Saturday Two-Minute Drill

Here's the latest news and commentary on Duck football, with some notes and asides.

George Schroeder is not the self-aggrandizing muckraker John Canzano is. Schroeder has a heart, and will revisit a story with a fresh take, He loves a redemption story as much as a scandal, and doesn't lead with baseless insinuations and hysteria like his Oregonian counterpart.

Yesterday Schroeder had a column on Kiko Alonso, "Alonso's redemption is worthy of celebration."  It's a nice story about a kid doing the work to turn his life and football career around.  Duck fans can't imagine Canzano writing such a column, or the Oregonian using a headline like that. 

Alonso is competing this spring to start at linebacker next fall. Things are going well, he says. He’s pleased with his progress, hopeful about the future, looking forward to playing “two solid years here to finish off my career at Oregon.”

Rob Moseley has the practice report, noting that this was practice 12 of 15.  The Ducks work out Monday, then a light shorts-and-helmets workout Wednesday, then the Spring Game next Saturday.  That's it.  Let the Quack withdrawals begin.  We'll try to fill the Quack gap with some position breakdowns, notes from summer workouts and an extended look around the nation and the league.

Along with solid blocking in the 3-on-3 drill, Lyerla was very consistent as a pass receiver today, showing tremendous progress in that regard over the last two weeks. He made a nice grab with Josh Kaddu draped all over him at one point, and later held onto a pass despite getting smacked by Grant Thompson.

It looks like Coleman and Lyerla will stick with the varsity this year, and have shown enough to get playing time in the fall, particularly on special teams.  Special teams are not a throw-away with the Ducks, like they are at some schools.  Brian Jackson and Bo Lokombo earned their way to more playing time this year by their work on special teams last season, and many Duck stars over the years have been big contributors on the coverage and return groups.  Brandon Bair and Dion Jordan both had two-point conversion scores last season, for another example.

The offense graded out better yesterday, relatively sharp and fumble-free.  Moseley reports LaMichael James had a particularly good day, standing out in the 3-on-3 drill, even volunteering for some scout team duty returning punts.  It's sharp observations like these, and his effort to convey the nuances and details, that sets the Moze apart. 

John Hunt, on the other hand, does his best work in interviews.  He has one with Darron Thomas, and Thomas promises the Ducks will be physical and smash-mouth tough in 2011:

"We have to out-physical every team,'' Thomas said. "Most teams think we’re going to come out and run around and do these trick plays and run wide. We’re just going to hit teams in the mouth, beat ‘em and have ‘em say, “Wow, I don’t know what they did – it was beautiful.’’

Oregon gets branded as a finesse team by the national guys, and that's a huge misunderstanding.  A football team doesn't run for 3500 yards a year without being physical.  The progress and new attitude of Oregon's defense, though, makes this "smash mouth" element even more intriguing.  The Ducks not only will have the capability to strike quickly; we might also see some more of those nine-minute methodical drives like the one that beat Cal last fall.  The Ducks can dazzle you or wear you down, and that's the mark of a complete fighter.  Look for some rope-a-dope from the Oregon offense this fall, the ability to change gears.  That's an exciting development.