Football Practice Report: Dec. 30
by Rob Moseley
Editor, GoDucks.com
Venue: Alamo Heights High School
Format: Helmets only
In one of many lessons the UO football team could take from the current bowl season, a Colorado State player on Tuesday couldn’t get out of bounds late in the Arizona Bowl, and time expired. That spoiled the Rams’ potential game-winning touchdown drive as Nevada held on to win.
It’s been a month now since an Oregon receiver faced such a late-game situation, needing to demonstrate the wherewithal to get out of bounds and stop the clock. A month since the UO placekicking unit faced the prospect of taking the field with the clock running, to get off a kick when the Ducks were out of timeouts.
With UO coach Mark Helfrich having scheduled six days of practice in San Antonio prior to the Alamo Bowl, rather than the usual five, the Ducks had a bonus day on the schedule. Helfrich used it Wednesday to put the Ducks through a series of game-ending scenarios, to prepare them for whatever may arise against TCU on Saturday (3:45 p.m. PT, ESPN).
“We’re taking basically two days to do what we would normally do in one,” Helfrich said. “You’re doing a bunch of stuff multiple times, whether it’s speed field-goal situations — just all the end-of-game, end-of-half scenarios that could come up.”
After two days in full pads, Monday and Tuesday, this practice normally would have been a low-speed walk-through. That will be held Thursday as usual, with Wednesday’s practice conducted without pads, but including up-tempo periods of offense, defense and special teams.
The offense was working against scouts rather than the starting defense in the “clutch” scenarios, but it went five-for-five in a period of late-game situations midway through practice.
“Guys were very focused in that part of it,” Helfrich said. “And then tomorrow we’ll start our normal protocol leading up to the game.”
Highlights: The first clutch scenario put the offense in a one-point hole in the final minute of a game. A field goal would have sufficed but Vernon Adams Jr. went 3-for-3 and finished off the possession with a touchdown pass to Darren Carrington. Jeff Lockie likewise drive the twos into the red zone quickly, setting up a “game-winning” field goal by Aidan Schneider. … The drill was reset with the offense down six points, and again Adams went 3-of-3, including a touchdown pass to Dwayne Stanford. Taylor Alie quarterbacked the twos, and threw a touchdown pass to Taj Griffin. …
The final scenario put the offense down two. Royce Freeman caught a pass and stepped out of bounds just short of the goal line, but Helfrich — possibly wanting to put more stress on the offense — ruled his progress stopped and kept the clock running. Adams didn’t flinch, getting the offense to the line to spike the ball and stop the clock. Schneider came on and converted another field goal for the “win.”
Other observations: Adams and Addison engaged in some spirited 1-on-1 passing drills before and after practice, with Carrington throwing passes to Adams while Addison defended. Addison had an interception on one play, and Adams followed with a nifty leaping, one-handed grab. … Members of the San Antonio Spurs front office attended portions of practice. UO athletic director Rob Mullens met with Spurs general manager R.C. Buford when the Ducks played in the Alamo Bowl two years ago, and they visited again prior to Oregon’s team outing to the Spurs game Monday. … Prior to practice, Pharaoh Brown, Christian French, Byron Marshall, Devin Melendez, Langston Stuckey, Jhet Janis, Sean Killpatrick Ryan Bay and Blake Maimone visited the local SeaWorld park and visited some of the animals. After practice, Oregon’s entire team spend a couple hours at the park.
