Jabbar Muhammad Looking Forward to First Oregon State Rivalry Game
Oregon Ducks cornerback Jabbar Muhammad has had a great start to his lone season in Eugene. Through two games he’s logged 8 tackles, 0.5 tackles for loss and 3 pass breakups.
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He met with reporters following Tuesday’s practice to preview his first chance to play in the Oregon vs. Oregon State rivalry.
Below you’ll find some of his top quotes and his analysis.
On what he remembers about playing Reser Stadium last year:
Muhammad: “It’s a wild environment. The fans are right there on you, talking smack really loud. We have to come in there on our A game. As far as environment they’re really rowdy. They’re gonna be in there.”
On taking pride in deflected balls for Oregon defensive backs:
Muhammad: “A lot. We emphasize it every day. Even in practice we come out and do extra. We gotta start catching ’em now. Take ’em the other way but we take pride whenever the ball comes our way not allowing a catch.”
On if he gave Jordan Burch a hard time for not intercepting pass vs. Boise State:
Muhammad: “Oh man we were talking about it yesterday after the cold tub we were talking about it. I didn’t actually see the play ’cause I was in coverage. But when saw it back on film I said ‘bro, come on now.’ We give him a hard time about it.”
On looking back at Oregon State/Washington game last year:
Muhammad: “They’re kind of the same team with some of the same schemes and tools or whatever. Just getting dialed in on the playbook, getting dialed in on what we got going this week and applying that to Saturday.”
On how similar what Oregon State is doing now to what they were doing last year:
Muhammad: “There’s a few tweaks here and there. They opened it up a little bit more but they’re still a run-heavy team so we gotta be on our Ps and Qs.”
On what he’s seen from OSU wide receivers, #7 (Trent Walker):
Muhammad: “Most definitely explosive player. Can run a pretty good route tree. Good yards after catch and everything like that so we gotta stay top down and try to hold him as much as we can.”
On what he’s doing to prepare to face a run-heavy team:
Muhammad: “Like I said since I’ve been here the practices are already physical, we already work tackling a whole bunch. So just implementing that to Saturday.
On his perspective of Oregon vs. Oregon State rivalry:
Muhammad: “Like you said from afar I haven’t really seen it too close, so I’m just gonna be looking forward to Saturday, see what it’s really about.”
Torres’ Take
Muhammad may not have had a chance to play in this rivalry just yet, but he sure had Oregon State’s number when Washington played the Beavs last year. He had two interceptions and four pass breakups on a rainy night in Corvallis.
Oregon State’s passing game hasn’t been the strongest to start the year, and it shouldn’t get much easier with Muhammad lining up from the Beavers wideouts on Saturday.
