Oregon Football Practice Report: Nov. 21
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Venue: Autzen Stadium
Format: Fast Friday
It’s the elephant in the room, so when writing about UO scout-team receiver Jeff Bieber, let’s get the subject of his name out of the way right off the bat.
Yes, the freshman widout from Sunset High in Beaverton has the same surname as a notorious young pop star. Yes, he’s made aware of that fact by coaches and teammates from time to time, up to and including Mark Helfrich. And he’s fine with that.
“I think it’s funny,” Bieber said today as he left the field following Oregon’s final practice for Saturday’s game in Autzen Stadium against Colorado (1:30 p.m. PT, Pac-12 Networks).
“If anything, Coach Helf knows my name; if that’s how I’m going to get known I’m cool with it. Eventually, hopefully I get past that and they know me for me, and how hard I work. But for now I’ll take it.”
Over the course of this year, and particularly this week, Bieber has done plenty to get himself noticed as a football player. The lanky 6-foot-2, 177-pound receiver simply catches the football, almost without fail, despite not being the fastest or most athletic guy on the field.
That made him a great fit this week to mimic Colorado receiver Nelson Spruce with the scout team. "I really just had to take every play as fast and hard as I could, because he does that,” Bieber said. “Never let the defense take plays off.”
Bieber said he’s always had pretty good hands, but that hasn’t stopped him from working to be even more dependable this fall. His top order of business has been improving his speed. “It’s a good thing I came to the No. 1 speed school in the nation,” he said. “If I was going to develop speed, it was going to be here.”
Like all scout-team guys, Bieber hopes eventually to grow beyond that role, and turn into a contributor with the travel squad. For a guy with a famous name, that would be a great way to earn some notoriety for himself.
“All I was looking for was an opportunity,” Bieber said. “That’s all you can ask for. Once you get the opportunity, it’s up to me to work as hard as I can. As long as I do that, I’ll be good whatever happens.”
Scout-team scrimmage highlights: I thought this was the best the offense has been able to run the ball all year in these scrimmage periods. Guys like center Brigham Stoehr, guard Tanner Davies and tackle Braden Eggert have played a ton together this season, and their cohesiveness is showing. Jarret LaCoste had a couple nice runs, and J.J. Jones and Ty Griffin had long gains as well. … The defense had the edge in the passing game however. There were only a couple completions, and as many instances of the quarterbacks having to tuck the ball and scramble when they couldn’t find anyone open. The secondary included Glen Ihenacho at corner for some reps; he’s primarily been a safety this season. … For the front seven, Jimmie Swain had a tackle for loss and Isaac Ava broke up a pass on back-to-back plays midway through the period. Jonathan Kenion and Michael Manns teamed up for a tackle for loss a few reps later.
