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Consistency From Pass Receivers Among Priorities As Spring Dawns
03/08/19 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
The Oregon football team opens spring practice Saturday with new coaches for the receiver and tight end positions, looking to cut down on the number of drops from 2018.
Spring practice begins Saturday for the Oregon football team, and offensively the Ducks have several priorities.
Head coach Mario Cristobal laid them out in a press conference Monday. Produce more explosion plays. Operate at a faster tempo. Convert more often on third down.
A host of factors will play into how much the Ducks improve in those facets. But each will be headed in the right direction if the UO football team can raise its play in one regard: Just catch the dang ball.
The 2018 Oregon football season featured the most prolific single year by a player in school history, as Dillon Mitchell set a UO record with 1,184 yards, on 75 receptions including 10 touchdowns. Ironically, it also featured more than 50 drops by receivers, tight ends and running backs, wiping off the board hundreds of yards, countless first downs and potentially dozens of points.
With Mitchell off to the NFL, new personnel will need to step up, and there are some candidates, with two true freshman receivers and a tight end among the early enrollees for spring practice. There are also new position coaches, for both the receivers and tight ends. But it's not as simple as plugging in new people and expecting improvement.
"You don't point a finger at anybody, whether it be a tight end, receiver, running back or quarterback," Cristobal said. "You coach it better, you teach it better. You get in there and you work at it harder."
There's ample returning talent to build around. Jaylon Redd leads Oregon's returners with 38 receptions in 2018, for 433 yards and five touchdowns. Jacob Breeland was slowed by injuries last fall, but he comes into his senior season with 48 career receptions for 820 yards — a 17.1-yard average. Brenden Schooler (below) and Johnny Johnson III have a combined 79 career receptions for 991 yards and nine touchdowns, though they too are looking to bounce back from a 2018 season that wasn't up to their expectations.
The Ducks will also benefit from the presence of junior tight end Cam McCormick, who won the starting job last August but was injured in the season opener and didn't return to practice until late in Oregon's Redbox Bowl preparations. McCormick has been able to participate fully in the team's "Fourth Quarter" offseason program over the winter.
"Overall the tight end group looks really, really good," Cristobal said. "So we'll be at full force at tight end, which will be nice. We missed Cam during the season."
McCormick, Breeland and the rest of the UO tight ends will be coached this season by Bobby Williams, who joined Cristobal's staff last year as special teams coordinator. Williams will balance both jobs for the Ducks, as he did at Alabama for eight seasons that included a stretch when Cristobal coached the Crimson Tide's offensive line.
Williams mentored future NFL tight end O.J. Howard while coaching the position at Alabama.
"That being an area of expertise for him can help us become a better program," Cristobal said.
The receivers will also have a new coach, Jovon Bouknight. Known as "Coach Bo" around the program, he's a former Biletnikoff Award finalist at Wyoming who spent 10 years on the offensive staff at Utah State, before following Aggies head coach Matt Wells to Texas Tech this offseason, then taking the Oregon job. Bouknight will be tasked with improving the UO receiver group's fundamentals and technique.
"It starts with discipline," Cristobal said. "Discipline in alignment, discipline in assignment, route-running. Make sure a hitch is a hitch, and if it's at five yards, if it's at four yards, it's precise."
Oregon's receivers will enjoy some continuity among the coaching staff with the return of graduate assistant Jonathan Krause (above, left). New to the staff is analyst Prentice Gill, who spent the past three seasons as a graduate assistant at USC and is "an outstanding football mind who helps a bunch," Cristobal said.
The new faces also include receiver Josh Delgado, who enrolled at the university for winter quarter in early January. He'll be on hand for the five practices Oregon will hold prior to spring break; when practice resumes in April with 10 more workouts, the Ducks will be joined by two more pass-catching recruits, receiver Mycah Pittman and tight end Patrick Herbert.
Spring fever is in the air. Over the next several weeks, the Ducks will try to catch it.
Head coach Mario Cristobal laid them out in a press conference Monday. Produce more explosion plays. Operate at a faster tempo. Convert more often on third down.
A host of factors will play into how much the Ducks improve in those facets. But each will be headed in the right direction if the UO football team can raise its play in one regard: Just catch the dang ball.
The 2018 Oregon football season featured the most prolific single year by a player in school history, as Dillon Mitchell set a UO record with 1,184 yards, on 75 receptions including 10 touchdowns. Ironically, it also featured more than 50 drops by receivers, tight ends and running backs, wiping off the board hundreds of yards, countless first downs and potentially dozens of points.
With Mitchell off to the NFL, new personnel will need to step up, and there are some candidates, with two true freshman receivers and a tight end among the early enrollees for spring practice. There are also new position coaches, for both the receivers and tight ends. But it's not as simple as plugging in new people and expecting improvement.
"You don't point a finger at anybody, whether it be a tight end, receiver, running back or quarterback," Cristobal said. "You coach it better, you teach it better. You get in there and you work at it harder."
There's ample returning talent to build around. Jaylon Redd leads Oregon's returners with 38 receptions in 2018, for 433 yards and five touchdowns. Jacob Breeland was slowed by injuries last fall, but he comes into his senior season with 48 career receptions for 820 yards — a 17.1-yard average. Brenden Schooler (below) and Johnny Johnson III have a combined 79 career receptions for 991 yards and nine touchdowns, though they too are looking to bounce back from a 2018 season that wasn't up to their expectations.
The Ducks will also benefit from the presence of junior tight end Cam McCormick, who won the starting job last August but was injured in the season opener and didn't return to practice until late in Oregon's Redbox Bowl preparations. McCormick has been able to participate fully in the team's "Fourth Quarter" offseason program over the winter.
"Overall the tight end group looks really, really good," Cristobal said. "So we'll be at full force at tight end, which will be nice. We missed Cam during the season."
McCormick, Breeland and the rest of the UO tight ends will be coached this season by Bobby Williams, who joined Cristobal's staff last year as special teams coordinator. Williams will balance both jobs for the Ducks, as he did at Alabama for eight seasons that included a stretch when Cristobal coached the Crimson Tide's offensive line.
Williams mentored future NFL tight end O.J. Howard while coaching the position at Alabama.
"That being an area of expertise for him can help us become a better program," Cristobal said.
The receivers will also have a new coach, Jovon Bouknight. Known as "Coach Bo" around the program, he's a former Biletnikoff Award finalist at Wyoming who spent 10 years on the offensive staff at Utah State, before following Aggies head coach Matt Wells to Texas Tech this offseason, then taking the Oregon job. Bouknight will be tasked with improving the UO receiver group's fundamentals and technique.
"It starts with discipline," Cristobal said. "Discipline in alignment, discipline in assignment, route-running. Make sure a hitch is a hitch, and if it's at five yards, if it's at four yards, it's precise."
Oregon's receivers will enjoy some continuity among the coaching staff with the return of graduate assistant Jonathan Krause (above, left). New to the staff is analyst Prentice Gill, who spent the past three seasons as a graduate assistant at USC and is "an outstanding football mind who helps a bunch," Cristobal said.
The new faces also include receiver Josh Delgado, who enrolled at the university for winter quarter in early January. He'll be on hand for the five practices Oregon will hold prior to spring break; when practice resumes in April with 10 more workouts, the Ducks will be joined by two more pass-catching recruits, receiver Mycah Pittman and tight end Patrick Herbert.
Spring fever is in the air. Over the next several weeks, the Ducks will try to catch it.
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