Put another practice in the win column for Oregon.
That is, at least, according to Oregon head football coach Chip Kelly, who called his team 4-1 Wednesday after five spring practices. After a sluggish practice on Monday under cloudless blue skies, patches of rain drove the Ducks indoors Wednesday morning to the Moshofsky Center where Kelly was happy to find a more focused team.
Junior college transfer linebacker Bryson Littlejohn crushed sophomore running back Remene Alston on a short stretch play. Alston took a seam off the left tackle 65 yards on the next play for a mythical spring football touchdown. Sophomore Jamere Holland caught two long passes. Sophomore Jeremiah Masoli connected with his receivers.
In short, it all led to a more comfortable Kelly, who afterward smiled and joked with reporters while emphasizing the work to be done until the annual Spring Game on May 2.
“Right from the beginning of practice they had a pretty good mindset,” Kelly said.
Not that the improvement will come solely from the players. Kelly himself gave a mixed review of his effort Wednesday after nearly being run over twice.
“I’ve made a few (mistakes),” Kelly said. “I almost got run over.”
Part of that work is getting several of his starters healthy.
Sophomore receiver Jeff Maehl left practice midway through with what he called an “upper leg injury” and called his status day-to-day, the same as junior Ed Dickson’s right hamstring, sophomore Bo Thran’s right knee, sophomore D.J. Davis’ left knee and junior T.J. Ward’s knees, for starters.
Another problem was a number of high snaps from Oregon’s rotating offensive centers to the quarterbacks in the shotgun formation. Junior Max Forer had two snaps go high to Masoli, who, with the play broken, took the ball and ran himself for minimal gains. Sophomore Justin Fritz also had a high snap, although it went to 6-foot-6 sophomore Justin Roper.
“You forget how valuable Max Unger was,” said Kelly of the four-year starter who anchored the Ducks at center to two straight record-breaking seasons for rushing offense. Unger is expected to be a late first-round or early second-round pick in April 25-26’s NFL Draft. “You gotta be able to count on that guy so the snap is never a concern. We need consistency.”
The offensive line returns contributors sophomore C.E. Kaiser, Thran, sophomore Jordan Holmes and freshman Mark Asper this season, as well as fitting in sophomore tackle Darrion Weems and redshirt freshman Carson York.
Efforts like Alston’s long touchdown run, then, were important for offensive line coach Steve Greatwood to see rather than focus on how the defense was able to handle the running attack early.
“I’m not worried about the defense,” Greatwood said. “The defense knows us better than we know ourselves right now. We’ll be fine.”
A stifled offense in an 11-on-11 situation means an aggressive defense, and vice versa during intrasquad scrimmages, making it hard for Kelly to evaluate one unit’s progress without thinking of the other’s shortfall. Plays by each side, however, helped ease his mind going into the final practice of the second week of practices.
Running back LaGarrette Blount, still nursing a hurt foot, found little wiggle room in the morning’s first live session but worked into a rhythm by the end, catching two passes from Masoli out of the backfield before ripping off two straight 10-yard runs, although wearing a red non-contact jersey likely helped.
Two steps after taking a handoff early, however, Blount was put on his back by a charging Simi Toeaina, who broke through the right side of the line with ease. New defensive line coach Jerry Azzinaro sprinted to Toeaina even quicker, slapping him on the backside with a barked “Great job!” as confirmation.
Toeaina, 6-foot-4, 318-pound lineman who has rarely seen the field in his three-year career, is part of a depleted defensive line that Azzinaro has been pleased with this spring.
“They’re playing for the University of Oregon so I expect them to perform at the Pac-10 level,” Azzinaro said. “(Toeaina’s) in shape, I think he’s healthy and he’s got a chance to be a solid player for us.”
The flashes the line gave in the early contact session were mainly lost by the end, when Blount was able to find room for longer runs and a lineman was rarely around Masoli in the pocket.
Azzinaro said in the spring he is less concerned with execution than with the unit’s effort, and called junior Blake Ferras and sophomore Brandon Bair two players who have impressed with their technician’s approach.
“We lose our consistency,” Azzinaro said. “That’s what you’re fighting for. Gotta get effort.”
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