really up until last season there had been a really big goal from one and two to the rest. Like two guys who had over 100 carries and then the next guys in the 20s or 30 kind of range. And I think that makes sense for this group. And to your point Matt, like, yeah, I don't know what they do because we've heard good things about Smith. I thought Chardarion Ball had like, again, nobody had a great spring game. But I think he had the longest run of eight yards and had a couple of sequence there where he had like three carries that amounted to 20 yards, which felt significant in the context of what else took place in that day. And so yeah, I don't know what do they do. And Ball is a guy who could in theory be more valuable as a receiver, right? Like that's something we've talked about with him in terms of how we was used as a high school player. So no, it's a really interesting room to talk out because I think ultimately everybody already understands who the top two guys are. Like there's no questions about that. Does it matter what happens after them? Emmett becomes a point, a question. And then to Matt's point, unfortunately, like if you don't take care of these guys, do you get to a spot again in January where the portal issue pops up and something happens and then suddenly the run game is completely disjointed again. I hate that that has to be in the calculus. But the way you look at the way I look at this, like I kind of lean towards, yeah, maybe this is a year where it's those two guys over 100 carries and then price or rigs or somebody else has like 25 and you're like, that's fine. Those guys are going to play a little bit in garbage time. But during the main quarters of games, they're just not involved. Yeah, they had close to three guys with 100 touches last year and close to five guys with 50 touches last year that running back room. So I think I think it falls back to where it had been. With Dan's running back, it was waiting in the buggy Irving and then it was in the game. I felt like there was a one-two and I think it would go back to that next year, especially if you feel like it's really defined there at the top of those two sophomores. Let's move over to receiver. A unit that's loaded with talent. There's plenty of question marks. There's some wondering of how does this all fit from a pieces perspective and is it just your best three or do you think position-wise? There's a lot of intrigue here, a lot of confidence here. I don't think there's any worry but there's definitely like this one we interesting to see how it plays out going into fall camp. Deepest position on the offense, right? For bucket. Right? Feels like especially the top. I mean there's three guys that we know based upon the last two seasons can be really productive players this level and then there's Ibers on hooks who had almost a thousand yards last year. There's Jaylin Lott, Gatlin Bear, Masai Hampton, who are freshmen, two of which are five stars. They had a really I thought some nice moments in the spring game. So yeah I mean there's there's like legitimately six or seven guys and we know how this goes. We talk about all of them right around now and then we get to the season and all like three or four of them mattered all and then we kind of rinse you know rinse repeat. So I I'm still just like kind of operating and this is what my 2D looks like with I've just got the three guys who've been outside receivers to Corey and Jeremiah and Evan Stewart at the top. Like I've just got them on the one line and we can discuss and debate like who's the best fit in the slot, who's best used as that Z kind of deep route receiver and maybe the X receiver who's kind of the possession guy. We can talk all that out if we want but like I I I feel like that makes the most sense here and it feels like the way Ross Douglas answered a question during the spring that I asked about kind of how they were gonna you know settle all this. We mentioned that its position as football in his room. That's sort of indicated to me that that's sort of their line of thinking right now as well. That they're just gonna figure out these guys will fit together. Somebody's gonna have to play quote unquote out of position but to them it really doesn't matter you just want to get your best three guys in the field and so it feels to me those are the best three guys. I wish we'd seen Jeremiah McClellan play in the spring not because that necessarily was gonna matter for this discussion but just because I really like watching him play receiver which is why I think he's one of the three best guys because he makes some incredible catches and a year ago to me was probably the biggest rise run offense in terms of where I thought he was at midseason to where he ended up being at the end of the season him and Jamari Johnson I guess would be in that conversation but it really feels like they've got three dudes here and now it's a matter of kind of figuring out their fits. Either of you guys have like a sense of where you think everybody fits or do you guys kind of agree maybe that's sort of a debate that we'll see take place in the fall and that's just kind of where it's at. I would lean towards Stuart being in the slot I mean that's what you had I think that's where he got the most reps out of those guys I mean well Jay Mac didn't play in the spring game but he played a little bit there he played more there in the spring and the decor and did and the court was also playing with playing with Hooke's was on his team there was a lot because of the kind of the depth that receiver where Bear was out and then Jay Mac was out all the sudden there was like Hooke's had to play outside it was kind of all over the place a little bit in the spring game but I think Stuart ends up leaning a little bit more towards that slot role but like you're saying like I think there's just enough separation between those guys and then that kind of like the next group of receivers where they're like these are our most talented guys there's chemistry there with all of those guys in Dante Moore we haven't seen it with Evan Stewart but we know he was practicing with him a couple years ago and stuff like that obviously Jay Mac and and DePorion Moore as well there that I think that those guys kind of separate themselves and then you kind of just you know find places to put them because you want to just get your best players on the field. When you have this many receivers and especially with a tight end room where it's like Jamari Johnson is your one guy at the top and it's a little more kind of questions behind it and I think it kind of goes just back towards that 11 personnel three receivers when you have so much kind of kind of see what you can do there because you can scheme up a lot with just the amount of talent you have a receiver like all these guys are can you know threaten over the top can make contested catches can do things after the catch it's a really really exciting group there that they're gonna have this season. I think we're gonna see just you hear this mantra a lot along the offensive line just pick a five best and figure it out I feel like that's what's going to be for for Oregon at receiver pick your three best guys figure it out and then in certain situations and maybe it turns into obvious giveaways of what they're doing or what they're trying to do with rotational substitutions but go with your best three and then figure out ways to supplement them with substitutions of a Gatlin bear a jail and law and an I person hooks see what they can do and and their moments but this is the deepest group it's gonna it's been in a while it feels like you've certainly got a super high ceiling I think the floor is pretty high as well yeah the the expectation here is you you probably produce a thousand years of receiver you probably have another one that's going to be close and the the explosive this position group should be off the charts you should be in the thread every time and when you have just the death to you can just rotate those guys like I imagine bringing Gatlin bear off the bench completely fresh to go run a run a go ball they're just gonna have everybody's gonna be fresh like that and especially you know knock on wood we talked about the receiver death we were talking about you know last year before Evan Stewart went down and then all of sudden it was by November they had two receivers left on the team so just to have as many guys as you do this kind of what we've been talking to the team all spring about it's just it's exciting to have those options that they had because they didn't have it last year you know we tell we've I've this has come up a couple times of just Dante more taking that step right and his first season as a starter are very comparable to Bose and I to get to where Bo was that second year I don't know if that's completely attainable we had like 45 touchdowns three interceptions set the school record for passing yards that the national record for completion percentage I mean it's one of the it's low-key one of the best seasons passing probably in the NCAA history if we're just being honest so that's a pretty unbelievable statistical season I don't know if we're gonna get Dante to that level but the case for him to get in that realm where he's in New York City for the Heisman Trophy maybe he becomes a second to do it is I think just the immense amount of talent he has around him which is going to be very very different than what he had a year ago and to John's point a year ago around this time we felt the same way we're like man this is such a deep unit Evan goes down you get into the season Dicorian goes down you know there's injuries with Dylan Gresham who had been a huge spring game hero a year ago member we're talking about him we haven't brought his name up today because I think this the senses he may not end up playing at Oregon this season or or maybe his career over I know I hate to say it that kind of felt like Dan was leaning when he was asked about that I think that was in March I think Zach you know asked about that and so they're you know I'm not I'm not saying that's going to happen but where it ended up being a year ago was they were planning multiple tight ends because they just didn't have receivers on the roster that doesn't feel like and again knock on wood where it's at this year I really think for Dante to take that step he's gonna benefit so much from the skill talent here I guess the last couple things I had I had two questions I'll just ask you guys first which of the true freshmen do we think has the biggest impact and it's hard because we saw him bear count as a true freshman here I'm I'm including him yeah first year freshman I know he he's technically a 2024 recruit 20 yeah 2024 recruit but part of the 26 I am yeah he's an older dude do we think between Gatlin Jalen lot Messiah Hanson if you want to throw in Hudson Lewis be my guest but who of those guys do we think is the biggest impact and it's hard because Hampton and Lewis were the only ones we saw because the other words either weren't here weren't healthy enough to play in the spring I lean towards like bear or a lot just because like their speed like playmaking ability just I think you should take it on the field when you have this much talent in front of you you've got to have something like it's just a little different like just you bring a dynamic aspect or you can like kind of throw a screen pass after jam one lot for a second and let him run around or something like that or put bear out there to go run some go balls and stuff like that but just when you you're talking about just the skill player talent that Dante Moore is gonna have I mean when you talk about the five guys that Oregon are gonna have out there whether that's a combination of of the receivers those two running back so that's gonna be a first round tight end like the five it's your hands five skill position they're gonna run out there at any time this is gonna be up there with anybody in the country like absolutely just the Dante Moore is gonna have so many people he can get the ball to let's go tight end where canyons to dig is gone draft in the first round jamari johnson steps up looks like another tied end one in the twenty twenty seven NFL draft certainly feels like maybe the floor isn't as high maybe as canyons to dig but the ceiling honestly guys might be crazy might be higher than than canyons to dicks next season from as in potential impact in the games so he did a lot of things that weren't associated with catching the ball and and running down the field scoring touchdowns that's probably where jamari johnson needs to improve upon but from a pure past catching standpoint this might be a better player in that regard but the question becomes what's behind it I have jamari created higher than canyons coming into you know where I had can you come in into last year as a tight end well I tomorrow is almost more traditional than canyons as a tight end which Just why I'm kind of think the ceiling is a little higher with respect to just being in this offense. And like a year ago, everything got jumbled here because of the injuries that received her and where everybody was playing. But Matt, I'm with you in terms of like, I'm not going to be surprised at all if we look up and Jamari has a more productive receiving season than what Kenyon just had. And some of that may get, maybe in the case I guess for him not to do that is just what we were just talking about, right? John, where we've got all of this receiving talent, all of these guys around him that could take some snaps. But I look at Jamari and think he is a case to be second of the team in receiving maybe? I wouldn't be shocked if he finishes near the top of the receiving chart. Which is funny. I got like that too. Like how many snaps did he gonna miss? Like the very few. Like why would he come up? The receivers should rotate through each other, but he is going to be on the field most at every play. Yeah, I wouldn't. I think it's very much in play. He finishes with the school record and in in tie down receiving yards, which I believe Ferg still holds because I think that was the one Kenyon didn't get because Kenyon got the receptions and touchdowns, I think, but it's last year. I'd have to go back and look it up. But either way, I'm with you. I'm. I'm a very much all in on Jamari being just a total stud in this offense. And then there's a bunch of questions like we and frankly, like I probably came out of the spring game feeling better about Marcus Dixon than everybody else. And that's mostly just because he trucks stick me. Right? Like I mean, that's basically what it is at this point because there was very little from a tie down perspective that didn't include Jamari. That's a place. Yeah. Thank you. You're so set with Jamari Johnson being your your number one tight end there, and especially me having him on a receiver town that you're not going to have to do as much of that. You know, two tight endsets and stuff like that. You did down the stretch last year. And in part of that, you know, that production last year for for Kenyon and stuff like that was that like those guys were playing kind of specialized roles down the stretch where Jamari was like a field stretcher from the slot or from the tight end position and Kenyon was really. He became like a especially down the stretch of the season really became an underneath guy and doing all that, but kind of like has Johnson almost he's like kind of like a kind of a tree that he had where like he just they weren't stretching sending him down the field just because of what, you know, what the offense had at that point of the season. But like I think you're like you're saying to like that's like where the interesting things is just like behind Jamari is, you know, how much do they use Dixon as a blocking guy. You know, Kendri Harrison certainly looked physically ready. You know to play call to a lot this level but tight end is just every level you step up. It's just such a hard position to get adjusted to because there's just so much responsibilities that a tight end has. And you got to develop your route running, but you also you can't put them out there if you don't trust them at all as a blocker to so you know, Andrew Olash is a guy that is a very fluid athlete another highly rated recruit as a tight end you know, you'd like to think that him and Harrison are like kind of the future that your program is projecting at tight end. But I think because Johnson's going to be so set you have so many other guys it's not going to be that much that you really need from behind them. It's kind of more just like playing guys playing roles where I think like that's where Dixon can kind of like kind of plug in and like have a bit of like, you know, blocking be that physical bad and you obviously we saw it with the truck stick so. What's our temperature read on the red shirt possibility for Kendra Harrison or is he an automatic gotta play. Well, I was just thinking about this because I'm happy you brought that up because this is where I wanted to go. I was just looking at like we think about Ken dream we look at Kenyon Sadique right as like big time freshman that like showed up and we're ready. Sadique played 90 snaps this refreshment season he didn't red shirt. I kind of think that may be what we see from Ken's a mat like he doesn't red shirt but it doesn't really feel like he's arrived until next year. But there's also more opportunity right now because when when Kenyon arrived there was Ferg we had we had little Herbert we had I think there was another tight end or was that the year before that they had. Was Casey Kelly 23 or 24 or 23 24 sorry 23 or 22 is what I meant. I read through. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, so so when Sadique arrives he's like fourth on the pecking order behind those three guys. I don't think there's a world where where Harrison's fourth I would be shocked but I kind of in leaning towards like Jamari is your star standout tied in just like Ferg was that year. And then Marcus Dixon is kind of the inline Patrick Herbert type and then maybe Ken Dre Olesch one of those guys emerges as you're more more of a pass catching tight end but he's playing. I don't know 15 snaps a game at most probably closer like 10 I don't know I'm really curious to see what happens with him he's fast. I think I think Kendrick could end up kind of doing what Sadique did that year with Bow a little bit where it's kind of here and there give him a touch let this big athlete kind of run around and stuff like that. I think he's a little more I mean Olesch has a year on him but a Harrison's just physically I think a little bit more developed before this level. So I would lean to him getting those third tight ends now but like we've been saying I mean Johnson's just going to be out there almost every play like and it's they're just not going to be that much that they're looking to do for these tight ends. Like in terms of like to ball in their hands and stuff like that besides him anyways. But we do hit well Matt we have heard really positive things about Ken Dre from people who talked about what they did so like I don't I'd be shocked if you read shirt I think I really I think he's going to be a contributor and and maybe we're going to come back saying hey we should that spring game where he didn't do much. Don't read too much into that because by the time they got into October and the games really matter he's actually pretty involved but. Gosh it would have been fun to see something from from him in April there. They tried to throw him from jump ball in the end zone but it will too high even for him at like 6 7. He's fascinating though it adds certainly an element to this offense we've got all these names we brought up like if he emerges as somebody who's like actually of the utilized target. That's scary to think about how many just wait. What's the best culture you need size to. Dan didn't really seem open to that idea I wanted to ask it was curious me when he signed before again for football and basketball the landscape for the basketball program looked like it was going to be hard for him to find playing time and then everybody left and I was like the doors wide open. And they all know it was very adamant like this is a legit basketball player is this a throw away offer to get this guy to sign for football like. If you wanted to go basketball only organ was going to go after him and every other school was going to go after him for basketball only. I just don't have as high as hard as it is I just don't think Dan's very open to that idea. No and frankly when see available to be helpful by February. It's it's a pretty small window especially if we think this Oregon team is going to be as good as as I think we anticipate where they're playing into mid mid January again so. Yeah I choose to support athletes that's a really hard to do especially when their seasons kind of line up the way they do with basketball where there's so much overlap especially for the start of the basketball season like he wouldn't be helpful till. You're already pretty far into big 10 play so I'll be interested to see what happens with that too. Alright let's wrap up the show with the offensive line here a unit where they've got arguably the best center in college football one of the most experienced offensive linemen and and Pancho. He is back for his fourth season third straight full season of being a starter. You've got David Eule who's been a starter last season bounced in and out a year ago once he got healthy. But you lose some veteran experienced guys you've got two probable sophomores maybe starting somewhere along the offensive line fox critter being the most likely one but this one it's not a fear but it's also like there's questions here. If you if you guess an indication of how uncertain I am on some of this I have 15 names on my 2 deep. I've been a distance. You know and and and some of that was just trying to as I wrote in the story kind of illustrate what everybody played in the spring game. Our good friend John here charted snap counts kind of where they were working. I just wanted to illustrate like Zach's to Skowski and you know Michael Bennett they're right tackles only so that's where they're that's where they're on the 2 deep. Not that I think Staskowski really has a chance to win the job but there are a ton of names here and there is far more uncertainty. That any other position on the team and I think if you were to ask the average fan coming out of the spring game they tell you this is the spot they're most worried about and I think that's. Probably reasonable to be the most worried about I also don't think like. I put the worry level like a 5 like I don't think this is we've seen a lake Terry offensive lines kind of grow from the spring to the summer to the fall to the core of the season and be you know hit the ground running. Obviously we need to see them play perform better in the big moments than what that happened this past year both and I would say against tech and Indiana or some pretty lackluster disappointing moments there and health contributes sounds like. There was kind of a longer term injury for Isaiah world than then people were maybe aware of before even he got hurt again against Indiana so. You know some of that comes into play but. I feel pretty good about this unit overall I don't feel good about projecting how it all comes together yet right and I'll just I'll just read off my starting 5. And you guys can tell me if you agree disagree what you would do because this is one that's totally up for debate and I'm totally fine if you say you got all but. Pancho and I really wrong like if that's your stance that's totally reasonable I've got create our left tackle. Kavika at left guard Pancho at center I really. Right guard. I've got all the oars on the right tackle spot here, but if I'm just going to pick a name, I'll probably just pick Bennett to be safe because he's the veteran here, but I wouldn't be surprised if I got Genoris, Tuscowski, you got Emmanuel Ihana show there. You got maybe Tommy Tofy slides outside, even though he's working at guard primarily. What do you guys think? What would you change? Do you guys agree? I mostly agree. I mean, I thought to said at left tackle, I think we saw that last year. In terms of him playing the USC game, him coming in for Isaiah World and stuff like that in the Indiana game, Pancho said at center just to have your center back. He's going to be a preseason all-American and a projected seven-third round draft pick guy. Having that said, I always going to be bad. It's going to be really good. Big question marks is that other guard spot, right tackle Bennett. I don't know about him at right tackle. We'll see. He looked a little bit overwhelmed sometimes in terms of the power in the athleticism coming from Oregon's Ed Drushers. I wouldn't know. Yeah, the way those weren't the top Ed Drushers on the team. It wasn't like Adam Tuyo-D was roasting. It was Blue Dantzler and. I was concerned with his ability to hold up against Elijah Rushin who hasn't really shown anything on the field throughout his career. I think he could end up factor more into one of those guard spots or that six swing guy. The only thing is if they don't have an option at right tackle, could he just end up plugging in there because we haven't seen John Orspilsen at this point in so long? I feel confident in like you're saying like in a late Terry's ability to get this offensive line up to speed and stuff like that. Every year even if they've turned over guys, they've put out a unit that's been mounted for the Joe Moore award. But that's the spot that for me, for the four I've heard from a fan base certainly has had the most concern just especially with like you're saying how the season ended last year where it was daunting under pressure and they couldn't protect against Texas Tech off the edge and Indiana off the edge. If you have Michael Bennett up there, you don't feel like he can protect against the top of the line. Ed Rushin's in the college ball playoff. Are you going to run into the same kind of things where Don't it doesn't have enough time to actually kind of work things. The guy I'm looking at is the future refreshment. Once we hit an archo in here and Tommy Tofy really liked him in the spring game just so athletic. You know he can clean some things up and stuff with his hands and timing and stuff like that. But that guy is going to be hard to keep him off the field. Just the fact that a true freshman you played him at left half a left guard right guard right tackle four spots like a little bit consistently but in the spring game that's super super exciting for the program. I look at this lineup Eric and I think you can sell me on it for a first snap against Boise State. But I'm going to go back to kind of like what we saw in 2024 with Charlie Pickard at center and they had Pancho playing guard and they were trying to find combinations that worked. And it was a case where hey we've got our big hole here so we're maybe going to move our real center over because we feel confident the backup is better than the starter at this spot. I think at some point we'll see Tommy Tofy put into the starting lineup in September. I feel at some point Emmanuel Nacho or maybe as a Air Addison or Genoris Wilson kind of get put into one of the other tackle positions at right tackle. And then Michael Bennett becomes like what John was saying a swing player just kind of a Swiss Army knife filling wherever is needed whoever needs a rest outside of center. I feel like this unit it's fine on paper. There's probably a little bit of we got to give this guy a chance he's done his dues. He's been a team player. Let's give him a look. But very quickly though I think there'll be some reshuffling here. Maybe not. I mean maybe your fall camp it'll just be clearly evident that Tommy Tofy needs to play and maybe Emmanuel Nacho if he shows up and as good as advertised put himself on the on the field as well. Maybe that's the case but I think this unit will get figured out. It'll be rough probably at points in the month of September. But I do feel like at some point there'll be a major shift in who plays where and how often. I think I write tackle in particular. This conversation is probably easier if Genoris Wilson doesn't get hurt last year and ends up being the fill in starter at times. We just go crater and Genoris look like guys that are going to be your long your tackles for the season and being kind of put that at rest. The fact that he's hurt and then you have to wonder he missed all of spring. What is he going to look like? When is he going to be back to full strength? Is that and if he is back to full strength is it still who he was prior to the injury like all these questions. I think that's a tough wrinkle and kind of a wrench in these plans and you know one thing I will say. It's kind of a gamble for Oregon after the struggles they had in the CFP last year especially at tackle. It's telling that they really like these young guys but it's a risk to not go out and find a sure fire top tackle in the portal guy like they did a year ago or thought they did with world who didn't end up panning out quite like we expected. Because we saw in those big games how much of an issue that was for Dante and there was a path there to go bring in a blind side protector or a right tackle that has elite and tangible and maybe been an all conference player before. Instead they passed and they chose to rely on these guys which again as the leak has said they're confident in them. There's a lot of confidence in this group. We'll see how it pays off but there's there's there's a risk here to not get some veterans in here and turn and rely on some redshirt freshman or true sophomores or maybe in the case of a Hanachow or a Tofia true freshman and I Tofia you're probably right Matt by the way that then it gets reclassified kind of as that Swiss Army knife. And frankly becomes the Kavika Rogers of the team while Kavika Rogers is also on the team which would be kind of a funny turn of fate. But the ceiling here does feel like you probably want to turn to some of these younger players over a Kavika over a Bennett who I currently have on the starting lineup because I will say I would feel much more confident in the upside of what a Tofia and a Hanachow or an Addison or a Wilson in January look like then. And I think these other players who we kind of seen the middling at points in their career in Rogers's case and then Bennett where I just at tackle didn't look like he really had the juice in the spring game. I think he's thinking guys that you're looking to and I think I just think Tofia is like so big and so athletic that it's going to be hard to keep him off the field forever that ends up being and then seeing what an anachow looks like when he gets in here. I think there's a lot of writing on them for this year and especially going forward. Could they start to true freshmen? I would be surprised that I don't know if there's enough spots there and getting it out. And the fact that Hanachow hasn't been here I think makes that talk to you. Like Tofia will have such an advantage to the fact that he's been practicing with his team since January and stuff like that. I think that's a case where if Anachow was here earlier I would feel very confident it happens. But he's probably going to need six weeks, you know eight weeks when he's back for in fall camping games kind of get himself up his feet and prove he could play there. If that happens. So I agree with John like I think Tofia is going to be the guy that if there is one that starts it'll be him. But again this is a long season and the development this is the toughest position to develop. It takes the longest time and it's you know it wouldn't surprise me if what Oregon starts in December is entirely different than what they start in September. Yeah I think that's kind of where I'm at too. It feels like there's going to be some guess work here kind of some guess and check from a league and or like maybe what we said earlier maybe a couple of guys just stand out and stay safe. Stand up in fall camp and you're like they have to start. This is this is a pen a stool over again where it's a young guy who's just head and shoulders better has so much more ceiling. You just have to go with it and take some lumps early but it's going to be really interesting to see where this this kind of works works out. And again I'm not overly concerned long term on this but this is the position group where there's there's got to be some growth and it's a big off season I think a big summer for a leak and some of these younger guys to get ready. I think they're playing their hope is just that that growth will happen and that the offensive line like I don't know if they necessarily think you will be set like you're saying in September like that I think they're planning they want that line to be coming together in October or November December like playoff time and stuff like that when they actually really need those guys to protect. Let's close this podcast with just an overarching outlook of the offense gone through the two. I guess I'll just ask one quick question of just what's the ceiling of this unit is it they are equivocally the best offense in the country are they one of the top five top 10 what what's kind of the expectation that we should carry with this team of the that my best quarterback in the country. They've got an elite receiver room, they've got a ton of talent, running back, tight ends got out of experience, but there are some questions along the offensive line. Is the expectation that they still produce a top three offense in college football where they are as complete of an offense as can be or is that too high of expectations right now? The other element we haven't touched on is the coordinating change. Just that, this part of the conversation of big picture mapping out how it can move. Look, from a personnel perspective, I don't see any reason why this can't be the best offense in the country. Right? I mean, they've got the quarterback who could have been a top three pick this last year. They've got two fresh, yeah, two former, two fresh running backs who were really impactful. One had 15 touchdowns. One was basically led the country in rush yards per carry. In terms of running backs, he did. Those guys are back. receiver, all these guys on the outside, some young exciting players, tight ends. You've got a guy who could be the number one tight end off. I mean, you're talking this out. Like from a position group perspective, I feel like quarterback running back receiver tight end. Those are probably all top three position groups nationally at their respective spots. And then it comes down to the O line and coaching for me. It comes down to the O line. It comes down to how Drew Maringer kind of gets everything working here. And I was encouraged by what we heard about Drew, but the other reality is, is a spring game might not be very helpful for like assessing Dante Moore's ability to do like much in a big moment. It also tells us almost nothing about the coordinators and how they're calling games and any of that. So we still, I feel like, don't have much of anything on Drew in this role and what that's going to look like. And so, yeah, I think, I think that, yeah, the ceiling is best offense in the country. I think there are two pretty significant question marks along the O line and then just with who's calling plays here that make it harder to say like unequivocally, that's going to be a better offense than what Texas has or what Ohio State has. And Ohio State's got some freakish dudes over there. What Indiana is going to have now that they've retooled this and put this together. So, no, I think they're absolutely in that conversation. But there's a couple questions here that make it hard to suggest like it's in no brainer. I think the offensive line is the thing that kind of determines the ceiling of this team. Dante Moore's going to be one of the best quarterbacks in the country. And you're in like we've been saying to the skill positions that you're going to have out there. You know, it's going to be, you can't Jeremiah Smith and Ohio State is kind of hard to match with. But other than that, you know, you're competing with Ohio State, Texas. I mean, those are the two teams that I'm thinking of as well as the other like best offenses in the country. It's just how the offensive line comes together. I think that really determines where the ceiling for this, you know, as a unit is because they have potential easily to be the best offense in the country compete, you know, with Texas and what they have in archv and then, um, and then, um, and then, um, and then it'll have state bringing the guys that they were bringing back. Oregon just having the continuity that they have back with the quarterback gets you such an advantage over the other teams, but to have, you know, the top tight end, those running backs. It just all comes down to, you know, can the offensive line protect on today more for enough time to get the, you know, get it to those field skill position guys and they give the holes to the air and Jordan Davis. And so I think they have the potential, but it's just all, you know, figuring out that offensive line kind of getting it ready for November and December. I think that's going to do it for us here on this edition of the Office of Almost Podcast recapping Oregon's offense projecting out what we think that that's what we'll look like. We'll do defense later this week to look for that as well. Uh, and we'll have more coverage on Oregon football throughout spring throughout summer as fall camp quickly approaches. But until the next one, even listening to the Office of the Almost Podcast. Dr. Aide folks. See ya. Show notes: Oregon football has moved through spring practice, and while the Ducks are still months away from opening the 2026 season, the shape of the offensive depth chart is beginning to come into focus. On this edition of the Autzen Audibles Podcast, Matt Prehm, Erik Skopil, and John Evans take a position-by-position look at Oregon’s projected offensive two-deep coming out of spring football and heading into the summer months. The guys break down where things stand at quarterback with Dante Moore back for his second season as the starter, how the offensive line is being rebuilt after multiple NFL departures, and what to make of a skill-position group that features plenty of high-end talent but also a few important depth-chart questions. The conversation also dives into Oregon’s wide receiver room, the tight end rotation, running back depth, and which young players could push for bigger roles when fall camp arrives. With new offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer now leading the offense, there are plenty of storylines to track as the Ducks work toward another Big Ten title push. audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices