Photo by: Rob Moseley/GoDucks.com
Football Practice Report: Aug. 7
08/07/26 | Football
The Ducks on Friday were on their new outdoor practice fields for the first time this preseason.
EUGENE, Ore. — Preseason practice continued for the Oregon football team Friday, a day of firsts in both the short-term and the long-term for the program.
Specific to this camp, Friday was the first day for the Ducks to practice with shoulder pads on this preseason. And it was also a bit of a landmark day in the program's history of facilities expansion, as it was the first official practice held on the new turf fields adjacent to the in-progress indoor practice facility.
Following Friday's practice, offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer met with local media. Video of that press conference is embedded below.
Some highlights from coach Mehringer …
On how complex he can get schematically due to Oregon's experience:Â "Complexity is a little bit of a double-edged sword, right? Every single year, especially in this day and age of college football, there's always going to be new faces. You can be super complex, but it's a little bit of a balance; it's at the expense of what? You could run a hundred million plays. How many reps are you going to get all of those plays? So how well do you think they're going to get executed in the game? It's our job as coaches to create that balance where we're not running the same play every single time and everybody in Autzen Stadium knows exactly what play is coming, much less the defense, as well as make sure we get the reps necessary so that when we do play in Autzen Stadium and call that play, the players know how to execute it versus the myriad of defenses they can see. Certainly our defense gives us a lot of those looks already. They do a lot of stuff."
On Dante Moore's development as a returning starter: "I think the area that Dante has grown the most is in leadership. For him, two years ago it's not his team. Even for guys like Poncho, it (was) still not really his team. And guys like that have grown into those roles, and they are the standard for the way things operate. So I think (Moore's) biggest growth and development has been in his leadership role and the way that he pushes guys outside. And not just does it with his words; does it with his actions."
On filling the coordinator's role at Oregon for this season: "I think I have a better understanding of who we are and what we can do at this moment. There's obviously a clear transition from my role last year to what it is this year. The general organization of a lot of people is more of a task than I thought it would be, to be honest. But it's great. We have an unbelievable offensive staff that takes a lot of charge, and I don't have to worry about as much things as you maybe think that I would. I'm unbelievably thankful for them."
Specific to this camp, Friday was the first day for the Ducks to practice with shoulder pads on this preseason. And it was also a bit of a landmark day in the program's history of facilities expansion, as it was the first official practice held on the new turf fields adjacent to the in-progress indoor practice facility.
Following Friday's practice, offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer met with local media. Video of that press conference is embedded below.
Some highlights from coach Mehringer …
On how complex he can get schematically due to Oregon's experience:Â "Complexity is a little bit of a double-edged sword, right? Every single year, especially in this day and age of college football, there's always going to be new faces. You can be super complex, but it's a little bit of a balance; it's at the expense of what? You could run a hundred million plays. How many reps are you going to get all of those plays? So how well do you think they're going to get executed in the game? It's our job as coaches to create that balance where we're not running the same play every single time and everybody in Autzen Stadium knows exactly what play is coming, much less the defense, as well as make sure we get the reps necessary so that when we do play in Autzen Stadium and call that play, the players know how to execute it versus the myriad of defenses they can see. Certainly our defense gives us a lot of those looks already. They do a lot of stuff."
On Dante Moore's development as a returning starter: "I think the area that Dante has grown the most is in leadership. For him, two years ago it's not his team. Even for guys like Poncho, it (was) still not really his team. And guys like that have grown into those roles, and they are the standard for the way things operate. So I think (Moore's) biggest growth and development has been in his leadership role and the way that he pushes guys outside. And not just does it with his words; does it with his actions."
On filling the coordinator's role at Oregon for this season: "I think I have a better understanding of who we are and what we can do at this moment. There's obviously a clear transition from my role last year to what it is this year. The general organization of a lot of people is more of a task than I thought it would be, to be honest. But it's great. We have an unbelievable offensive staff that takes a lot of charge, and I don't have to worry about as much things as you maybe think that I would. I'm unbelievably thankful for them."
Players Mentioned
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