Thursday’s Oregon football practice was routine as usual, except for one thing: a bull corralled just outside of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex.
The bull is being held for the Professional Bull Riders event at Matthew Knight Arena this weekend. Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich commented that he would have taken a ride, but there were no liability forms to sign.
The bull serves as a good distraction for an Oregon team that is coming off of two straight losses, and prepares to go against a Washington State team that the Ducks lost to 45-38 in overtime last year.
“The biggest thing right now is just getting over that hump of doing your job great for every single snap,” Helfrich said. “Whatever the circumstance is, totally buying into everything we’re doing — and we’ve had progress. But progress has resulted in, you know, two three-point losses. And being that close is, again, it’s equal parts frustrating and equal parts encouraging.”
Washington State quarterback Luke Falk is someone who Oregon secondary coach John Neal has said is a future NFL quarterback. For defensive coordinator Brady Hoke’s defense, he says that they must “get the pressure from making him hold the ball.” The Oregon secondary allowed Falk to pass for 505 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions in the Ducks’ overtime loss last year.
“They’re going to get rid of the football,” Hoke said. “The thing that we have to do is make [Falk] hold it. You know, one more half a second, one more second.”
“His accuracy is really good. He has a good arm … He knows where to go with the football in the spacing they use. I think he does a really nice job.”
Success on the defensive side of the ball is going to be essential for the Ducks to come out with a win in Pullman on Saturday. But both Hoke and Helfrich are confident in how the defense has practiced this week.
“We’ve had really good work,” Helfrich said. “Particularly defensively trying to bounce back and now, again, we’ve got to put it together on Saturday.”
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