Joe Lorig provided the clearest picture yet of Oregon’s rebuilt specialist group, while A’lique Terry detailed an offensive line still embracing competition as it moves closer to finding the cohesion the Ducks will need this fall.
Through the first three practices of Oregon fall camp, much of the conversation centered on possibilities.
Dan Lanning talked about finding players who can perform above the line and resisted any desire to settle the offensive line too quickly. Chris Hampton described a defense capable of installing more because of its experience, while still insisting nobody owns a starting job. Drew Mehringer carried that same idea to the offense, calling Oregon a “meritocracy” and emphasizing that the Ducks need to balance creativity with the repetitions required to execute it.
Practice 4 brought the first real movement from possibilities toward answers.
Special teams coordinator Joe Lorig was unusually direct about two of Oregon’s most visible specialist competitions. Gage Hurych is the clear favorite to replace Atticus at kicker, and Bailey Ettridge has established himself as the leader at punter. Neither job is being treated as permanent, and Lorig repeatedly emphasized that every special teams repetition is charted, but the hierarchy is beginning to take shape.
A’lique Terry’s offensive line is not there yet, nor does he want it to be. His message Monday was that Oregon still needs to identify the right five, the right combinations and the right positional fits before it begins “gluing” the unit together. That fits exactly with what Lanning said after Practice 1 when he explained why the Ducks intentionally rotate linemen and why he hoped to find as many as eight capable of winning football rather than declaring five starters in early August.
What made Practice 4 interesting was how much the two position groups actually had in common. One is replacing nearly every recognizable specialist from last season, while the other lost three offensive line starters. Both are relying upon succession plans that began long before fall camp. Both are using competition as development rather than simply evaluation, and both have veteran players whose value extends beyond whether they win their individual jobs.
The overarching message from Lorig and Terry was essentially the same one Oregon has been delivering throughout camp.
Develop the next player before you need him.
Then make him earn it.
Lorig leaves little doubt about Gage Hurych
The first significant depth-chart clarity of camp came almost immediately.
Asked about the competition to replace Atticus, Lorig praised Rocco Graziano and Keaton as players who will continue pushing Hurych, but he did not hide where things stand.
“I think it’s pretty confident to say that Gage is going to be the guy,” Lorig said.
That answer feels less like a sudden Practice 4 development than the culmination of a succession plan Oregon has been implementing for two years.
Hurych said essentially the same thing at Media Day when asked what it felt like to enter fall camp knowing he was likely to take over the job.
“It’s something I’ve been working for for the last two years and really before that, long before that,” Hurych said. “I’ve been preparing for a long time, so I’m excited.”
Lorig filled in the details Monday.
Oregon deliberately found opportunities to get Hurych onto the field last season, including extra points and field goals, because the staff did not want the first meaningful kick of his career to arrive after Atticus was already gone. The same philosophy carried into practice, where Lorig and Lanning would sometimes add another pressure kick specifically for Hurych after the incumbent had already taken his repetition.
If Oregon was practicing a potential game-winner, Lorig explained, the Ducks did not always stop after Atticus attempted it. Hurych would be called out to experience the same pressure scenario.
“You want to prepare for those things at least a year in advance or you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage,” Lorig said.
That is an important piece of context because Hurych identified experience as one of the questions surrounding him at Media Day.
“Experience is something that people say I lack, but I got a lot of it last year,” he said, noting that simply entering actual games helped make the transition feel less theoretical.
Lorig’s comments suggest Oregon never viewed those appearances as meaningless late-game repetitions. They were deposits against a future the Ducks expected would eventually arrive.
It has arrived now.
Why Lorig thinks the “Iceman” can handle the mental part
Field-goal kicking is one of the few football jobs where the outcome can look almost entirely individual even though an entire operation precedes the kick.
Lorig spent considerable time Monday discussing the psychological burden of that reality. A quarterback may command the attention of a stadium before the snap, but once the ball is in play there are receivers running routes, linemen blocking and defenders reacting. When a kicker walks onto the field for a game-winning attempt, Lorig said, the attention remains fixed almost entirely on him.
“The whole world, it feels like, is looking at you,” Lorig said.
There is only so much Oregon can do to replicate that.
Lanning and Lorig can attach consequences to practice kicks, including making the team run if the kicker misses. They can manufacture game situations. They can put Hurych in front of the team and create as much pressure as possible, but Lorig acknowledged that there is no true practice equivalent for walking onto a Big Ten field with a game hanging on one swing of the leg.
That is why Lorig puts so much emphasis on mental makeup during recruiting. He said the successful kickers he has coached, including players who eventually reached the NFL, shared common traits in how they responded to adversity.
Hurych gave Oregon another quality Lorig values.
He considers himself a football player who became a kicker rather than someone who only kicked. Lorig emphasized Hurych’s broader athletic background Monday, while Hurych said at Media Day that he played receiver and corner in high school and still enjoys demonstrating that he is more athletic than the stereotype attached to his position.
“A lot of people view kickers as just like a robot going out there to kick the ball, but I want to show people that I’m an athlete,” Hurych said.
The more important trait, though, may be emotional consistency.
Lorig said teammates were calling Hurych “Iceman” almost immediately after he arrived because his demeanor barely changes after a make or a miss. Hurych described his own mental development at Media Day as something built through repetition, almost as if he were training another physical muscle.
“A really big piece of it is honestly putting yourself in game mode in practice,” Hurych said. “If you’re good at that, I feel like that translates so well to the game.”
The spring game provided evidence that the process is not complete. Hurych had the leg for longer attempts but did not finish them, something we noted at the time as one of the special teams areas Oregon still needed to sharpen.
What Lorig made clear Monday is that those misses did not change Oregon’s long-range belief in Hurych.
If anything, learning how he responds to them is part of the evaluation.
Bailey Ettridge was recruited specifically because Oregon did not want to abandon its punting flexibility
If Lorig was direct about Hurych, he was equally clear about Ettridge.
“Bailey’s in the lead,” Lorig said. “It’s not a secret. He knows that. The other players know that.”
Michael Spatoni is pushing him, while young Jack Nicolai gives Oregon another developmental option. Lorig stressed that every specialist competition remains active because the Ducks chart essentially everything, including the daily skill period that begins practice. Those results go to Lanning, Lorig and the players each night.
But Ettridge is first right now.
What may be more revealing is why Oregon recruited him in the first place.
At Media Day, Ettridge said he believed his Australian background and similarity to James Ferguson-Reynolds were part of the attraction. Monday, Lorig confirmed it without hesitation.
“That’s 100% the reason,” he said.
The connection begins in Geelong, Victoria, where both punters are from, but it goes much deeper than geography.
Australian rules football gave Ettridge a kicking background that feels instinctive in a way traditional American punting often does not. He explained at Media Day that he played Australian football from age 5 until 25 and that punting is essentially how players pass the ball in that sport. Learning the American spiral required mechanical changes, but kicking itself did not feel foreign.
That opens possibilities for Oregon.
Lorig pointed to Ferguson-Reynolds’ ability to hold the ball longer and give the coverage unit additional time to get downfield, along with the fake punt against Oregon State as an example of the decision-making and feel an older Australian punter can bring to the position.
Ettridge understood that connection before arriving. Ferguson-Reynolds told him Oregon had allowed him to punt in a style comfortable to him, which mattered because Ettridge viewed their approaches as similar.
So Oregon is not merely replacing a punter.
It is trying to preserve much of the flexibility Ferguson-Reynolds gave the unit.
Ettridge’s age is a feature, not an oddity
Lorig joked Monday that he teases Ettridge about being 28, but his explanation quickly became more serious.
He likes the maturity.
Ettridge has experienced something almost no other Oregon player has. He spent years working an actual trade before college football became part of his life, including an apprenticeship and construction work as a welder.
Lorig brought that up while Oregon’s players were watching construction workers around the new facility.
Ettridge could tell them with some authority that football is not the only hard work available to them.
“He was a welder,” Lorig said. “That’s real work. If you think this is hard, go try doing that.”
There is also a perspective that comes from having spent years outside the college football bubble. Lorig, who grew up in Oregon and called this his dream job, said he values players who understand how fortunate they are to be part of the program rather than assuming this lifestyle is simply normal.
Ettridge expressed much the same thought at Media Day. He said he probably would not have handled college football as well had he made the transition when he was younger. By the time he arrived at Nevada, he had enough life experience to remain relatively level even when his first college game came in front of roughly 110,000 people at Penn State.
“If something bad happens, it’s not the end of the world,” Ettridge said. “You can fix it on the next one.”
That sounds remarkably similar to the quality Lorig values in Hurych.
The kicker and punter have traveled entirely different roads to Oregon, but the Ducks are betting on a similar emotional quality at both positions.
Stay level.
Make the next play.
Punt return will prioritize possession before explosiveness
Oregon has no shortage of intriguing possibilities in the return game.
Dakorien Moore has already shown what he can do with the ball in his hands. Evan Stewart is working there. Jeremiah McClellan has taken reps. Freshman Jalen Lott is part of the competition, and Koi Perich brings meaningful return experience from Minnesota.
It would be easy to look at that list and immediately ask which player is most dangerous in space.
Lorig is asking a different question first.
Who is going to catch the ball?
Oregon’s two primary punt-return goals are own the ball and avoid penalties. Lorig was careful to say that does not mean the Ducks are indifferent to explosive returns, but he will not select a returner solely because that player has the highest offensive ceiling.
“We think we’re going to have a great offense,” Lorig said.
That changes the calculation. A returner who gains 10 additional yards but occasionally gives the opponent the football may not provide nearly as much value as the player who reliably ends every punt with Oregon’s offense taking the field.
Lorig said the Ducks chart drops and ball security every day before weighing those numbers against a player’s ability with the ball in his hands. That makes the ideal returner not simply Oregon’s most explosive athlete, but its best combination of trustworthy hands and playmaking.
There is a spring connection worth remembering here. Dierre Hill’s return ability was obvious, but his punt-security issues were also something that needed to be cleaned up before fall.
Lorig’s comments Monday reinforce why.
Explosiveness earns consideration.
Possession earns trust.
Dakorien Moore, Stewart, Lott and Perich give Oregon very different return options
The names involved make this competition one of the more interesting ones on the roster.
Moore is the obvious open-field threat, and his development from freshman playmaker into a more complete offensive player has been one of the recurring themes of camp. Stewart brings another level of established explosiveness, while Lott is forcing his way into conversations throughout the roster.
Hampton praised Lott after Practice 2 even though the freshman plays on the opposite side of the ball.
“He has a ton of potential,” Hampton said. “He has a tremendous catch radius and can accelerate. He has really good hands, can start and stop and has good burst.”
Those hands matter particularly when Lorig is evaluating punt return.
Perich may offer the most interesting balance between explosiveness and experience. Lorig initially omitted him when listing the return candidates, then immediately corrected himself when asked specifically about the Minnesota transfer.
Perich has already been the player standing beneath college punts when the ball descends and coverage players are approaching. That matters to Lorig because, as with kicking, there is a mental component that is difficult to recreate.
At Minnesota, Perich played offense, defense and special teams, including significant work in both the kickoff and punt-return games.
At Oregon Media Day, however, Perich’s emphasis was not on arriving with a résumé. It was on starting again with daily work.
“I just take it one day at a time here at Oregon,” Perich said. “The safeties and I have been grinding each and every day, getting in extra work.”
That combination of experience and willingness to compete is precisely why Lorig considers him a viable return option.
Perich’s versatility may make him valuable far beyond returning punts
Lorig’s discussion of Perich also provided an important reminder about how Oregon views special teams.
The Ducks do not want special teams populated only by players who could not win offensive or defensive roles.
They want their best players involved.
Under the understanding Lorig has with Lanning, virtually every player outside quarterbacks and offensive and defensive linemen should be capable of starting on two special teams units. That makes Perich’s versatility particularly useful because the question is not simply whether he can return kicks.
Lorig compared him with former Duck safety Dillon Thieneman, who contributed on kickoff coverage, punt and punt return despite carrying a major defensive role. Kenyon Sadiq became another example because he started on all four primary special teams units during his Oregon career.
The logic extends beyond helping the Ducks now.
Lorig reminded players that most of them will have to contribute on special teams if they reach the NFL unless they arrive as exceptionally high draft choices. He cited Jeff Bassa as an example of a former Oregon player who took special teams seriously and later sent Lorig video of himself performing a drill at NFL camp that he had learned in Eugene.
For a player like Perich, special teams versatility is therefore not extra work disconnected from his professional ambitions.
It is part of the résumé.
The offensive line has moved from “who can play?” toward “who fits together?”
If Lorig provided clarity, Terry provided the next stage of Oregon’s most scrutinized unresolved competition.
His first word when asked where the offensive line needs to improve was cohesion.
That answer matters because it suggests the questions have started to evolve.
The early offseason concern was understandable. Oregon lost three starters from an offensive line that again finished as a Joe Moore Award finalist. There was no massive portal rebuild to replace them, creating obvious questions about whether the Ducks trusted the players already in the room.
Fox Crader answered that at Media Day.
“I believe everybody we need is in the room right now,” Crader said, adding that Oregon’s younger linemen were pushing players who might otherwise feel comfortable.
Lanning then made clear after Practice 1 that Oregon did not want a settled five yet. He hoped to find as many as eight linemen capable of playing winning football and argued that rotations are how players such as Josh Conerly Jr., Jackson Powers-Johnson and Laloulu became ready before they were permanent starters.
Terry’s comments after Practice 4 sound like the natural next chapter.
Oregon is still evaluating individuals, but eventually those individuals have to become a unit.
“The biggest improvement, obviously, would just cohesion,” Terry said. “Trying to get that cohesiveness now, right now in fall camp, trying to find those guys, the right mesh and the right pairs to be playing with each other.”
Most of the linemen have played beside one another at some point in practices over the past several years. Michael Bennett III is the most obvious exception because he arrived from Yale, but the raw familiarity across much of the room gives Oregon a foundation.
Now Terry has to decide which pieces fit best together.
Terry is still mixing combinations, but the “gluing” stage is coming
One of the natural questions around offensive-line competition is how long a staff can rotate before the search for depth starts interfering with the chemistry of the eventual starting five.
Terry believes Oregon can do both.
There are repetitions the public never sees. Half-line work, position groups, individual periods and smaller pods give players opportunities to work beside one another even if a particular combination does not appear during a team period. A lineman might accumulate 15 or 20 repetitions at another position through those sessions before being asked to execute it with the full offense.
That is how Terry believes Oregon can continue training versatility without sacrificing evaluation.
Eventually, however, the rotation will narrow.
“We’re gonna start gluing it up a little bit more,” Terry said. “Once guys start to separate themselves.”
He does not sound impatient for that moment.
In fact, Terry gave his offensive line a challenge that could easily serve as the theme for the position competition.
“Make my life harder,” he said. “Make my life as hard as possible. That’s a good thing.”
That is the offensive-line version of Mehringer’s meritocracy. Oregon does not want five obvious starters in August because the alternatives are clearly inferior. It wants enough capable linemen that narrowing the group requires uncomfortable decisions.
Crader said the same thing at Media Day.
“The best five are going to play,” he said. “That’s his motto. That’s what we live by.”
Practice 4 did not reveal who those five are.
It did reveal that Oregon thinks the competition is still doing exactly what it is supposed to do.
Laloulu’s role has expanded beyond being Oregon’s returning center
The stabilizing piece remains Iapani “Poncho” Laloulu.
Mehringer described him after Practice 3 as “the rock, the apex” of Oregon’s offensive line, praising a veteran player who still responds to corrections as though he is fighting for his first opportunity. Mehringer used Jerry Rice taking notes late in his NFL career as an analogy for Laloulu’s approach to being coached.
“He’s vocal. He’s tough. He’s physical. He’s everything that you want that kid to be,” Mehringer said.
Terry took that story a step further Monday.
The leadership is becoming more visible.
Laloulu is speaking up during practice and actively taking younger linemen under his wing. Terry described the relationship with the freshmen as something approaching an older brother rather than simply an established starter explaining assignments.
What impressed Terry is that Laloulu does not reserve that investment for one player. He has longstanding relationships with some of the younger linemen, but Terry sees him pouring the same energy into Manny, Tommy and others across the room.
“He could easily just be his own, doing his own thing,” Terry said. “But he’s taking full heed to being a leader of the room.”
That is consistent with what Crader said Monday at Media Day a week ago. He described Laloulu as someone who “takes the next step forward every chance he gets” and personally makes sure the group is developing chemistry in the weight room, through extra work and outside the facility.
Dave Iuli described the same responsibility from the other veteran spot. He said he and Laloulu returned understanding that their job was to establish the foundation for younger linemen and preserve an Oregon offensive-line standard that existed before them.
That gives Oregon something particularly valuable during an unsettled competition.
The lineup may be changing.
The standard has recognizable people carrying it.
Dante Moore and Laloulu may give Oregon something it has not had under Lanning
Terry also added context to a connection we have heard about repeatedly through the first week.
Dante Moore and Laloulu are no longer simply returning starters at quarterback and center.
They understand the offense together.
Terry described listening to the two talk football and seeing flashes of the way experienced quarterbacks operate within a building. He referenced Bo Nix as an example of a quarterback constantly present in meetings and conversations, then said Moore is beginning to demonstrate that same kind of ownership.
Mehringer made a similar point after Practice 3, identifying leadership as Moore’s greatest area of growth. The quarterback attends meetings intended largely for younger players, makes sure freshmen are there and has become one of the people setting the operating standard for the offense. Mehringer called the quarterback the “heartbeat” and “foundation” of what happens offensively and said Moore’s football knowledge is among the best he has encountered.
Terry sees Laloulu operating on a similar level.
The center is not merely thinking about blocking calls. Terry said Laloulu can discuss what a receiver or running back has on a play because he has absorbed the totality of the offense.
That becomes particularly important while the four positions around him are still being sorted.
A quarterback and center working from the same understanding can stabilize a tremendous amount of transition.
The freshmen are getting the faucet turned on
The most intriguing part of Terry’s press conference may have been his willingness to discuss the possibility of true freshmen playing.
He did not hedge.
“No doubt,” Terry said when asked whether it is realistic.
Laloulu is his obvious precedent. He rotated as a freshman behind experienced players and gradually became a larger part of the line, precisely the developmental model Lanning referenced after Practice 1.
Now Tommy and Manny are being given enough information to discover whether they can follow a similar path.
Terry said both are physically gifted and love football, while Manny naturally begins slightly behind because he arrived later. What has impressed the staff is their willingness to seek extra meetings, work together and ask questions rather than pretending they understand something they do not.
That final detail matters to Terry.
Young linemen can be reluctant to expose what they do not know. These two are not.
Crader made the same observation at Media Day. He called the young linemen “big dudes who can move,” praised the way they are picking up the playbook and said Tommy had already benefited from being in Eugene during the spring while Manny was still absorbing the system after arriving later.
Terry believes the teaching process should feel overwhelming at first.
His description was essentially turning on the faucet.
The Ducks expose young offensive linemen to more than one position because Terry wants them understanding how the entire unit functions. A right tackle who later moves to guard begins understanding why certain calls are made and how responsibilities fit together rather than memorizing only one assignment.
During the first week, Terry said, freshmen can look at him as though they have no idea what is happening.
A few weeks later, they start answering the questions before he does.
“That’s the point,” Terry said. “I want these guys to have a mastery of it.”
Terry and Hampton do not teach young players exactly the same way, and there is a reason
There was an interesting connection to Hampton’s Practice 2 press conference.
Hampton explained that with a young defensive back such as Jett Washington, there can be value in allowing him to become confident at one position before dramatically increasing the amount of cross-training. Too many responsibilities too early can slow a player down and damage confidence.
Terry was asked Monday whether he follows the same philosophy.
Not exactly.
Offensive line requires five players to operate so closely that Terry sees value in introducing positional variety earlier. A lineman may not master multiple spots immediately, but experiencing guard and tackle helps him understand why the person beside him makes a particular call.
That is not really a contradiction between the two Oregon assistants.
It is an example of teaching being position-specific.
Hampton wants a young safety playing confidently before expanding his world. Terry believes an offensive lineman becomes more confident once he understands why the other four people around him are doing what they are doing.
The objective is the same.
Make complicated football become understandable enough that the player can react rather than think.
Tommy Tofi’s development is extending far beyond the playbook
Terry’s update on Tofi also connected directly to one of the larger themes we heard throughout Media Day.
Development at Oregon is becoming increasingly holistic.
Terry praised the physical change Tommy has made since spring, including losing excess weight and adding muscle. The football knowledge is progressing, but Terry emphasized that the freshman is also learning how to eat, sleep, hydrate and structure his life like a college player.
That may be the hardest adjustment for a young lineman because the habits required to maintain a 300-plus-pound body capable of playing fast are not intuitive.
Terry said a video circulating of Tommy and Manny doing extra work is not some carefully staged example of effort.
“That’s how they are every day,” he said.
The veterans matter because the younger players have models directly in front of them.
This is the same transfer of experience Lanning has been emphasizing since Practice 1. A player can make it himself, but the next challenge is figuring out whom he brings along with him.
In Oregon’s offensive-line room, Laloulu, Iuli, Crader and the other older players appear increasingly responsible for making sure the freshmen learn the daily habits before poor ones become established.
Dave Iuli’s return makes the competition deeper than it looked in spring
One of the most encouraging Practice 4 developments involved Iuli.
His spring was severely limited by recovery from lateral triceps surgery, and Lanning said after Practice 1 that Oregon was still managing limitations rather than turning him loose completely.
Terry sounded much more optimistic Monday.
“Dave is cooking,” he said. “Dave is back grilling.”
Iuli performed well in one-on-one work during Practice 4, according to Terry, and the expectation is that he will be available when Oregon begins playing games.
That matches what Iuli said at Media Day. He described himself as healthy again, back to benching and finally able to focus on preparing for fall camp after spending spring rebuilding strength.
The injury may also have unintentionally strengthened Oregon’s depth.
Terry called the spring absence of Iuli and Janoris a “blessing in disguise,” while making clear nobody wanted either player injured. Their missed repetitions had to go somewhere, and younger linemen received work they otherwise might not have gotten.
Now the veterans are returning with game experience while those younger players are further along than they would have been had every spring repetition gone according to plan.
That is exactly the developmental depth Lanning has been trying to create.
Competition is working because the players seem invested in one another
The best anecdote Terry offered Monday may have involved Iuli and Trent.
After Practice 4, Terry said Iuli was in the hallway talking about how well Trent had played.
“Man, Trent balling,” Terry recalled Iuli saying. “Trent playing with some power.”
Terry believed it was genuine.
He also knows watching another player succeed provides its own motivation for Iuli to keep improving.
That balance has become one of the most consistent themes of Oregon’s camp. Mehringer described a meritocracy in which players push one another. Hampton praised a defensive back room where players celebrate a teammate’s success despite competing for the same snaps. Terry sees the same dynamic up front.
Dave Iuli talked at Media Day about how fall camp creates connection partly because teammates are forced to endure the difficult parts together.
“Connection is a huge thing because you’re battling through hard times,” Iuli said. “And battling through hard times, doing it with your brother makes everything much easier.”
Terry believes this may be one of the most connected offensive-line rooms he has had at Oregon.
The question is whether connection survives once the depth chart becomes real.
So far, Terry believes it is.
Ziyare Addison keeps collecting endorsements
Another name appearing with increasing frequency is Ziyare Addison.
Terry described him Monday as one of Oregon’s most explosive offensive linemen, praising his elite feet and the development that came from spending last season facing players such as Uiagalelei and Tuioti on the scout team.
The physical ability was never Terry’s primary concern.
The growth has been learning to play with control.
Terry called Addison a brutal and violent player whose next stage was trusting his athleticism enough to become calmer within the chaos of the position. He believes that has improved over the last several months.
That assessment is notable because Addison had already been drawing praise from the players he actually has to block.
Nasir Wyatt was asked at Media Day to identify the toughest current Oregon offensive lineman he had faced.
His answer was Addison.
“I think it might be a breakout year for him,” Wyatt said, praising what he had seen from Addison through spring and into fall.
Crader was similarly enthusiastic when asked about Addison and Douglas Utu.
“Absolute ballers in the weight room, on the field,” Crader said.
None of that declares Addison a starter.
It does make him increasingly difficult to ignore.
Fox Crader has something the freshmen still have to earn
Terry saved Crader for near the end of Monday’s session, but his comments helped explain why game experience carries so much weight even when Oregon refuses to guarantee jobs.
Terry called confidence the “X factor.”
Crader had practiced against elite Oregon defensive linemen repeatedly before last season, but Terry believes his opportunity against USC changed something. The tackle could finally take everything he had done against players such as Tuioti, Uiagalelei and Wyatt and prove it under actual stadium conditions.
“You do it in practice,” Terry said. “Until you do it under the lights in Autzen in front of 70,000 and do it at a different stadium in front of that magnitude, you don’t know if you’re truly ready.”
That mirrors the way Crader described the experience at Media Day.
“Everything that I went through in the game has happened numerous times in practice,” he said. “That was really the first time I got to feel that feeling of being like, ‘Oh, wow, this is what it’s like.’”
Terry believes that performance supplied the confidence Crader needed entering this offseason.
Crader’s own explanation goes further back. He credited years spent watching Conerly, Isaiah World, Ajani Cornelius, Alex Harkey and Laloulu for helping prepare him before his opportunity arrived.
That sounds remarkably similar to Lorig’s plan for Hurych.
Oregon wants the first real opportunity to feel familiar because the preparation for it began much earlier.
Michael Bennett III is the exception in a room built on continuity
Terry noted that nearly every serious contender on Oregon’s offensive line has played beside the others at some point over the past several years.
Bennett is different.
He arrived from Yale with extensive college experience, but the football language and technical demands are new. Bennett said at Media Day that the challenge has been taking what he already learned in the Ivy League and adapting it to Terry’s coaching.
“How can I grow and adapt to what Coach Terry and our great offensive line staff, how they coach us?” Bennett said. “How do I elevate it with these new techniques, these new lessons, these new thinking points, coaching points?”
That is why Terry’s emphasis on cohesion matters so much.
Bennett does not need to learn how to play college offensive line from scratch. He needs enough repetitions with Laloulu, Moore and the rest of Oregon’s system for his experience to become Oregon experience.
The Ducks have spent much of camp talking about the distinction.
Experience is valuable.
Shared experience is better.
Coach Cavanaugh adds another layer to the “Law Firm”
Terry’s enthusiasm was obvious when discussing the return of Steve Cavanaugh to the offensive-line operation.
He called him “OG Cav” and immediately placed him inside the “Law Firm,” Terry’s name for the collection of coaches and resources working with Oregon’s offensive line.
For Terry, Cavanaugh provides more than another set of eyes.
He provides decades of offensive-line knowledge and another person obsessed with the craft.
Terry pushed back against describing Cavanaugh simply as old school. His point was that Cavanaugh loves football and particularly loves offensive-line play, something Terry believes young linemen need to be around in an era where so many other parts of college football compete for attention.
That philosophy connects to Terry’s larger description of Oregon’s offensive line.
The standard is not supposed to begin with the current roster.
He traced it back through Oregon groups he saw earlier in his career, including the 2019 line, and said the responsibility of the current players is not simply to live up to what those linemen established. It is to exceed it and leave something for the next group.
Iuli expressed almost exactly the same sentiment at Media Day when he talked about playing “for the guys before you.”
That lineage is part of Terry’s answer to why Oregon keeps rebuilding an offensive line without treating every departure as a reset.
The recurring theme of Practice 4 was succession
The easiest way to view Monday’s press conferences is as one special teams update and one offensive-line update.
I think there was something more connected happening.
Hurych is replacing a veteran kicker, but Oregon began preparing him two years ago.
Ettridge is replacing an Australian punter whose style gave Oregon schematic flexibility, so the Ducks deliberately found another Australian with a similar background and additional life experience.
Laloulu once entered games as a young rotational lineman behind older players. Now Terry points to his path when explaining why true freshmen could play, while Laloulu has become the veteran teaching those freshmen.
Crader watched NFL-bound tackles before receiving his first meaningful opportunity. Addison spent a year trying to survive against Oregon’s defensive line in practice and is now being mentioned by the same defenders as someone who could break out.
Iuli lost spring repetitions to injury, but the young players who received those snaps are now better prepared to push him.
Even the quarterback-center relationship is beginning to look like inherited responsibility. Mehringer says Moore and Laloulu have become the standard for how the offense operates, while Terry listens to them discuss the totality of the system rather than only their individual assignments.
This is what roster development is supposed to look like when it works.
The starter leaves, but the knowledge does not leave with him.
What Practice 4 changed
The biggest change after Monday is that we can begin drawing firmer lines around some competitions.
Hurych is no longer simply the presumed replacement at kicker. Lorig called him the guy, even while competition continues.
Ettridge is no longer simply an intriguing 28-year-old Australian transfer. He has the lead at punter, and Lorig confirmed Oregon recruited him specifically because the Ducks believe his background can preserve many of the things Ferguson-Reynolds allowed them to do.
Punt return remains much less settled, but the evaluation standard is clearer. Moore, Stewart, McClellan, Lott and Perich may offer different levels and types of explosiveness, but Lorig will first trust the player most capable of reliably returning possession to an offense Oregon expects to be very good.
The offensive line remains the least settled of the major discussions Monday, yet Terry’s comments suggest that is intentional rather than alarming. The Ducks are not scrambling to discover whether they have five players. They are trying to identify the best combination from a room that continues giving Terry reasons to keep the competition open.
Lanning said after Practice 1 that he did not want a clear five yet.
Terry said after Practice 4 that he wants his players to make his life as difficult as possible.
Those ideas belong together.
The moment will come when Oregon has to stop celebrating options and choose.
For now, the Ducks are still building enough options to make that choice difficult.
And after four practices, that may be exactly where they want to be.