Dennis Dixon admitted afterwards he was a bit nervous before taking his first snaps with Oregon football.
He had enrolled at Oregon in the winter, missing the entire 2003 season. Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti, in fact, had never even seen him throw a football prior to the team’s first spring practice on Saturday.
The general reaction to the freshman quarterback: “Wow.”
“You saw Dennis today, I mean, wow,” sophomore Kellen Clemens said. “That guy can run.”
Dixon ended Oregon’s day on a play that earned cheers from the players on the sideline. In an 11-on-11 drill, he tucked the ball in, ran, put some moves on the defense and would have been in the clear had it been a real game.
“Now it’s time to go full pads,” Dixon said. “Now it’s time to see what it’s really like.”
That time will come today, two days after the Ducks opened up their spring workouts. Aside from the expected rustiness and the bumps and bruises — the only serious injury came to defensive lineman Victor Filipe, who separated his left shoulder — the Ducks say they generally looked good on the field.
“Aaron Gipson made a couple plays, I liked what he did,” Bellotti said. “Terrence Whitehead moved around pretty well.
“I think we made progress today. I think everyone is excited. I want the same kind of excitement and intensity when we come back on Monday.”
While Dixon may have been the biggest attraction at practice — at least among newcomers — the return of Haloti Ngata was also significant.
The sophomore was injured last year during the first quarter of the Ducks’ opener against Mississippi State, forcing him to sit out the entire season. Now that Igor Olshansky and Junior Siavii have vacated the defensive line via early entry into the NFL and graduation, respectively, Ngata will be key.
“I thought Haloti moved around well, and obviously we don’t want to push that too much,” Bellotti said.
The Salt Lake City native is just one of the many veterans returning to the Ducks. While the team lost a number of starters from last season, Oregon also returns many of the backups from its 8-5 2003 season.
“We’ve got a lot of returning starters on offense,” Bellotti said. “And an accomplished quarterback that started 13 games. We have some holes to fill on defense. We’re losing seven or eight starters from that group. Obviously, I think we have some answers, but we have to determine who the answers are going to be.”
That, Bellotti said, is one of the keys he will look for in the team’s 15 practices. He wants to see who will take over for free safety Keith Lewis.
Who will start opposite Demetrius Williams at wide receiver? And who exactly will join Jerry Matson as starting linebackers?
Besides addressing these unanswered questions, Oregon has a busy first week of practice ahead. The team will get into full pads today, then hit the field again on Tuesday.
The Ducks have a day off — at least from practicing — on Wednesday, then return to Kilkenny Field on Thursday. They get the weekend off, but not before playing in the first scrimmage of the spring on Friday at Autzen Stadium.