Sunday afternoon, Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich sat down with members of the media and discussed questions that arose after the Ducks 26-20 win on Saturday against Washington. Here’s a transcription of key questions and answers from the press conference.
I know it’s always easier to clean stuff up after a win. So after last night’s win, what are you looking forward to cleaning up during the bye week?
I guess first things first: get healthy physically and mentally. It’s a good time for us — there are a bunch of guys on both sides of the ball, and special teams just makes things, that stuff that adds up during a season. It’s good timing that way. And then a ton of stuff, a ton of corrections. We had a bunch of guys playing in-and-out of different positions. On the offensive line, they did some very good things and competed hard. We have a bunch of things we can correct – a bunch of things we can correct at quarterback, at wide receiver. Our tailbacks, behind Royce [Freeman] all have things they can work on. Defensively we had a bucnh of opportunities to create turnovers and put that thing away. We could’ve finished a couple drives and put that thing away. Still a few coverage things to work out. We’re competing hard and I know our guys will come with a fix-it mindset.
Did you expect Darren Carrington to have that kind of a game in his return? I mean, he was making big plays out there.
He’s certainly capable of it. He’s very dynamic and he’s practiced very hard. He’s a guy that loves practice. he plays hard in practice. He had played on scout team, quite a bit, about half of the time leading up to this game. So he’s a competitor that way and that’s going to help a young secondary get a lot of work against a quality guy. But we had to do some things – we had to make some things happen in the passing game and it got off to a good start that way.
What led you guys to trying Tyree Robinson at cornerback and how do you think he did and do you think he’s going to stay there?
Perfect segue into the players of the week and then I’ll answer your question. Tyree was our defensive player of the week. It went back and forth: Deforest [Buckner] another night of double teams, triple teams, and the other defensive lineman really stepped up and got a decent amount of pass rush without blitzing a ton. And Tyree saved us a bunch in communication, from a communication standpoint, and also physically he did some really good things. Our scout team player of the week was Taylor Stinson. Bralon Addison was our offensive player of the game and scout on that side was Gus Cumberlander. Special teams was the entire punt team. Ian [Wheeler] did a great job kicking it, but protecting it and covering it. We had some very pivotal points there where they did a great job. And special teams scout player of the week was Jake Froehlich, which is how we pronounce it, which is froh-lich in German — cheerful, just like me.
Back to Tyree, which was your original question, yeah, we anticipate him staying there and trying to compete and get the best four guys [in the defensive backfield] in our base defense. He and Charles [Nelson] added a bunch of competitiveness to that situation. Charles wasn’t avaliable for a lot of the game last night, which was unfortunate for him and for us, but Tyree stepped up.
You touched a bit on this last night, but how was the energy different on the field with Vernon back at quarterback?
Well, I don’t know if the energy level was different on the field. I think once play started there were a few plays made that were different. And every time you say something good about something, you’re saying something bad about another — that’s not what I’m doing. [Vernon] is going to watch the tape and see a bunch of times there were plays to be made again, but then he kind of freelanced a few things. But when you look at it, we converted more third downs on our first drive, than USC did [against Washington] all last week. That was kind of the animal that they’re playing against from a defensive standpoint. And after a couple of those happened absolutely I think that is something that permeates your team.
There’s been a lot of talk about the passing game still trying to work itself out, but again, with Carrington and Vernon out there, you guys were making a lot longer throws than you had been all season. How much of a spark were they both for the passing game?
It was big, but also Bralon [Addison], Dwayne Stanford — the other guys that got involved — which [Washington] changed up their coverage, from a percentage standpoint, they did what they do, you know, they tilted on an almost 80-to-90 percent scale difference of what they done from a coverage standpoint, and so that created some of those situations. We have to be able to run the ball. Obviously we want to be balanced, but it was kind of a virtue of how they played us and then executing it.
Ugo [Amadi] mentioned that he thought Vernon played a lot better in the game, although practicing really well. Do you see a spark in Vernon in the game opposed to how he practiced all week or was it kind of consistent with what he saw in practice?
I think that’s been consistent. I always think it’s funny to note: how would Ugo know how he practices? I always think that’s funny – [Ugo] doesn’t watch the offensive practice. But if [Ugo] thinks [Vernon] did, then great. [Vernon’s] practiced well. There are definitely those quarterbacks that live football is their deal. Then there are guys who are great in seven-on-seven and not really great in real football,which you’d much rather have than the former. and so he just needs to continue to trust the scheme a little bit and get his eyes in the right place, his feet in the right place, and then improvise. That’s where a guy like that could be really lethal.
Seems like the performance of Royce flew under the radar last night. How do you think he did with as hard as it was to run as it seemed?
It was as hard to run as it seemed. [Washington] has an excellent front, how they were scheming obviously to stop our best player, and they did a good job of it. We had some opportunities late, we thought, to put the game away, and after watching the film we still think that. Again, we had some guys in there that battled. Evan Voeller did some really good things, a bunch of things he can work improve upon. Doug Brenner — same thing. In a different role, in an increased role in percentage of what they’ve done — Cameron Hunt moving out to tackle — and battled against the No. 1 defense in the conference.
How clean of a game do you think you guys played in all three phases last night?
How clean of a game — that’s one of those things, you know, you’re always chasing. We blew a couple coverages that I know [Washington] is sitting up there, ‘shoot, we should’ve thrown it to that guy,’ and they’re right. But at the same time we had a million opportunities to make that a multiple touchdown type of difference and that’s where we have to grab the situation and finish things. special teams probably the cleanest out of the three — still had a penalty there, a couple of issues, but overall still did a very good job against a very good special teams unit. Offensively and defensively there’s always a million things that got either overblown in a loss, or undersold in a win and that’s where you have to go back and own the film and fix it.
Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.
Q&A: Mark Helfrich discusses Oregon’s win over Washington and the bye week ahead
Joseph Hoyt
October 17, 2015
Cole Elsasser
**Editor’s Note: Each week during football season, we feature an essay from the opponent’s student newspaper on why Oregon will lose. This week’s edition is from Alexis Mansanarez, the sports editor at the The Daily of the University of Washington.** Thirteen will be Washington’s lucky number as it travels to …
0
More to Discover