“When it comes to defense,” junior linebacker Teitum Tuioti said at Oregon’s media day in July, “(it’s about) relentless effort, ball excellence and power of unit. Those three things, we talk about all the time. How fast our defense can play. No matter what you do, if you continue to make plays, it don’t matter what happens, as long as you do it fast and physical, you’ll be alright.”

The Oregon defense is off to a strong start in 2025, allowing just 30 total points in the first three games. 

In the current age of college football and the transfer portal, it’s becoming less common for players to stick with the same program for four years. As the Ducks have welcomed several new faces to their team each year, Tuioti is one player who has become a tenured member of the squad. Now in his third season as a Duck, he felt ready to step into a role as a mentor for the younger players.

“I’m focusing on what I need to do to improve,” Tuioti said, “but I’m also thinking about my team, thinking about the players in my room and how I can help them improve as well.”

The son of a coach, football has been a part of Tuioti’s life from the beginning. His father, Tony Tuioti has coached eight different teams at the high school, college and NFL level from the time Teitum was born. As a result, their family moved a lot. 

The Ducks hired Tony as the defensive line coach at the end of 2021, during his son’s junior year of high school. Teitum finished up at Sheldon High School in Eugene, where he blossomed into  a four-star prospect by 247 Sports and ESPN going into college. 

Sheldon has been a popular alma mater for serious athletes from the Willamette Valley, including former Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert and his brother, tight end Patrick Herbert. Justin is now in his sixth season as the quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers and Patrick is in his first season at tight end with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tuioti could very well be following in those footsteps.

Tuioti truly made himself known in Eugene with three sacks for the Fighting Irish in a win over West Linn, the eventual State Champions. Tuioti was recruited by 12 Division I football programs and ultimately chose to stick with his dad at Oregon. Head coach Dan Lanning has also made a strong impression on him.

“Coach Lanning was an (outside linebackers) coach in my head,” Tuioti said. “He loves coming in our room and talking ball with us. Him just being the guy he is, he just improves our room so much. We continue to just pick at his brain, he continues to give us his wisdom about OLB playing, and I think it just elevated our room every year. Every time he talked to us we learned something new.”

Tony Tuioti has developed a similar coaching mindset to Lanning since making the move to Oregon. 

In addition to always looking to improve, something Oregon’s coaching staff has preached early this season is strength in numbers. Lanning loves giving in-game reps to as many guys as possible. While coach Tuioti may work the closest with the defensive linemen, he wants to see everyone on defense working together to make each other better. These philosophies have certainly played a role in Teitum’s development as a player.

“It takes all 11 guys to be able to stop the run,” Tony Tuioti said during preseason training. “And then we’ve got some really good edge guys that can get after the quarterback. When we put them in passing situations, we can allow the front to go eat and be able to apply pressure on the quarterback.”

Teitum picked up those same motivations very quickly. Just like his father, and the other coaches and players, he does not view success in one game as satisfactory. 

“This is one of the best defenses I’ve been on,” Tuioti said after Oregon’s 69-3 win over Oklahoma State in Week 2. “A team that really is trying to get to the ball. It’s something that we preach about all the time on this defense like, ‘How can we get the ball?’ because obviously the ball means everything. So I think just continuing to seek development in our defense, and we continue like these past two games have been good games for us, but we continue to knit pick everything. We can always improve.”

Tuioti has appeared in every game since Week 2 of his freshman season in 2023. He combined for 88 total tackles in his first two seasons with 11.5 tackles for losses of 66 total yards. Early this season, Tuioti recorded five tackles against Montana State, four tackles including a sack for a 6-yard loss against Oklahoma State and six tackles including a 0.5 sack for a 4-yard loss against Northwestern. His goal is to continue growing every week.

“We expect to continue to grow each year that coach Lanning has been here and continue to improve.” Tuioti said at media day. “Not just competing at a high level, but we’re trying to win some championships, we’re trying to win some conference games, so this is what we’ve gotta do.”

Winning is hard, yet Oregon has been able to do it very consistently in the time that Tuioti has been on the roster. The defense has allowed just six total scoring drives in the first three games, but in their minds, that’s not good enough. As the Ducks move toward the tougher stretch in their schedule, Tuioti and the defense will come into each game a little bit better than the last.

“We know each week,” Tuioti said, “If we affect the quarterback we know good things are gonna happen.”