He may be wearing a different number on his jersey this season, but there’s no question Darron Thomas is still the No. 1 man at the head of the Oregon offense.
After switching to No. 5 this offseason and giving his old No. 1 to sophomore wide receiver Josh Huff, Thomas is set to be the first returning starting quarterback since Chip Kelly joined the Oregon program in 2007.
Thomas certainly made a name for himself as a second-team All-Pacific-10 Conference performer last season, and proved his toughness in a very physical BCS National Championship Game last January. He spent the spring and summer keeping Oregon primed and ready for its first season in the Pac-12 North Division and will be rewarded with a trip to his home state of Texas to play the No. 4 LSU Tigers on Saturday.
Thomas and Huff are both Houston natives, while junior LaMichael James (Texarkana), freshmen Anthony Wallace (Dallas), Brennan Doty (Port Neches), Tra Carson (Texarkana) and sophomore Blake Cantu (Southlake) will each be making their first, and likely last, appearances in Texas during their Oregon careers.@@names CQ’d@@
It’s an opportunity that Thomas and Huff both said they’ve been looking forward to for some time, considering many of their friends and family will be spectators for the first time since moving to the Pacific Northwest.
“Oh, trying to keep the pressure off, but it is a little pressure that their coming out,” Thomas said. “Getting their first time to watch me, it’s a lot of their first times watching a lot of us play. So it’s a little bit of pressure, but we’re not really too worried about it.”
Thomas spearheads the nation’s leading offense from a year ago with three new starters surrounding him. Walk-on wide receiver Justin Hoffman, a 2008 Churchill High School graduate, will make his first start after working his way into a scholarship last spring.
Up front, redshirt freshman Hroniss Grasu is expected to make his collegiate debut at center, filling a major void left by the graduation of two-year starter Jordan Holmes. By his side will be first-time starter Ramsen Golpashin at right guard, also a walk-on from Saugus, Calif.@@names CQ’d@@
The Ducks have experience up front, but the losses of C.E. Keiser and Bo Thran, in addition to Holmes, are sure to be felt in the early going. With junior Carson York and senior Mark Asper helping the younger guys along through fall camp, communication has been a major focus.
“Once you narrow down the playbook, then it narrows down the amount of calls that you have to be able to make,” said Asper, the 6-foot-7, 325-pound right tackle. “During fall camp, you have to prepare for every play, every formation and anything can happen at practice. But when you start game planning for somebody, that gets cut down to about a quarter.”
It’s been two years since Oregon has truly had questions to answer along the offensive line, which resulted in a sloppy season-opening loss at Boise State in 2009. York, a 6-5, 292-pound guard out of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, made his first collegiate start in Boise and went on to start in 12 of Oregon’s 13 games that season opposite Asper.
“It starts up front,” Kelly said. “Whenever we’ve been very successfully offensively its because of those guys.”
Fortunately for the Ducks, LSU features a similar youthfulness to its defensive front. With only two seniors — defensive end Kendrick Adams and defensive tackle Dennis Johnson — on the roster, the Tigers have six sophomores and six freshmen in the mix up front with three juniors also expected to contribute.
As a team, LSU allowed more than 307 yards of total offense per game (137.3 on the ground and another 169.8 through the air) last season, while posting just over 341 yards of offense per contest.
On the other hand, Oregon rushed for more than 286 yards per game and gained another 244 through the air in leading the nation with 530.7 yards of total offense that led to a 47-point scoring average.
And when Asper was asked what the particular focuses would be for Oregon during its final week of practice would be?
“Nothing extravagant,” he said. “The focus has been on good technique. They’re big and athletic and when you play big, athletic people, it comes down to technique and the little things: hand placement, leverage, speed, knowledge of the game.”