After Oregon’s final practice of the week on Thursday, defensive coordinator Brady Hoke said that the handful of freshmen who were slated to take the field for the Ducks in their season-opener on Saturday should expectedly be a little nervous.
“If you’re not a little tight then I don’t know if you’re completely ready,” Hoke told reporters.
Apparently, Troy Dye missed the message.
In the first collegiate game of his career, Dye finished with a game-high 11 tackles, including seven solo tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and a sack in Oregon’s 53-28 win over UC Davis. He also added a blocked field goal in the third quarter for good measure.
“That’s how [Dye] has been every single day at practice,” Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said. “Everything he does in individual drills, he just competes his face off and he’ll hit you. He’s a guy we’ve been very excited about since the day he got here.”
A true freshman from Norco, California, Dye was thrust into the spotlight when his name appeared at the starting SAM linebacker spot on Oregon’s two-deep depth chart a week ago. As the only Duck true freshman to nab a starting spot, Dye was expected to provide solid play and make a few ‘freshman mistakes’ along the way. He wasn’t expected to play like the second coming of Kiko Alonso.
Dye recorded six of Oregon’s 12 tackles in the first quarter, and landed two crushing tackles for loss on UC Davis’ fourth drive of the game. In the week leading up to the game, he said he normally doesn’t feel nervous before games and tries to push those thoughts from his head. However, he admitted that he wasn’t sure what kind of emotions and nerves he would feel once he entered the tunnel for his first game.
Whether nervousness played a factor or not, the former 3-star recruit made his presence felt almost immediately.
“It was great. It was definitely the atmosphere I expected,” Dye said after the game. “But the way I played, I didn’t expect that at all. I just read what I read and played fast and physical like coaches told me to and just had fun.”
Hoke, as well as Dye’s teammates, have repeatedly praised his ability to play at full speed during practice. Dye’s energy and high motor grabbed the attention of Oregon’s coaches almost immediately when he began practicing with the team. That same motor was on full display Saturday afternoon as he played like a one-man army and singlehandedly halted several UC Davis drives.
“I feel like he’s a junior or something already,” Oregon defensive end Jalen Jelks said. “He learns the game pretty quickly and he learned the defense really well. The first day of fall camp, we were doing a box drill with kickoffs and Troy was the first guy down the field and was beating running backs.”
While Dye was surprised with his own performance,  numerous Oregon players and coaches said that they expected this type of game from the freshman sooner rather than later. He was recruited as a safety and has added nearly 30 pounds since arriving on campus for spring practices. Teammates have already said that Dye’s study habits are so sharp that he often knows which plays are coming before they happen. The scary part? He has exactly one career game under his belt.
“He’s a very, very good athlete,” Hoke said after the game. “I think his football instinct and IQ is pretty good. I don’t know if what he did absolutely surprised anybody, but there’s a ton of stuff he can do better, too.”
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney