The Ducks have their first 120-play evaluation behind them. Now the questions begin shifting from what Oregon might have to what it can trust before Saturday’s second scrimmage.
Oregon entered its first fall scrimmage with almost two weeks of possibilities.
The offensive line was still mixing combinations. The defense had installed enough scheme that Chris Hampton was already talking about eventually determining what the Ducks actually did best. Drew Mehringer called Oregon a meritocracy. Position competitions remained intentionally open, and Dan Lanning had resisted the urge to turn early-August repetitions into a premature depth chart.
Saturday changed the nature of the evaluation.
Oregon went through roughly 120 plays, and Lanning said the staff would grade players through a simple standard: Are they accountable, and are they capable? Do they know and execute their responsibility, and can they physically perform what Oregon asks them to do? Players who cannot do both will eventually see their repetitions shrink.
That does not mean every competition was settled Saturday. Lanning would not even offer an immediate assessment of the offensive line before watching film.
What it does mean is that the Ducks now have considerably more evidence than they did a week ago.
With another full week of media availability ahead and a second scrimmage waiting Saturday, here is this week's Inside Read 3-2-1.
THREE OBSERVATIONS
1. Oregon's competition is beginning to move from possibilities toward trust
For most of fall camp, competition has been described in broad terms.
Mehringer called it a meritocracy. Hampton said nobody owns a starting position. A'lique Terry challenged his offensive linemen to make his decisions harder. Kam Araghi said the EDGE rotation would be determined by who could align, handle the assignment, execute and play with relentless effort.
Saturday supplied the first large body of evidence for those decisions.
That is what makes Lanning's accountable-and-capable language important. Oregon is still developing players, but the calendar eventually forces development to become selection. Someone becomes a starter. Someone enters the rotation. Someone becomes the player coaches trust on third down, in the red zone or when an injury suddenly requires the next man.
The first scrimmage probably did not settle those answers.
It likely started making them harder to avoid.
2. The line of scrimmage remains the most important tension in camp
Lanning declined to assess the offensive line before seeing Saturday's film, which was probably the appropriate answer. Terry has spent camp trying to identify not merely the best five individual linemen but the combinations that create the best unit.
His first word when asked where the group needed to improve after Practice 4 was cohesion.
“The biggest improvement, obviously, would just cohesion,” Terry said, explaining that Oregon was looking for “the right mesh and the right pairs.” Eventually, he said, the Ducks would begin “gluing it up a little bit more” once players separated themselves.
The urgency begins increasing now.
Across from that offensive line is a defensive front Hampton believes needs to create considerably more havoc than Oregon generated last season. The Ducks have emphasized sacks, tackles for loss and finishing pressures throughout camp, and Lanning said after Saturday's scrimmage that Oregon got to the quarterback multiple times while showing signs of improvement.
Monday should give us an interesting view of that collision. Quarterbacks coach Koa Ka'ai and defensive line coach Tony Tuioti are scheduled to speak, giving us perspectives from two groups directly affected by how that battle is evolving. Oregon officially lists Ka'ai as quarterbacks coach and Tuioti as defensive line coach.
3. Oregon may be entering the refinement stage of camp
The most interesting revelation from Saturday may have been what Oregon didn't try to accomplish.
Earlier in camp, Hampton described putting virtually everything on the defensive “menu” before eventually self-scouting and determining what the Ducks execute best. Mehringer made almost exactly the same point offensively, calling complexity a “double-edged sword” because every additional answer also costs repetitions somewhere else.
Lanning said the first scrimmage was different.
“Today is let's call stuff that we know our guys can execute so we can figure out who's the guy that's best at blocking, who's the guy that's best at tackling, who's the guy best at breaking tackles,” Lanning said.
That sounds like a transition point.
Oregon has spent much of August expanding what players know. The next phase should increasingly become about deciding what fits the personnel, what needs to disappear and which players can be trusted to execute the things that survive.
Scrimmage Two should give us another clue about how far that process has moved.
TWO QUESTIONS
1. How quickly does the offensive line begin to look like a unit rather than a competition?
There is nothing wrong with continuing to develop six, seven or eight linemen. Lanning has been consistent about wanting exactly that.
But Terry's own language told us where this eventually has to go.
The Ducks have been mixing.
Soon they have to start gluing.
Saturday's film should help, and the next week of work may tell us whether the combinations are beginning to narrow before Oregon goes live again.
2. Which players turn strong camps into defined roles?
That may become the more interesting question across the roster.
Competition sounds healthy when everyone still has an opportunity. The real test comes once opportunity begins turning into hierarchy.
Who becomes receiver No. 3 or No. 4? How many EDGE players really earn snaps? How deep does Oregon want to rotate the defensive line? What does the STAR competition eventually look like? Which freshmen have shown enough that the staff begins defining something they can reliably do rather than everything they may someday become?
The next four media availabilities should help us fill in some of those blanks.
ONE THING TO WATCH
Scrimmage Two is about what Oregon does with the first set of answers
I would hesitate to predict exactly how Lanning structures Saturday's second scrimmage.
What interests me more is what he says afterward.
The first scrimmage created mistakes, corrections and roughly 120 plays of evaluation. By next Saturday, coaches will have had another week to teach from that film.
That means the next test is no longer occurring in a vacuum.
Did the correction stick?
Did the player who flashed become more consistent?
Did the group that struggled improve?
Did a competition begin separating?
The first scrimmage gave Oregon evidence.
The second gets to show us what the Ducks did with it.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday, Aug. 17, 4:30 p.m.
Koa Ka'ai and Tony Tuioti
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 4:30 p.m.
Dan Lanning and select student-athletes
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 4:30 p.m.
Brian Michalowski and select student-athletes
Thursday, Aug. 20
No media availability
Friday, Aug. 21, 4:30 p.m.
Ross Douglas and select student-athletes
Saturday, Aug. 22, 3:30 p.m.
Dan Lanning following Oregon's second fall scrimmage
That is a pretty useful week of access.
Saturday gave us the first real body of evidence.
Now we get six days to find out what Oregon does with it.