Oregon Football Practice Recap: Sept. 25
By Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Venue: Outdoor practice fields
Format: Shells
Only four full-time coaches were present for Oregon’s practice Thursday, forcing the Ducks to shuffle the staff and cover all the position groups. The four graduate assistants each took one, leaving only the outside linebackers. But they were covered, too, by a new member of the staff, due to some unfortunate circumstances.
Junior walk-on Ryan McCandless was medically retired earlier this month after his most recent concussion, the symptoms of which compelled team doctors to sideline him permanently. McCandless will spend the rest of the season in a volunteer undergraduate assistant role to position coach Erik Chinander, and will have a conspicuous role in games, signaling in plays from the sideline.
McCandless, a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, played in Oregon’s opener last year and this season, against South Dakota. He suffered a concussion the following Monday in practice, and was medically retired a couple weeks later. “I guess that’s a decision that had to be made for me, because I’m biased,” McCandless said. “I wanted to stay out here, obviously.”
After receiving that news, McCandless had a tough talk with his family, and then another with Chinander. He was offered the chance to stick around and help Chinander with the outside linebackers, the position where McCandless toiled the last three seasons as a valuable but unheralded scout-team guy.
“He’s been a great ‘program guy,’” UO coach Mark Helfrich said. “A guy with his work ethic, we’re always looking for guys in that ‘overachiever’ mode, and helping that mindset permeate our team is valuable.”
McCandless is a sociology major who is eyeing a future in marketing. He had another year of eligibility in football, for 2015, but now will play out this season as an undergraduate assistant before going off to start his career.
He could have focused full-time on school this fall, but didn’t want to leave the team just yet. “I wanted to stick around and be a part of it,” McCandless said. “I’ve worked with all these guys, so it wouldn’t make sense to me for me to leave them when I could still help out.”
McCandless was able to help out Thursday, in Chinander’s absence, by helping the outside linebackers’ position drills run smoothly. He’ll also have some administrative duties, breaking down film to help the Ducks prepare for games.
And, most obviously for fans, he’ll be signaling in defensive plays during games, as he did last week on Oregon’s road trip to WSU. “At first I was a little nervous, because it’s kind of a bigger role than I’ve had in a lot of games,” McCandless said with a laugh. “But after the first series, it felt just like practice.”
Highlights: Play of the day was by Johnathan Loyd. Ducks were in a clutch drill, the offense needing a touchdown and down to its last play from near midfield. Juwaan Williams knocked down a Hail Mary into the end zone, and Loyd, trailing the play, had it fall right into his arms for the touchdown. Not sure what else Williams could have done to break it up; just a case of Loyd being in the right place at the right time. Arizona is coming to town next week after beating Cal on a Hail Mary, so it was crazy timing to see this develop in Oregon’s practice today. … Caveat: Tui Talia might have ended the play before it really got started with a sack, had the drill been live. Hard to say for sure. (EDIT: Looks like Helfrich told media after practice he would have ruled it a sack.)
Otherwise, the defense held up well through the clutch periods, in which the offense had possessions needing both a field goal and a touchdown. Christian French helped spoil one drive with a sack, and Tyree Robinson recovered a fumble on another. … That tipped the scales back to even after the offense had the edge in 7-on-7. They were trying to convert second-and-long situations, and Marcus Mariota converted pretty much every single time he was on the field, completing passes to five different receivers.
Other observations: The coaches in town, along with Mark Helfrich, were coordinators Scott Frost and Don Pellum, and receivers coach Matt Lubick. The rest were on the road recruiting. … Robinson had a couple interceptions in 1-on-1 drills, while Keanon Lowe and Thomas Tyner beat their defenders deep for TD receptions. … The Ducks now have Friday off before holding a “Monday” practice on Saturday to start Arizona week. ... Former UO quarterback Dennis Dixon dropped in for the last few periods of practice.
