The Oregon rushing attack is looking to get back in sync. 

The Ducks, following four weeks of football, have had a lackluster rushing attack. They rank 85th in the nation and eighth in the conference for overall rushing. Offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo and his offense got a chance to establish their rushing attack during the bye week ahead of their game against Cal. 

“Getting back into sync in regards to certain things we do, certain looks, certain fronts and certain schemes that may have a chance to give us an impact,” Arroyo said. “It’s all collectively seeing it, with some of the stuff that we are doing now is going to help us, and that’s been good.”

Oregon center Jake Hanson will return to the field following an injury that sidelined him against Stanford and put Calvin Throckmorton into the center position. Throckmorton will slide back to right tackle and Oregon will return its veteran offensive line against Cal. 

With the bye week allowing the offensive line to recover to full strength, it also allowed them to get back to the basics.
“We really just started from scratch,” senior offensive lineman Shane Lemieux said. “We got our bodies back, got our mental focus back and really tried to get away from football for a couple days. I think we came back today and ran the ball really well in practice and we are really emphasizing that.” 

Starting running back CJ Verdell also got a chance to work on the fundamentals during Oregon’s bye week. Verdell, who hasn’t played as well as he did in his freshman year, is focused on getting the rushing attack back on track.

“We just wanted to get our technique right,” Verdell said. “We’re right there. Each game is different — sometimes it’s not going to be pretty. We’ll just keep working at it and hopefully it should open up this game.” 

Oregon rushing attack will have to run into the teeth of the Cal defense and inside linebacker Evan Weaver. Weaver, a senior, leads the nation in total tackles with 78 and is one of the nation’s best linebackers. 

“He’s a really talented guy,” Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert said. “He’s about as special as they come. He makes all their plays. They’ve got a lot of guys that makes plays, but he makes a lot of them.”

Herbert is arguably playing at his best this season, but the run game has not been able to consistently support him. Herbert has completed 74% of his passes to go along with 14 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Head coach Mario Cristobal has been consistently preaching that Oregon is a power-run school and that it needs to get back into sync with that mantra. And if Oregon wants to be competitive for the remainder of the season, the Ducks can not solely rely on Herbert to carry them. Despite trying to get the offense into sync, Oregon is focused on winning first and foremost.

“A lot of teams see us as a running team,” Lemieux said. “I don’t really care how we win as long as we are in, whether we’re rushing or passing.”