Sunday marked Oregon’s return to the Associated Press Top 25, slotting in at No. 23. It’s the first time Oregon is ranked since losing at home to Utah, 62-20, on Sept. 26.
Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich talked to the media on Sunday after the ducks beat No. 7 Stanford 38-36 on Saturday.
The trajectory of this team has been on the rise, constantly improving. Today, being ranked No. 23 in the AP Poll, do you guys take that as any confirmation that you’re playing your best football right now?
Not really. I don’t think we ever look at someone else’s impression of us as validation either way. I think the biggest thing is our guys have come to work every night, like we talked about last night, and owned what is good and what is bad and went about their business. And now the trick is, after such an emotional game against a great opponent, is to get ready against a very, very talented team and you flip on the tape and you’re quickly slapped at how good USC is and our guys will be excited for that challenge.
Is it gratifying, as a coach, to see your team turn it around from 3-3?
Well, you can’t sit here at any point, take a breath and be satisfied with anything. whether it’s academics or all the other things that happen behind the scenes, you’re constantly trying to get better at your job and everybody else’s deal. I don’t think there’s a time, really, again, ever, in this business where you sit back and say, ‘We’re done. We’re good.’
What about players? Do you think they have any different level of appreciation for victories the last weeks given what they went through?
That’s the total — and we talked about this last week — the total belief and commitment to a process is when you work at that process without a tangible result — without a positive tangible result — and that’s commitment. When you’re committed to a process and things aren’t great — it’s just like raising kids. Sometimes you have to do things that aren’t great but you know that it’ll benefit them down the road. So, it’s an easier sell maybe to an 18, 19-year old kid to go, ‘Oh, OK, that does work. You know?’ It helps you win, get a good grade, do whatever, but hopefully we’re in this for the long haul.
Darren Carrington has been such a big part of your offense for the last month. Were you surprised at how fast he made a connection with Vernon Adams Jr.?
Vernon kind of has that chemistry with everyone. The broken play — the playground type of play that those guys have made a ton of — and he and Darren have hooked up big time.
Back at Pac-12 media day, you said you did not want to see this USC team. They’ve gone through some similar obstacles this year. Is still the same team you were som impressed by in August?
They are exceptional. The skill guys, everywhere, I think there are so many guys, very similar to Stanford, guys that we tried to recruit so there’s a lot of familiarity with who they are. [Cody] Kessler is a tremendous player. Their defense is getting better and better. They’ve had a couple, whatever you want to say, hiccups…They’re outstanding in every phase of the game. Adoree’ Jackson is their Charles Nelson. He plays offense, defense, plays special teams and does it all at a very high level.
Follow Joseph Hoyt on Twitter @JoeJHoyt.