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Podcast: Autzen Audibles: DuckTerritory's Oregon athletics podcast Episode: Oregon spring game reaction: What stood out for the Ducks? Transcript: Welcome in to the Austin Audibles podcast at my prem, Eric Scopel John Evans on the show as always. It's a post game morning after the 2026 Oregon football spring game. The combat ducks won this one 17 to 10 over the fighting ducks. I couldn't tell you, I couldn't remember what color was who. I wish they would just call them Team Black or Team White. But nonetheless, combat ducks won. It was a game in which, it was tied 10-10 at halftime. It felt like a little bit of explosion, a little bit of some offensive success, defense probably playing a little bit better. And then the second half really was almost, lack of a better term, a snooze fest until the finals 25 seconds when Brock Thomas completed a 60 R touchdown pass at the Corian more to break the tie and give us the win of 17 to 10. But nonetheless, even with kind of a second half that lacked a lot of offensive firepower, I think the most notable reason for that is, well, the best player on the field wasn't playing. Dante Moore was not seen in the second half. That impacted for sure the ability at least of one team in their offense. But we still walked away with plenty to glean, lock to learn, and still probably some new questions that come from it from the guys that played and also maybe the guys that didn't participate in this spring game. Combat ducks, black fighting ducks, white, just I think I got that right. You guys can come back to me. I'm with you Matt though. It's like kind of a necessary to learn teams based upon the colors for one day. But hey, we are only asked to cover it for that day. Thanks. We don't have to remember this come August because I would have no recollection. Well, like, and going back to, you mentioned, Dante not being on the field in the second half and the impact there, totally agree that not having QB1 on the field certainly didn't help the offenses. I think there was more than anything just at the line of scrimmage. It was just complete domination in the second half. And I'd love to dive into some of the reasons why. And it's kind of like none of it's overly alarming big picture, by the way, because some fans I can tell are already good and see about, Oh gosh, can we not pass protect? I saw a couple of people talking like that. We predicted this on our Thursday show. We talked about how there's going to be a bunch of sacks. There's going to be a bunch of miscommunications. There's going to be chaos in line of scrimmage. That's been the case like every year in these scrimmages under Dan Lane. Again, you go back to the very first one, I believe DJ Johnson's like five and a half sacks in that game. And we'll again, we can peel back the layers and kind of dive into part of that. But as Dan said, it's kind of built in expectation wise. A, they were a little bit vanilla and offensive. B, if it's just touching the quarterback counts as a sack and you split the offensive lines where you've got walk-ons at times working against pretty elite pass pressures, there's going to be some moments like that. So that part kind of almost clouds some of what took place to a certain extent, which again, I mean, it's a spring game. I think Dante and Dan both made it clear. It's like it's scrimmage. Dan was like, why are we talking about stats from a scrimmage? I get it. Dante was like, yeah, I'm not even really going to assess what happened today. It was just fun to go out there and give it put on a show for the fans. So we're going to sit here and probably make more of it than we need to because what else are we supposed to do? But if they had unbelievably awesome offensive stats, they'd be talking about them. They'd be wanting to boast about it. Probably. I read off some unbelievably incredible defensive stats and Dan was like, those aren't relevant essentially, which again, I understand it. It's a scrimmage. We should make too much out of the whole thing. But I do think the defensive line is as advertised or looks to be that case. But we can talk about some of it, but there's some matchups that were just like phony baloney, never going to stack up that kind of masked a little bit of what was taking place out there, unfortunately. Yeah, I think to your point, images looked like a spring game. There was some sloppy play up front. They weren't trying to do a ton of things. Offensively, like Dan was saying, but I thought you got to see some highlights, some flashes, and that's what it's all about. I think the Jeremiah McClellan and me and Galen Bear were unfortunately out, but it looks like this receiver court could be, especially on the outside, one of the most explosive that this team has had between D'Coron and Morinne and Stewart both had 100 yard games with big, big touchdowns. And Dylan Rieola looked really comfortable back then, which I thought was the biggest thing. Like, not necessarily in terms of the whole understanding of the offense, that'll take its time. He said after the game, I think that he's about like 75% there. But just in terms of comfort coming back from that injury, he felt he looked fine at the pocket, he was able to step up into things. And then you saw the arm that you made him with such a big recruit when he was able to put a little touch on that one to Evan Stewart over the top. So, I think like you're saying, it's a spring game, man. You can't learn really that much. And then you we're going to dive into it a little more than maybe we should. But when we haven't had access to practice all spring, this is what we've got to try to dig little nuggets of information out until until August and stuff like that. So, we'll try to figure out what we can from it. But I'll take a chance to dive into the film later this weekend, because especially on the offensive line and stuff like that, there's this, I'm intrigued to see how guys like Tommy Tophie were really holding up there once I really dive into it. Don Tamor was 711 for 57 yards and a touchdown, 64% completion percentage. A Kaley Smith Jr. who was his primary backup went three for seven for 68 yards. And then we also saw Dylan Rayola on the other side go seven for 13 146 yards and a touchdown through a, it was like an 80 75 somewhere around there. 76 yards past touchdown pass to Evan Stewart Brock Thomas played on both sides of the football, are both teams, ended up throwing a touchdown was 11 for 16 when you combine the two and went just over 100. He had 112 total yards in that one. And then I guess the Kaley Smith also played on both. He went five for 12 for 75 yards. But even Mark Wieper walk on quarterback got in, he got a couple of throws, completed one pass. I think the quarterbacks all for the most part looked good. I thought more importantly Dylan Rayola looked comfortable, looked very much the part of probably the best backup in college football for 2026. Layers, some really good throws was quick in his decision making and then probably the most important thing he looked healthy. Like that, like he didn't look like he had any ramifications from his fall injury at Nebraska this past season. Yeah, I think I think coming out of this if we're going to do the QB talk first, which I think makes a lot of sense. Dante is in his own tier. I do think Dylan and Brock both played really well and that feels like a pair of backups that they can win football games to be pretty competitive with. A Kaley's probably a tier below. That's not even taking a shot as much as you read. I used five or 12. I thought there were some moments that was really impressive. We saw him unleash the arm downfield to the Korean for about a 45 yard completion. On a pass was maybe a little under throw but still you can see the arm's strength to get the ball down there. But at other times, kind of miss some guys maybe through the ball in places that he didn't need to. He had a couple drops so some of that gets skewed. By the way Brock was I think had three or four drop passes. He was pretty money today. I think if you're just kind of talking about where we go from here at quarterback and we entered Dante more QB1. I don't think anything changed from that. I hope people aren't feeling any kind of way coming out of the spring game. You played a couple of series, led the offense down the field for score. I think both his drives resulted in scores as far as I can recall. There might have been a footer drive in the middle there that was sack or dope that he didn't didn't do so. But they come down the field, get the touchdown to Jamari, it leads him down the field. That sets up a field goal. I felt like he played pretty darn well. And then I think both Brock and Dylan are entrenched in a competition there. I know fans probably hate that we're tearing those together. There's a lot of anti-the-walk-on-from-ugene narratives as a backup. At this particular position, I think Oregon fans will sign off as a starting center or guard like Ryan Wock was as a walk-on from Eugene or as a linebacker like Bryce Betcher or like an outside receiver a long time ago with Justin Hoffman, whoever it was. But for whatever reason Brock Thomas back up quarterback kind of irks in people, he looked good. I don't think he's perfect. I don't think he has anywhere near the arm talent as Dylan Ryola. But in terms of just executing the offense, he did so pretty well on Saturday. Dylan's clearly the more talented basser. No one's going to sit here and argue that. But I think he clearly had three guys who have a mastery of the offense or a comfortable enough at the end that they can go win you football games. We're knocking on wood that Dante Moore is the quarterback. Number five is out there every single meaningful snap-all season because I think pretty clearly he is your most gifted quarterback the most comfortable in his offense. But I think I still think there's two guys there that look like they're battling for that backup spot. And I thought both of them played really well on Saturday. I'm right there with you guys. To your point with Brock Thomas, it's what Dan Lane has talked about the entire time with him going back to the last season when he ended up becoming in for Dante Moore and that Wisconsin game and stuff. It's just that he's been around the program like they were saying. He's an understanding of the offense. I thought his decisions were quick on Saturday. Getting the ball out. I mean recorded back like him. That's exactly what you wanted to do. And then like you were saying like I was saying earlier, it's just comfort in terms of just being back out there after that injury. He talked about just how cool of a moment that was for him and Evan Stewart. Both those guys who who are coming back from injury to have connected that touchdown. And then a Killy Smith showed off the arm at times. But I thought the accuracy underneath was a little erratic. He'll need some fine tuning to before he becomes a future quarterback for this team, but the arm was there. You can see it once you load it back on that deep one at DeCoryan, though. Looking at the running game, it was kind of like tail two halves. They didn't have a lot of success going on the outside. Daylating said his initial thoughts, maybe up the middle, they ran the ball really well. But just a total of... 42 yards collectively between the two. Now that takes in the fact that... That's not sack adjusted, right? That's 10 sacks. You adjust the rushing totals and it's okay. It's 123 total yards rushing between the two of them. It's not the greatest, but I guess maybe necessarily for me, not necessarily. Question for you guys is not analyzing the individual group here, but it's just the production. What we saw is that cause for concern, or do we chalk it up to typical spring football? You're splitting your five best offensive linemen over two teams and you're playing a good front seven. The offense always has the advantage in that situation and it will work itself out in the fall. I think it's mostly that. If we're putting percent into John, 80% that and we'll dive into some of my takeaways in the past protection compartment, because I think that's maybe the place fans are most curious. I did a pretty good job of thinking of charting at least who was losing battles. I also saw a couple running back to Miss Holz and it wasn't the primary guys. I do think we still have coming out of this, unfortunately, the question of who's RB3? Because Dink Riggs did not have a productive day. Sivian Price was one of the guys I saw Miss a couple of Holz on Rewatch. I thought Brendan Smith actually of the guys that we saw, he and Shigari and Ball probably, those two freshmen had a couple of the nicer moments. Ball had a sequence in the middle, I think it was the second quarter where he had three or four nice, nice being runs of like four to eight yards or whatever in a row. So yeah, there were some nice moments, but I think collectively the running back room, there's still a question mark of like, we know what Hill is, we know what Jordan Davidson is. Who that next guy is? I don't think anybody really emerged there. And maybe that's a little disappointing coming out of this, but there was just not a lot available to them for most of this day. You know, there were some nice moments in run blocking. Like, I'll shout out a younger guy who had a nice day in that regard because we're going to spend some time talking about a couple guys who had really bad days. But I guess too, to meet your manning, I thought had some really nice days moving bodies. And gosh, when Tommy Tofy could actually get to the second level, he just annihilated some guys. And we'll talk about, there was some if he stopped in past protection, but like there is, there's something there for him at guard, especially that looks like pretty meaningful. So that was my takeaway of the run game is like, yeah, maybe some, the backs didn't maybe have their best day, but I don't know if there was a ton available to them, just because of what was going on at front with the defensive line. I feel like your point Matt is pretty fair there, but just with mixing the groups along the offensive line, especially Oregon's run game when they try to do as many different types of things as they do. It's going to, you know, when you have one, you know, walk on backup guard in there and all of a sudden it's trying to scoop lock on it and brew it. It's going to mess some things up for the entire run game. You just, but like you're saying, I think you would have liked to see somebody pop maybe to have that kind of like a little hint of maybe this guy can be RB3 in the fall. The fact that the longest run of the game was eight yards, like, you know, like it felt like they're really ever been getting into the second level, just who's like you're saying, Erica is just so muddy towards the line of scrimmage that guys are missing some holes and stuff sometimes maybe. But feeling like we didn't learn a ton about that running back room in general. I mean, we know it's going to be Davidson Hill from the most part in the first place, but you would have liked to see maybe see me in price step up a little bit more there. But again, it's a springy. I believe it's, it's, it's a scrimmage. You know, who was really bad last year in the spring game, Malik Benson, he dropped like I would be touched down, didn't catch on the pass. You know, who was like pretty good was Mackay Hughes and we talked about him all off season like he was going to be something and he wasn't. So like these assessments don't mean a whole lot. I agree. That's pump breaks on being too concerned about individuals, especially come out of the game like this. Office of line though, Eric, you had some ideas of who was moving where we got a couple of looks at a couple of freshmen snapping the ball. He Lee being one of them, a guy that when he signed, they really kind of made the easy comparison of, Hey, this is Pancha 2.0 or mini Pancha. Like they really like his versatility and it's acting in for the game and it showed up. He was the center for Dylan Rayola. We also saw a momentopi and just the massive thighs that he brings to the table and the offensive line has talent and it's probably still what they would call a work in progress, even though there were some bright spots because there's so many new moving pieces here. Yeah, so that's not that. So Coloid Kelly was the first center to get snaps on the white side and then behind him was Devin Brooks. I thought they both, like the snaps that there were a couple of snap issues during this game and they were both on that side. So point that out and it's expected with younger players. But I thought those two look pretty solid and I think it feels to me at least like that's the backup competition just between those two guys and hopefully knock it on wood. That competition doesn't mean anything come fall because Pancha was available the whole season and you have arguably the best center in the country. It's happening with the ball and leading the offense. But those are two young guys that that are will be clearly very important in 2027 in that competition. So kind of good to least get a sense of who those players are going to be. In terms of past protection, like a couple things. Aiden Breland had a really successful day. He had a lot of success against Michael Bennett, but he also had most of his success against Bo Cress Allen, who's a walk-on. So while I want to be really excited about what we saw from Aiden and three stacks and kind of lead the team with six tackles, there's like a little over the five star gun against a walk-on. Yeah, there's a little context there of like, yeah, there was a mismatch that was being taken advantage of. The one that we can talk on the other side now, but the white side was running a lot of games together between Breland and Dantzler. Blue Dantzler had a great day. I'm kind of like legit intrigued because he was beating Zaire Addison, but basically the whole day. That was one-on-one. He had basically three would be stacks off of that. Where he just cruised by him or used a lot of power actually, which was surprising. I kind of anticipated he was most like a speed rush guy. He got his hands up and moved bodies. I'm intrigued by that, but Zaire Addison, who is I think looked at right now, he was the combat ducks, the black team's left tackle. I think he and Fox Crater, it feels like, face-to-point placement, were looked at as kind of the guys competing there. Zaire did not have a good day in past protection at all. He was constantly getting beaten, especially by Blue Dantzler. So I think put that one in your back pocket again, spring games don't necessarily need to meet in a ton, but I was in sort of an effort. I was in sort of anticipating when I was going to go back through this, that Brieland was the one feasting on good competition. And Dantzler maybe was the one feasting on lesser competition, but the opposite seemed to be true, which was kind of interesting. And man, Matt Johnson's fun to watch too. When you dive through that, he had some really impressive moves. And actually Tommy Tofe, who I thought for the most part looked really good. One of Matt Johnson's sacks, he just got turn style. He just got run absolutely around. So there's definitely something, but that's not on, I mean, he's like six, seven, 350 pounds, going against a really explosive, more experienced player. Like it doesn't shock him, but that was one of the other kind of matchups that stood out when they were facing each other, was Johnson got the better of Tofe at least a couple of times on big past protection. So take Jones, man, that guy's physically impressive. Dutch Horace coming off the edge was really good. Unfortunately, kind of highlighted that Zach's Daskowski's maybe got a ways to go and pass protection. There are a couple of times where he was just with him on Dutch Horace, past rush moves. So there's a lot of young edge rushers who had the advantage, but again, that's kind of the way this is built in spring where those guys are going to have the edge. And there's not like they weren't like really chipping. They wasn't getting a lot of help for these linemen. They're basically just on an island out there trying to match up against guys running full speed and trying to get to the quarterback. So think some of it's a little misleading, but at the same time, like I come away being like, okay, maybe we need to value a blue dancer just a little bit more than I wasn't really on my radar as a name to know. Maybe he should be. And gosh, Matt Johnson looked really, really good and obviously, even really new too. So those are those are two interior guys that really popped that I think we're expecting to be really good this year that looked the part and I almost forgot. I almost forgot. I lied to Russian also had a nice day. Like a lot of the Oregon defensive linemen that are we're looking at to me to be contributors. I thought played well and again, we've already established, we'll stay over and over. The O line wasn't set up for a lot of success. That's the way the spring game works. I took credit to the defensive lineman for accomplishing what they did, I think. I think you come away from yesterday just excited about where the young addresses are headed after Matteo and Tatum. On this team, Anthony Jones looked like an absolute, I mean, they call him tank for a reason. He looked like a unit we were saying up there that he's listed at 240 coming out of high school and I would be surprised if they already have them up to like 255. I think they're going to try to get bigger, John. I think they're going to try to get into this. You might be like 265, 270 right now. He's huge. Yeah, and Russian was 22. He was 22. He was... Talked about him getting up to like 285 this all season. That's the guy who came in at like 250, was up to like 270 last year and has gone for more of like a speedy edge rusher to that big defensive end position that will tell you a young Lillaz plan. And I mean he even like, he trains with the like D-line group instead of the like edge rusher group like he was last year I think which is interesting. But yeah, he went straight through Michael Bennett on one of them where you can see just the power that he has just looks a little bit different this year. And then Blue Dancer too. They will just they're going to need guys to come off the edge and you know give a little bit of respite to Mateo and Tatum and then if you have that and that's a young guy too he's going to be around in this program hopefully for the next couple of years. And if he can bring a little bit of that power element that can play off of this year Wyatt, that's exciting for the future of this program. So I think you can't take too much away from the offensive line like you're saying you're not set up in the most advantageous position but young address was on this team looked really good. They have they have something to look in there. And we should again reminder the folks to the only didn't play for in this game which I don't know it could be a could be a good thing for Oregon because it can't even get better with maybe their best pass rusher on on roster and maybe that means even worse things for the offense but when you set the way it was set up that that was naturally going to happen. Linebacker I think in the easy transition here we saw a lot from Devin Jackson and that was like I we were we were really curious to see and just watch and see how he he fit into this game and while he maybe didn't record a ton of stats on the box score I felt like from my observing live and then the little bit that I've seen now and this morning of the game on our second watch he was at least around the ball a lot and easily could have had stats attributed to this to him and to his name like that that was the thing for me the recognition was improved it felt like yeah and we should also know like we two I didn't play Braden Platt wasn't available in this game so there's a couple players who were down I thought Gavin next like of the you know we know what Jerry Jackson didn't record any stats by the way and again I'm not too bothered but I don't know if it played he played a decent amount on that first half at least but you know you go into spring games you did establish guys so Jerry makes it at five tackles did he okay I must have skim right past this is the this is the I guess like not to be able to do but they gave us the idea that's why I got screwed up okay that makes so much sense okay yeah so the number guys like a kiwi Smith obviously did not play but he's credit with tackles tomorrow Johnson's Devin Jackson he had to so like dear not dear but Jerry makes it five tackles three so low that makes more sense because in watching it I was like he definitely was a part of a lot of plays maybe they shouldn't give me credit but yeah I was just and for those listening it says D Hill junior six has the five tackles which is where I'm skimming looking for Nixon's name or searching for Nixon's name and not saying okay bad job there Eric so but but I you know in watching it I was gonna say it doesn't take away from the fact I thought Gavin next of that young group was the most impressive and I kind of get a feel like he might be the name to know there after those other two and you know I I think you know linebacker playing kind of hard to assess in these in these games you know I just don't think it necessarily lends itself to to really because of the fact that they are throwing the ball so much I thought in coverage by the way one play that really stood out from watching it was Devin Jackson's pass break up on a third and third and four I think on a pass to one of the tight ends that that forced a point so yeah I'm not like I'm back or play is an interesting place I don't think it was fantastic I don't think it was bad I think in general the defense played really well I was what I was actually more interested talk about in the secondary was the Dacorian more Brandon Finney matchup which was like a 10 out of 10 knockout Dacorian more almost I don't know if you guys the Brendan Finney got I don't know if that's concerning is that concerning that Brendan Finney got turned around and was trailing basically everything with the Korean all day. I don't think it's concerning but I thought I was fun to watch too for like I said you know they said immediately that they did this to were matched up on each other. Awesome that's what I wanted I was one of my exact points of excitement to see that these receivers against these corners I just surprised that it felt to me like the Korean kind of worked them. Yeah I mean like I thought he did too but he also cooked you know Dory and Brew on that last night. Sure it is. Because he's given everybody a little bit of a little bit of a shake and a lot of scrimmage but like you were saying with Jackson I just thought he looked so much so much better than that. Then last fall because that was that was his first action because he didn't miss the spring. He was just so slow and so just delayed to react to everything last year that you could really tell he had had missed that time and he was just he just seemed so much more confident and his like actions on the field like in what he was doing and it made a difference because like you're saying he showed up around the ball so much more. So I thought he was good. Jerry mixed him was good. You know we'll see. I don't know if we'd got to see who necessarily the third line back was going to be because Braden Platt was out but I think like you're saying Davenick's definitely a guy to watching that conversation. And I mean that's going to be one of the most interesting ones to watch through throughout fall camp just because there is somebody out of that group that's going to play 400 snaps or so like we were saying behind. Behind mixing behind maybe Jackson if he's that number two guy so somebody in that group is going to be getting significant playing time. I'm not like that concerned with Finney by the way I just wanted to point out like he did Corinne had a really good day and Finney was in coverage for most of it. Thoughts on special teams it was like hit or miss. I would have pretty rough. Yeah, I don't want to be too harsh on gauge in his place kicking. He did miss too but they were both 50 plus kicks and those are those are hard to be super critical of. And had a leg for them they were just like wide. Yeah. But for me the bigger issue is they got one official muff punt. There should have been a second one kind of a bogus special teams flag got called which eliminated it. But that's an alarming thing for me because you talk to Joe Lord, Oregon special teams coach. And like the number one trait he talks about from returners is can you possess the football? Can you guarantee that when the ball goes in the air and the game and then the play is over we have the football and putting it on the on the field twice and a handful of opportunities was not a good look for Oregon special teams. Yeah, well it's funny because the air hill junior has what the fans initially thought was a kickoff return touchdown but it's we're playing touch out there so he's not you know he's contacted like the 50 yard line. So that was exciting and we know he's been back there for kickoff returns. I think he's I mean I would imagine anyone's more comfortable receiving a kickoff and a punt just because of the nature of where the defenders are and the space you have to collect the football first. So he looked good there. He was a kind of a borderline disaster as a partner Turner right and he mucked to dove on one. The other one as Matt said actually would have gone the other way for offered like cleanly picked it out of the air. I agree total bogus call. I think that the the the the announcer's were even joking about how maybe Dan just wanted to give the offense a two minute warning rather than then put the ball back. The other way but that's a little concerning with the air and I don't know if I always kind of anticipated that Gregorian was probably going to be the partner Turner anyway. And by the way he made a couple really nice plays in terms of just diving to secure the ball. The air was a little bit. It was not a very clean day and I just wonder how much longer that's part of the conversation or is that a this guy had spring where he was like a hundred percent in field and cleanly for whatever reason he gets out in a spring game he muffs a couple will come back and fall and reassess. And if he looks good again we'll we'll give another shot. Maybe that's how that'll play out but I don't think he'd be here. He'll look like somebody be comfortable putting back there in the state he was on Saturday with any regularity because at to mass point they make it very clear what their aim is on. But return and possessing football is number one and he was over to and I believe possessing it in the other time. Kenyan barner was getting kind of pissed about him on the broadcast because he didn't go and attack the football net the ball bounced another 15 yards down the field. So yeah I think D.A.R.L. Jr. as a part return didn't seem seem great. And then just the last thing I'm here and John pointed out I'd much rather see a 50 yard field goal that's wide than one that's 10 yard short. He clearly has the leg strength and was just didn't didn't kick it straight or centered enough on either of those unfortunately. Yeah I think with D.A.R. it's enough to say he's probably not going to be returning pumps for the steam and it's just it's going to be interesting to wonder what I think I'm with you guys that it probably ends up being the Korean as the former Turner because he was a guy who got a couple of them last year. Yeah because but they're transitioning from Gary Bryant being this solidified. He's got him back there you know he's just going to catch it every time but I feel like I can remember to Corinne having like a muff or something like that last year when they put him back there. He did early early on I think in like the second game fourth quarter he got a shot and and muffled one. Yeah so yeah so I think he ends up being the guy just because of the trust standpoint but I think D.A.R. definitely has the ability to be a weapon on character. Like he's wearing no Whittington's number six and so he just looks like no Whittington back there but when he broke that one out to the 50 year line you're like oh yeah that's the that's the speed that he has to take things and take things to the house on you know as a running back and I think it could be a weapon back there for context. Do we want to talk a little bit of a receiver, Matt, just a little bit more? I think they've got three dudes, one of which didn't play. Jeremiah McClellan was unavailable, but Evan Stewart looked very much Evan Stewart, the Corey and Moore looked every much. The Corey and Moore, I don't know if it was lack of opportunity or maybe he was just bottled up. I was kind of hoping to see a little bit from my recent hooks. It really wasn't someone that popped, which is a little bit of a surprise to me. Well, yeah, and the thing that was unfortunate there was he ended up playing on the outside the whole game because Jeremiah McClellan was hurt. So he's kind of playing maybe out of position, but yeah, you're right. I totally agree. I was in aim. I was expecting to be talking about a little bit more, certainly writing about it. And yeah, he was not overly involved there. But I'll be curious to see what it looks like when he's doing a little bit more outside, maybe, or more inside. I shouldn't say that he and Hudson Lewis were both slot receivers. We were kind of both rotating in and out there, but it just didn't feel like he was maybe as comfortable because he wasn't in his normal spot in the field. You didn't really notice him out there that much. Yeah, that's true. The other name I wanted to throw out that was kind of fun to see, and it was only a couple sequences that stood out, but just the comfort level with Dante and Jamari, I thought was notable. And on that third goal finds him on a nice rattle. John, I was kind of wishing you'd watched this back or Matt because I wanted your thoughts. It looked like Coy and Finney just had a miscommunication on that one. Yeah, it literally looks like partial effort from Parach, or like he thought someone else was going to pick him up. Yeah, it's like he was like passing him to Finney and Finney was playing a zone coverage over on the other side. Either way, it was good that there was a comfort level on third down. And then the other one was they went for like fourth and two to extend a drive that I think led to a field, or maybe was led to a missed field go back when the misses by Hyridge. But he went right to Jamari on like a short underneath kind of crossing route for the first down. I just think pretty clearly that's a guy Dante is really comfortable with in Vixplots. And that's not a surprise given what those two achieved last year, but good to see that kind of security blanket and big moments kind of pop up and early to see that hey Jamari is a guy who's entrenched there. And then I guess the second thing I'll say is we could toss it and then I know John, you might have thoughts on receivers and tight ends as well. Just a lack of any production from any of the other tight ends. Like Marcus Dixon caught a pass and just bowled over. I think it was the E-Mofford that was impressive. That's kind of the only other tight end reception I remembered of note the whole game, you know. And this is a group where like Kendra Harris and Andrew Olash are probably going to be expected to be maybe the primary receiver behind Jamari at tight end and neither of them were really overly involved in this game. I think when you have so much talent at receiver this year, if you're not going to see as much of the two tight ends stuff. I mean, it's definitely not going to be as much as the second half of last year because that just became a requirement because of the injuries to the receivers. But you have so much talent at receiver and then an A1 tight end in Jamari Johnson that I think that's kind of going to be your set. And then one other guy I want to give some notice to you is Messiah Hanson at three catches. And included one nice one on the sideline, ball tracking from on like a fave ball that went up and got in and contested catch situation. Another guy who could be further down the depth chart this season as a true refreshment, but will eventually be making an impact on the outside for the scene in a couple of years and look comfortable as a true refreshment out there. That's a good call. He did very much look the part and like he belonged on the field when he had his opportunity. So glad that you mentioned him. He had a couple impressive catches too. Yeah, I can't remember who he went up on on the long pass. It was Arlo Henderson. Okay. And then he actually can very next play beat him again and then Dylan just missed him on would have been like a 40 yard touchdown. Unfortunately, he connected on. Yeah, but exactly like you were saying that he looked the part. So that's what you're looking for from a freshman out there. And then the other one I wish we that that's where you would really wish we could have seen Gatlin there. He does look the part because he's coming in 2021 and he just he doesn't look like a regular freshman. He's bigger and he's faster and stronger and stuff, but I haven't had the chance to see it yet. Unfortunately, we've been waiting for a couple years for him and it seems like we're still waiting at this point. Yeah, that was a bummer. Any last part of the class for the wrap up to show anything you guys got and we don't have football now until August when fall camp starts may be late July. We'll certainly talk about it here on the show, but we're not going to have any actual football to break down from a football perspective until then. I mean, these are such small things, but on special teams back there for a second, Bailey, Etridge and gauge. Herridge got all the like the primary place kicking and punting situations. I don't think competitions are really in existence there. Etridge, by the way, I thought looked pretty solid. You know, they did some of the East Australian. I don't know if we talked about this, but James Ferguson Reynolds and him like grew up in the same town. Like their good friends sounds like. So he brings a little that Aussie he can roll out and let it fly. They did a little bit of that and then a little bit of more like traditional stuff. I thought that looked that part looks pretty good. And then I guess just like the last part that is not as much football related is, you know, you call it a snooze fest mat. I don't really disagree. The second half was kind of boring at times. And again, we explained, I think, why the defense certainly had a big part of why the offense didn't do anything exciting for like 35 minutes of game time. But the fact that there were 45,000 plus fans at this spring game is extremely impressive. You know, I ended up because somebody was suggesting Oregon didn't have very good attendance and that in the SEC, they have 90,000 at their spring games. I went and pulled some of the numbers and like Oregon had more fans here than Georgia had for their spring than Oklahoma had for its spring game than Notre Dame had for its spring game. And Ohio State had for its spring game. So, you know, you go through it and this was a, I think it's telling that the support for Oregon football is on parallel, on par, if not better than many of the elite programs in the country right now. And it was a really fun day at Austin. Like, say what you want about what happened on the field that you get. I think there's a lot of fun things, a lot of things to learn. But like beautiful day in the 70s, I think for kick or high 60s. Couple of concise day of like two hours of football and then there were like a ton of people out there and I think they had a lot of fun. So, you know, I think certainly there were some things we would have liked to see and we're going to be frustrated. We have to wait till whatever August something to watch anything again in person, but it's a really fun day and again in April when you've been waiting for three months to watch anything. I don't know. I had a blast. So. Yeah, I thought it was what you could ask for from Spring Game. Like what I was going into this game wanting to see was just all the depth that the new depth that they had brought in in terms of transverse freshmen and stuff like that behind some of these returners. And you got a chance to see some of those guys pop and you know, you can't take too much away from Spring Game, but it's what we were looking for. You know, to see some guys like Anthony Jones come off the edge and be able to make some plays or Blue Dance where or Miss Ihampton who's going to be a guy who probably has an impact this year, but it impacts in a couple of years. So, yeah, whether it was nice, the fans were out. It was is what you're looking for from Spring Game. It's good to do it for us here on this edition of the Otts and Audible Podcast. We back later this week. I'm sure diving more into some in depth discussion around the Spring Game and what's transpired as well as projecting out to the off season and more all around the Oregon football program. But until then, you've been listening to the Otts and Audible podcast. Talk to you folks. See you. Show notes: DuckTerritory's Matt Prehm, Erik Skopil and John Evans give their review of Oregon’s spring game and break down both sides of the ball. audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices