Noah Whittington Recaps Day 10 of Oregon Fall Camp
Oregon Football running back Noah Whittington was available to media following the Ducks’ 10th practice of fall camp Monday.
Below are notable questions and quotes from his interview as well as my thoughts at the end.
On how it felt to get in pads and take contact for the first time since spring:
“It feels great. It feels like everything I’ve been missing.”
“It feels good to get tackled. After not getting hit for a long time, you’re kinda nervous for the first time back but after that it’s like I never left.”
On if he feels he’s back to 100%:
“I do.”
On what stands out to him about Oregon’s running backs room in 2024:
“How we attack adversity. Our coach has been challenging us to stack good days and when we don’t have them he can really rip into us so it’s about being able to accept his challenges and come out the next day. Mentally I feel like we’ve done a great job of doing that.”
On his relationship with running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples:
“It’s been how it should be. We have times where it’s laid back and it’s chill and when we’re not upholding the standard of the room, he lets us feel it.”
Linden’s take:
I really enjoyed this interview in spite of its brevity.
Most player interviews feel rehearsed and studied but Whittington was able to give answers that felt authentic.
It was good to hear that he feels he’s back to 100% coming off of last year’s injury in September.
Frankly I have a bit of a hard time believing it.
We heard Whittington say just weeks ago that he was able to recover quickly because he has a ‘high pain tolerance’ which doesn’t really instill confidence.
Players are not typically 100% within a calendar year of a catastrophic knee injury like Whittington’s, particularly at the running back position.
It was interesting to hear some behind-the-scenes on new running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples’ methodology as well.
I liked that Whittington was transparent about the intensity Samples can bring when he feels something isn’t being done the right way.
Players are typically pretty guarded with any suggestion that a coach is intense or gets on them so it was refreshing to get an authentic perspective.
We know it happens so why not acknowledge it?
This is typically a trait one associates with older, grizzled coaches so it’s interesting to hear that this is something Samples is bringing from a young age.
