The latest on Oregon's position battles
With preseason camp winding down, there are still a few key position battles that need to be sorted out before the Ducks kick off the season on Sept. 4.
On Tuesday, coach Mario Cristobal said that Ducks have an idea of who their starters will be at every position. He and his staff are planning to inform players of those decisions “in the next couple of days.”
“We have an idea now,” Cristobal said. “We just never really come out and formally announce it. We want to respect the players and make sure that they hear it from their coaches first and don’t read it in a blog or a post.”
Among the positions that still have ongoing competitions are quarterback, safety, inside linebacker and cornerback.
At the start of camp, Cristobal said he expected this to be the most competitive preseason camp during his tenure at Oregon. The jury is still out on whether that has been the case.
“We’re not done yet,” Cristobal said. “We’ve got to finish it. We need to challenge each other more. There’s no sugar coating it, man. … It’s gonna be critical for us to completely be physical, in great shape and understand our systems from top to bottom.”
Oregon’s depth chart could be drastically dictated by if, or when, Jamal Hill and DJ James are cleared to play this season. But for now, the battle for the starting boundary corner spot will be one that likely goes down to the wire.
Cristobal said Tuesday that both Trikweze Bridges and Dontae Manning “have been really, really good.”
“If we had to play today, both those guys are playing,” Cristobal said.
Cristobal said Avante Dickerson really “popped” on Tuesday and made a big play during a two-minute scenario.
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“He’s just really, really active around the football and is doing a really nice job,” Cristobal said.
The battle for playing time at tight end will also be one to monitor. Cristobal said freshman Moliki Matavao and Terrance Ferguson both stood out and made tough catches Tuesday.
Last year’s starter, DJ Johnson, will obviously factor into that competition as well and is showing encouraging signs after missing the first weke of camp entirely.
“He’s a good football player,’ Cristobal said. “A lot fo experience. Hard worker. … Certainly everybody is really happy to see him. He’s done a really good job and we think he’s going to be a really good player for us this year.”
There has still been no hard and fast date announced for when the Ducks will release on official depth chart.
“Quite frankly, there might be one or two competitions that go on a little bit farther, because those guys are playing well,” Cristobal said.
