by luke andrews
senior Sports Reporter
The 2006 Oregon defense knows the bar is set
very high.
Last season the Ducks ranked first in the conference in total defense, allowing 357.7 yards per game.
The defensive unit helped Oregon manage just the second 10-win regular season in school history and earn a Holiday Bowl berth.
But gone are the likes of Haloti Ngata, the most decorated defensive lineman in Oregon history, two standout cornerbacks in All-Pac-10 performer Justin Phinisee and All-American Aaron Gipson, defensive end Devan Long, and the Pac-10’s sack leader as well as Oregon’s overall tackles leader,
Anthony Trucks.
Their departures leave many questions for Oregon this season.
“Certainly we have some significant holes to fill on defense,” Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said. “When you lose playmakers … there’s not one person necessarily that we look to fill those holes, it’s all 11 players on defense.”
Injuries in fall camp have caused some setbacks along Oregon’s defensive line and in the secondary – two particular areas that lost standout players last season.
Defensive tackle Ra’shon Harris went down for the year with a torn triceps muscle in his right arm. Harris, along with Cole Linehan, David Faaeteete and newcomer Jeremy Gibbs, was expected to add depth and competition at the defensive tackle position vacated by Ngata.
Similarly, defensive end Victor Filipe, a candidate at defensive end who started five games last season, missed parts of fall camp and the early season with a left elbow injury, causing the versatile Matt Toeaina to move from defensive tackle to
defensive end.
Toeaina started 10 games at right tackle last season and two at right defensive` end. He registered 30 tackles, six for a loss and three
quarterback sacks.
In the season-opener against Stanford, Toeaina started at defensive end with returning starter Darius Sanders, while Linehan and Gibbs, a junior college All-American transfer from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, started inside at the tackle positions. Gibbs was the defensive standout against the Cardinal, recording five tackles, a forced fumble, a sack, and a blocked field goal.
Toeaina said while playing tackle or end requires different skills and responsibilities, he does not prefer one over the other.
“My big thing is, whatever suits the team,” Toeaina said. “Whether it’s inside or out, wherever the team needs me, I want to be there to help them out.”
Much like Toeaina, sophomore rover Patrick Chung’s versatility may be utilized in the secondary after injuries have thinned the
cornerback position.
Redshirt freshman Terrell Ward was the anticipated starter out of fall camp, but a knee injury sidelined him for an expected four-to-six weeks, leaving fellow redshirt freshman Walter Thurmond as the starter alongside
Jackie Bates.
“I feel like I’m ready for the challenge,” Bates said. “They’re going to test us, definitely. We’ve got to be ready to step up and make plays.”
Bates has started seven games in his career including twice last season and all but had the left cornerback position locked up heading into the season.
The most inexperience is at the right cornerback position and Chung may be called upon to play there, depending on the progress of Thurmond and Ward.
Chung, a 5-foot-11 inch, 205-pounder, was a pleasant surprise for the coaching staff at rover last season. As the youngest member of the team, he garnered All-Pac-10 mention with 91 tackles and two interceptions.
“The question is whether we take an all-league player and move him and weaken ourselves possibly in that position,” Bellotti said of Chung. “But I think he has the potential to be an all-league corner. It will depend on the development of the people
at corner.”
Bellotti’s other big concern is replacing Trucks and his team-leading 99 tackles and Pac-10-leading 11 sacks at the strong safety/outside linebacker position.
Junior Kwame Agyeman won that task in the
early season.
While Bellotti certainly has concerns and holes to fill on defense, there are some positions that are not
question marks.
One of those is the free safety position, where hard-hitting senior J.D. Nelson started all 12 games last season and earned All-Pac-10 second team after recording 64 tackles and one interception.
Nelson was recently named to the Bronko Nagurski Trophy watch list for the nation’s top defensive player.
“I felt like I was finally
getting a little bit of respect,” Nelson said. “It’s definitely a good feeling. But at the same time, you have to go out on the field and produce or else you fall right off that
watch list.”
Linebackers Blair Phillips and Brent Haberly, both seniors, started a combined 20 games last season and add solidarity at that position, Bellotti said. Phillips, the middle linebacker, and Haberly, the weak-side linebacker, accounted for 108 tackles
last season.
The two hope to be the anchor of the defense
this season.
“I think we could be one of the stronger units in the conference,” Phillips said. “I think we can surprise
some people.”
As for the rest of the defense filling the voids of lost playmakers and achieving similar numbers as
last season?
“I think we have guys that are able to step up,” Phillips, a 6-foot-2, 250-pounder, said. “It’s just going to take reps for them to see things and recognize things. It’s going to take a little time.”
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