Oregon Ducks hitting stride following "best practice" of fall camp
Thus far in his Oregon tenure, Dan Lanning hasn’t been afraid to make it known when he is unhappy with what he saw from his players during practice.
So it was notable on Tuesday when he began his weekly media availability by calling the afternoon’s practice “the best of fall camp.”
“Really good energy. Guys really pushed,” Lanning said. “Great strain looking for the second effort, and I think everyone’s trying to find that 1% today. I thought it really showed up.”
It doesn’t sound like that will be a one-off occasion, either. Lanning said players are taking “ownership” for what practice looks like and are bringing better energy and intensity than they were when camp began.
“I think guys just came out with the right mindset saying, “You know what? I want to get better today. I’m not looking for this just to be another day.’ They did a good job of that,” Lanning said.
It’s been back to the drawing board for Oregon this week after the program held its first scrimmage on Saturday. Coaches and players spent Sunday going over the film, and have tried to clean up a few issues in the days that followed.
In particular, coaches have honed in on intricate details that will be essential in the lead-up to Week 1.
“Just really fundamentally, there’s plenty still for us to clean up,” Lanning said. “There’s not a lot that really shows the sequence of a game in practice. A scrimmage is your best way to replicate that. So the substitution patterns, the matching personnel, the moving the ball big plays down the field — we have to try to create that more in practice, and that showed up in the scrimmage and because it’s stuff that we can improve.”
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The quarterback play, in particular, has taken a step forward this week. On Saturday, Lanning said that none of his three scholarship signal-callers have necessarily separated themselves in the battle for the starting job.
On Tuesday, Lanning reiterated that he believes that the Ducks can win with Jay Butterfield, Bo Nix, or Ty Thompson. As he sees it, all three players took a step forward on Tuesday.
I thought they made really good decisions today,” Lanning said. “Had a couple of scenarios at the end we worked four-minute and two minutes today. You know, we’re gonna get the ball back situations and it was pleasantly surprising to me. The quarterbacks turn around, asking me questions. ‘Hey, Coach, we want to take a timeout here? Do we want to not score here in this situation?’ I think that’s smart football play.”
Lanning was also complimentary of the steps forward taken by the receiver room and a few key defensive players since the start of camp.
Oregon is scheduled to begin practice at approximately 2:50 p.m. on Wednesday. Afterward, a handful of offensive players who are yet to be announced will meet with reporters for interviews.
