Football Practice Recap: Dec. 15
12/15/23 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
The Ducks began preparations for the Fiesta Bowl with practice Friday morning.
Bowl practices began for the Oregon football team on Friday, as the Ducks were inside the Moshofsky Center to kick off preparations for the Fiesta Bowl matchup with Liberty on New Year's Day.
Not only was quarterback Bo Nix on hand and participating, as he'd previously announced he would, but running back Bucky Irving also is preparing to play in the bowl game despite having said he intends to enter the 2024 NFL Draft. Defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus also was a full participant, before he too turns his attention to next spring's draft.
Following practice, head coach Dan Lanning met with local media. Video of that interview is embedded below.
Some highlights from coach Lanning …
On the resumption of practice: "Feels good to be out there with our players. A lot of us (coaches) have been out on the road (recruiting) the last few weeks here, chasing a lot of other players, so it's good to be back with ours. Our guys had a good day of work but still got a lot of work ahead of us. The great thing about bowl prep is you get some extra time. So today was really about us. It's going to continue to be about us, but excited to get out there and go to work."
On the focus of early bowl practices: "It's more of a reset for us. It's more of an early fall camp practice getting out there (doing) good-on-good work, going out there doing individual (drills) – the stuff that matters in bowl games. You see it show up every single year – tackling, penalties (and) ball security."
On the potential for young guys to step up: Every one of these (bowl) games you're gonna see someone who probably hasn't made a huge impact throughout the season that shows up in a bowl game. So I'm excited to see the progress they make over these next several weeks. And then the opportunity to get on the field and make an impact."
