Oregon Football Practice Report: Oct. 8
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Venue: Outdoor practice fields
Format: Full pads
There’s a touch of irony about Oregon football this week.
It’s ironic that, in an emotional, physical game such as football, communication issues have cost the Ducks at critical times this season, most disastrously in last week’s loss to Arizona. And also, that one way the UO coaching staff is trying to get the team to communicate better this week is by not letting them talk.
Several times against the Wildcats, most notably on a couple of wide-open wheel routes run by backs, Oregon’s defense tried to communicate a change in its coverage but didn’t get the message across to all 11 guys. Fixing that has been a focus this week, and one way the Ducks are addressing it is through “no-talk” periods in practice, in which only hand signals are allowed.
“The burden of communication is on the sender, not the receiver,” UO coach Mark Helfrich told the Ducks after practice. Meaning, it’s not enough to simply shout out a call or put your hand in the air to make a signal. Guys need to look at each other and make sure that message is received.
“You can communicate, but if you don’t even look at the guy and you’re saying, ‘Cover 3!’ it doesn’t mean anything, because they don’t know,” said senior cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, who stepped in front of a receiver for an interception late in today's practice. “That means you’re talking to yourself.
“That’s something we’ve been doing a lot this year. You watch on film and you see guys are putting up hand signals, but they’re not looking at anybody, so maybe that person never got the call. Maybe they were lined up in press coverage, and they didn’t get the check three, and we give up a zone.”
“Eye contact is the biggest thing. If you reassure it to the other guy, that’s going to give him confidence.”
On Saturday, Ekpre-Olomu and the UO defense take on UCLA and dual-threat quarterback Brett Hundley in the Rose Bowl (12:30 p.m. PT, FOX). Like Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, Hundley is a pass-first guy who can also run for huge yardage, placing an immense burden on the defense to be disciplined.
So communication will be of utmost importance for the Ducks, as they try to keep Hundley on his toes.
“We have to mix up our coverages, we have to disguise a lot and keep the quarterback off-guard,” Ekpre-Olomu said.
Highlights: The Ducks did a ton of red-zone work, beginning with 1-on-1 passing drills. Royce Freeman caught a ball in the end zone with a DB draped all over him , and Darren Carrington leaned across the goal line after being hit just as the ball arrived. Defensively, Dominique Harrison intercepted a pass, and Reggie Daniels had a nice breakup in the end zone. …
When it came to team drills, Freeman ran for another score, and Mariota had TD passes to Keanon Lowe, Pharaoh Brown and Devon Allen. On defense, Juwaan Williams had an interception at the goal line, Erick Dargan broke up a pass inside the 5-yard line and Dargan also had a tackle for loss, as did Tyson Coleman and Alex Balducci.
Other observations: The pads were popping today. During an early team period, there was a big collision between Freeman and Williams, and Tyrell Crosby got his helmet ripped off. There was another big hit later on when Dargan forced a running back to cut back inside, and Daniels flattened him. The Ducks said the last two days they had mentally “flushed” the disappointment of the Arizona loss, and if I wasn’t sure before, today I believed it. … Harrison, the JC transfer at corner, nearly had an interception during team red-zone drills as well. He has yet to suit up for a game this season, and is working with the scout team at this point. … Jeff Lockie was sharp in 7-on-7, spreading the ball around to Johnny Mundt, Zac Schuller and Darren Carrington. … The Ducks planned to pack up their equipment truck so it could leave later today for Saturday’s game at UCLA.
