Somewhere between the recent criticism of the Ducks’ defensive secondary and the praise of the defensive line play the Oregon linebackers.
That is the predicament of the linebackers this season, who haven’t been able to take the praise of stopping the run like the line, nor the entire blame for the secondary’s problems allowing passing yardage. Without the type of production defensive coaches had expected this year, the unit was shaken up against USC and UCLA to put fresh players into starting roles, whether due to injuries or play. As a unit, nine linebackers have accounted for 29 percent of Oregon’s tackles this season.
One of those players is sophomore Casey Matthews, who comes from a linebacking tradition comprising his brother Clay at USC, and his father, also Clay, a Hall of Fame linebacker for the Cleveland Browns. Matthews has played in 18 career games, including all seven this season by splitting time at middle linebacker with senior John Bacon. He has 26 tackles, ranking third among linebackers.
“Hopefully we’re improving,” Matthews said. “We started out this year as kind of the weak link, but we’ve proved to some people that we’re still young, besides JB (Jerome Boyd), but I think we’re coming along.”

In Los Angeles, Matthews usurped Bacon’s spot in the middle for the first time not due to injury, as was the case last fall for two games before injuring his shoulder. Against UCLA, Matthews and redshirt freshman Eddie Pleasant started, Pleasant at weakside linebacker for Spencer Paysinger, who was recovering from a hamstring injury.
The transition from second-string to starter wasn’t awkward for Bacon and Matthews, Matthews said. Having begun to split time last year, especially with Bacon’s ACL injury in his knee, has helped the pair. It helps that their rotation means the backup player still receives a large amount of snaps during the game, proving the confidence the defensive coaches still have in Bacon in his final season.
“We’re still great friends,” Matthews said. “Our friendship really developed toward the end of last year when he got hurt and I had two weeks playing, and then I hurt my shoulder and we were buddies in the medical center.
“It hasn’t changed at all, we still play video games together.”
Senior rover Patrick Chung, for one, raved about the transition of Pleasant and Matthews.
“Tremendous,” Chung said. “Seeing them when they were redshirting, coming now they’re totally different players – faster, stronger – they read stuff and fly through gaps.”
Spencer Paysinger, a young player himself as a sophomore, leads all linebackers with 44 tackles, six behind safety and team leader T.J. Ward. Paysinger’s impact is still in doubt for this weekend, listed as a possible starter with Pleasant against the Sun Devils.
Communication between the linebackers against USC contributed to the defensive breakdowns, Matthews said.
“We were kind of quiet on communicating and it was more of an emphasis against UCLA,” he said. “Even with Eddie it was great with communication.”
Boyd will try to maintain the quarterback pressure he applied against UCLA’s Kevin Craft, when he had two sacks.
As for Pleasant, it hasn’t all been about his playing ability this fall. On Sept. 25 he received a misdemeanor charge of reckless driving and a citation for speed racing, to both of which he pleaded not guilty on Oct. 13. He came out of the accident, in which the car he was driving collided with an oncoming vehicle near Springfield’s Gateway Mall, with 75 stitches in his forehead. Quarterback Darron Thomas and wide receiver Jamere Holland were passengers in the vehicle. Pleasant then responded with four tackles against the Bruins.
Besides seeing himself on Duck Vision as part of the starting lineup for the first time at home against UCLA – in front of his parents and friends, no less – Matthews made it a point to chat up quarterback recruit Nick Montana, the son of Hall of Fame quarterback Joe, on the sideline before the game. Nick transferred to Matthews’ alma mater, Oaks Christian High School, this year for quarterback, and Matthews wanted to check in on his program.
“I went out of the way to go introduce myself to him and to see if he was holding Oaks down like he used to,” said Matthews, whose classmates at Oaks Christian included Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen and USC running back Marc Tyler, and where his father is an assistant coach.
“He said he’s trying but you know, Oaks is going to be a powerful program.”
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