Justin Phinisee sits in the lounge area of the Casanova Center, intently listening to questions and firing back with what he thinks he must to do for the Ducks to be successful in 2004.
Then a question shocks him slightly. It doesn’t surprise him, doesn’t catch him off guard. Instead, it makes him think and remember what it’s been like to play for Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti.
“Is it scary to think you’re going to be a junior?”
Phinisee takes a second to laugh. Then he answers as confidently as he has every other answer, day in and day out, since he came to Eugene from Downey, Calif.
“Time flies,” he said after Oregon’s sixth practice of the spring. “But I’m looking forward to it. As a junior, I’ve got a year under my belt, some experience, some confidence. When we get that (team) chemistry, I’m looking forward to some big things.”
Big things have always been expected of Oregon’s secondary. In 2001, when the Ducks defeated Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl and the ended the season No. 2 in the nation, they had the likes of Rashad Bauman and Steve Smith, both drafted into the NFL.
Since then, as Oregon has finished 7-6 and 8-5, players such as Keith Lewis, who is expected to be chosen in the 2004 draft, have graced Autzen’s surface.
But now comes another era. As Oregon loses Lewis and Steven Moore, a starter for two seasons at cornerback, the focus falls on who will step up and replace the duo in talent and leadership.
Phinisee, along with senior Marley Tucker, has been mentioned by many in those roles. Not only is Phinisee a returner who saw plenty of action in 2003, he started eight games, with a majority of those coming late in the season.
“The ball starts over again,” Phinisee said. “Just like the last year and a half when we were looking for a corner to play with Stevie. With Stevie gone, we’re looking for another corner to step up and that’s probably the biggest thing. To be a good team in the Pac-10, you’ve got to have good cover corners.”
If anything, credit Phinisee with being confident. By his own admission, he began the 2003 season slowly. More than once he was burned for touchdowns, and even though they didn’t ultimately decide the outcomes of games — the Ducks started off 4-0 — they weighed heavily on him.
So he made up his mind. He wasn’t going to get beat anymore. He wasn’t going to let his team down; he wasn’t going to show the fans in the stands anything less than his best.
And it paid off.
“Justin’s a great athlete,” Tucker said. “He’s a great corner, he’s a great return man. He’s developed. His senior year, Justin’s going to be the one to watch.”
Phinisee ended the 2003 season with 59 tackles, two interceptions and two sacks. However, the statistics don’t quite hide the fact the he is the poster boy for the generalized member of Oregon’s secondary.
Of the 14 rovers, corners and safeties listed on Oregon’s 2004 spring two-deep chart, just two, Tucker and redshirt freshman Ryan DePalo, are listed at 6 feet or taller. Phinisee, listed as the No. 1 at the right corner position, is 5 feet, 10 inches.
Height be damned. Phinisee demands physical play. He wants it, and in most cases he gets it.
“I think a true corner can play with the best of them,” he said. “If you bring Jerry Rice in, I’m going against him and I’m going to talk to him just like the cats I practice against.”
Want an example? Phinisee is quick to point one out. It comes in the shape of California senior Geoff McArthur, who emerged as one of the Pacific-10 Conference’s most productive wide receivers in 2003, pulling in 85 passes for 1,504 yards.
Against Oregon, McArthur had just five receptions for 42 yards. The Ducks capitalized on that, taking the game, 21-17.
“I think (Phinisee) is a lot like Keith Lewis,” Tucker said. “He does things sometimes and you’re like, ‘Justin, that’s not part of the defense.’ But when he does it, sometimes he capitalizes on it and sometimes (he doesn’t). It’s part of the game. It’s part of being a corner.”
That’s the hook. As much of a mark as Phinisee made in the latter part of the 2003 season, he isn’t even close to being guaranteed a position as a starting cornerback. Oregon’s secondary is in flux as much as it has ever been.
Sophomore J.D. Nelson is penciled in as the starting free safety on the team’s two-deep. He could, however, just as much move to corner.
Rodney Woods has shown himself as a prime candidate to start at the other corner position, and with time, Ryan Gilliam could very well be more than competent on the outside. Marc Walker, Marques Binns and Sam Hughes would all like to have something to say about the situation as well.
As much as Phinisee would like to stay at corner, he’s also open to a spot at safety.
Just as long as he gets a chance to help the Oregon secondary.
“Justin is a football player,” Bellotti said. “He’s a returner, he’s a good special teams player, he’s a good corner. I think he can be a good rover or safety, too. If we have a couple corners we have confidence in, we’d love to play Justin inside. If not, I’d feel very comfortable with him at corner.”
Phinisee, much like Bellotti and the rest of the Ducks, is quick to point out that it is just spring practice and as much as it can make or break a player’s season, it won’t act as the final answer.
So with that in mind, Phinisee will be content to get repetitions at corner, safety, and the punt and kick return teams. He’ll try to act as a veteran. He’ll watch tape,
critique himself and try to help players such as Nelson, Gilliam and Aaron Gipson get better acclimated into the system.
At night, maybe he’ll even get into a discussion with Lewis, his former teammate and one-time roommate.
After all, Bellotti and Tucker admitted that Phinisee reminds them of Lewis, the former stalwart.
“We had four of us in the house, and I guess we probably stayed up until 3 in the morning every night arguing,” Phinisee said. “I couldn’t see things Keith’s way and he couldn’t see things my way. We just kept arguing, arguing, arguing. I guess it was just the competitiveness we both had.”