As Oregon’s home opener on September 2 grows ever closer, Willie Taggart still has high expectations. The Ducks’ first scrimmage last Sunday highlighted an issue in discipline as penalties apparently were a major issue. Taggart and Troy Dye both said that the team responded well to those penalties and kept playing hard. But as the season approaches Taggart wants to see improvement from his team on that aspect.
“We’re not good enough of a football team to beat ourselves with penalties,” Taggart said. “So, we got to be very disciplined from that standpoint.”
He also wants to see less missed assignments on the defensive end.
“I think that’s really key for our guys as we continue to get closer to the game is to limit those missed assignments,” Taggart said.
The team will scrimmage again this Sunday with an added emphasis on those two areas.
Extended game week preparations
When Oregon enters week four of fall camp, the emphasis will be less on earning spots and more on preparing for games. Taggart said that the depth chart will begin to take shape next week and that the team will approach week four of camp as a game week. Oregon’s first game is still three weeks away but Taggart wants his team ready.
“I want our guys to go through a week of game preparation before we actually get into the game week so our guys understand how we’re going to do things on game week,” Taggart said.
Ducks discussed Charlottesville as a team this week
The events that transpired in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12 caught national headlines over the weekend as white nationalists and counter-protesters clashed, leaving one dead and 19 injured. Taggart, who is one of 14 African American head coaches in Division One college football, has rarely commented on political issues, saying that he wants to focus on football.
But the events in Charlottesville were brought up by a player during a team dinner this week and Taggart felt the need to address the issue with his team.
“We just talked in general and wanted to get our guys feedback about what they thought about it,” Taggart said. “Just make sure that we’re still on the same page from that standpoint and didn’t want our guys just talking about it among themselves.
“We’re a team and we all want to talk about it and make sure that everybody is on the same page and feeling good about it.”
Taggart’s full comments can be found here.
Follow Gus Morris on Twitter @JustGusMorris