Fall camp begins Wednesday, which means most of the speculation surrounding Oregon will finally begin running into evidence.
There are positions to settle, roles to define and questions that cannot be answered until the Ducks put on pads and begin competing. That is particularly true along the offensive line, where Oregon must replace three starters who are now in the NFL.
It is also true at quarterback, even though there is no question about who will lead the offense. Dante Moore returns as the starter, but what stands behind him may be almost as significant as what Oregon has in front.
Those two rooms provided my biggest takeaways from Monday’s media day.
First take: Oregon can rotate six to eight offensive linemen. That does not mean it has to.
One comment from Dan Lanning’s media-day press conference is likely to receive more scrutiny than it deserves.
While discussing Oregon’s offensive line, Lanning said the Ducks could use six, seven or even eight players as the season progresses.
“I think that this year could look a lot like this where you have six, seven, eight guys even that are rotating in as players, and their roles grow throughout the season based on how they do in their roles,” Lanning said.
The easiest interpretation is that Oregon does not know who its best five offensive linemen are or that the Ducks lack five players good enough to take control of the starting jobs.
I think that misses the point.
