Ducks Begin Spring Practice
SPRING FORWARD
Forty-three returning lettermen will be among the 93 players expected to be on hand when Oregon holds its first of 15 spring practices Saturday, April 2, beginning at 11 a.m. The Ducks will hold workouts every Tuesday and Thursday throughout April, as well as alternating Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays. The final Spring Game will take place at 12:30 p.m. Saturday,
April 30, in Autzen Stadium. Oregon will begin work to erase the taste of last year’s 5-6 record that snapped a string of the program’s seven-consecutive postseason appearances.
LEADING THE WAY
Offensively, Oregon returns virtually all of its skill position headliners. Quarterback Kellen Clemens begins his senior year sixth on Oregon’s career passing list (5,149 yards) while only Bill Musgrave, Danny O’Neil, Joey Harrington and Akili Smith threw more than Clemens’ 42 touchdown passes. Junior Terrence Whitehead returns as Oregon’s 10th 1,000-yard rusher (1,144 yards) and Demetrius Williams led the Ducks with 47 catches for 593 yards and two scores after catching only five passes for 54 yards in the final four games. Defensively, free safety J.D. Nelson looms as the top returning defender with 66
tackles in 2004. Yet it’s Haloti Ngata who should command a bulk of the team’s pre-season attention, with 28 of his 46 tackles occurring in the final six games.
WHAT’S NEW
After returning a staff intact a year ago for the first time in Mike Bellotti’s Oregon head coaching tenure, the Ducks welcome two new full-time assistants to the fold in 2005. Gary Crowton takes over as the Ducks’ offensive coordinator following four seasons as head coach at BYU. Former Oregon defensive lineman Michael Gray returns to his alma mater to coach the defensive line following two years at Kentucky and six seasons at Oregon State. In addition, 26-year Oregon assistant Neal Zoumboukos switches from the offensive line to tutor the school’s tight ends while Steve Greatwood moves from the defensive line to coach the program’s offensive linemen.
SPRING ADDITIONS
Five of the seven junior college signees from February will partake in spring drills to increase their chances to make an immediate impact in the fall. Wide receiver James Finley has been enrolled at Oregon since the start of winter quarter -- as have true freshmen Willie Glasper (CB) and T.R. Smith (TB) -- and will be joined by spring term additions Matt Dragich (P), Palauni Ma Sun (OT), Chris Mulvanny (LB) and Jason Turner (LB).
ROAD TO RECOVERY . . . Several Ducks will be restricted regarding the level of contact they are allowed to participate in while mending from off-season or last year’s injuries. Senior tight end Tim Day and redshirt freshman offensive lineman
Mark Lewis are both recovery from foot surgery, senior tight end Nate LiaBraaten is healing from shoulder surgery and senior cornerback Rodney Woods will be limited due to last fall’s knee surgery.
CHANGE OF SCENERY
A pair of players will test their trades at new positions. Junior Paul Martinez will be given a chance to win Oregon’s placekicking chores after serving as the team’s primary punter two years ago. Junior Chris Vincent has been switched from tailback to linebacker. Martinez averaged 37.0 yards per punt in 2003 before losing the job a year ago. As a placekicker a year ago behind the school’s career scoring leader, Jared Siegel, Martinez converted his lone PAT try at a position where he enjoyed a bulk of his prep success.
