Young Offensive Line Learns On The Job In Opener

EUGENE, Ore. – As he approached the line of scrimmage for his first collegiate play, Oregon redshirt freshman Shane Lemieux envisioned how the next few seconds would play out.

"I told everyone I was gonna get a pancake, just like Tyrell Crosby," said Lemieux, one of four redshirt freshman starters on the UO offensive line in Saturday's 2016 season opener against UC Davis.

"I'm thinking, 'Pancake, pancake … oops.'"

The "oops" in question was a false start penalty on Lemieux, nothing like the debut Oregon's left guard envisioned. There were a few more "oops" moments for the young UO line over the course of Saturday's game, but they also got some important seasoning and helped the Ducks to a 53-28 victory over the Aggies.

"It was awesome," said Lemieux's classmate Brady Aiello, who started at left tackle while Crosby was in street clothes Saturday. "It was a blast. We just had to get the first-play jitters out of the way, and then it was coasting from there. We started clicking, and when the offensive line clocks, dangerous things can happen."

With Crosby out, Oregon's starting unit Saturday up front included Aiello, Lemieux, classmate Jake Hanson at center, senior Cameron Hunt at right guard and redshirt freshman Calvin Throckmorton. Senior transfer Zac Morgan and junior guard Doug Brenner helped stabilize things in the early going, playing the left-side spots on the Ducks' first touchdown drive, and junior Evan Voeller also got reps at both guard spots over the course of the game.

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Lemieux's false start aside, the freshmen said they were comfortable in the atmosphere of opening day at Autzen Stadium.

"I thought we talked well, we communicated well," Throckmorton said. "There's little stuff – footwork stuff, technique stuff – that's the biggest thing we need to work on I think. But we were prepared. We knew we were ready, and it was just going out and executing, doing our jobs."

The freshmen helped Oregon rush for 251 yards on the day, on 37 carries. The Ducks averaged 6.8 yards per carry, and accounted for four rushing touchdowns – two by Royce Freeman, and one each for Dakota Prukop and Tony Brooks-James.

That was despite UC Davis making some unforeseen adjustments to its defensive game plan. The Ducks anticipated a four-man, or "even," front, but the Aggies were shifting – or "stemming" – into an odd look presnap. Oregon's young offensive line took a few series to get comfortable with all the shifting.

Hunt, the lone veteran in the starting group, said the offensive line began to build some momentum with its blocking for power running plays such as Freeman's 49-yard that set up Prukop's rushing touchdown in the third quarter.

"That power to Royce, that was a big run that gave us some momentum, gave us some confidence," Hunt said. "Getting that confidence and getting those young guys some reps is really going to help them out a lot."

One area of offensive line play that didn't garner any attention Saturday – and that's a good thing – was center-quarterback exchanges. Hanson's snaps were generally on point, a welcome development after the Ducks started seniors each of the past two seasons.

Hanson was also the toughest critic of the line's play Saturday, calling it "not up to our standard" and "really sloppy." But he chalked some of that up to nerves, which presumably won't be in play as prominently moving forward.

"It came up on us fast," Hanson said. "We were talking a week ago like, 'It's game week.' And then as the game got closer it was like, 'Dang, it's getting real now.' Even last night up until this morning, it didn't even feel like we were going to be playing in our first college game. But overall I think we did well enough. We have stuff to build on now. It wasn't a failure, by any means, and we're excited for next week."