Maybe it’s not such a bad thing that
the Oregon defense is losing six starters
to graduation.
Then again, it doesn’t make the challenge of getting better any easier.
If anything is certain for the Oregon football team, it’s that the defense has to improve drastically before next season for the Ducks to even dream about contending for the Pacific-10 Conference title.
Sure, the Oregon offense struggled at the end of the 2002 season, but not as much as the Oregon defensive secondary, which ranked 115th out of 117 Division I teams by allowing 295 passing yards per game. With two first-year starters at the corners — junior Steven Moore and true freshman Aaron Gipson — the Ducks allowed 33 touchdowns through the air this season, the worst in
the nation.
That defensive weakness was never more clear than in the Seattle Bowl on Dec. 30, when Gipson was beaten twice for 57-yard and 63-yard scores in a 38-17 loss to
Wake Forest.
“That’s the story of our life,” senior linebacker David Moretti said after the bowl game. “We’ve done that a lot this year. We’ve let teams score points on us that they don’t earn. We let them get two 60-yard bombs and spotted them 14 points. If you want to beat a good football team, you can’t spot them points.”
The Ducks, who finished with six losses, the most since 1993, hope an offseason of hard work will help its defensive backs. It should help that junior safety Keith Lewis, a second-team all-Pac-10 selection, has said he will stay for his senior season.
But along with rover Rasuli Webster, a three-year starter, the Ducks’ secondary will lose its coach. After two years as Oregon’s secondary coach, Mike Gillhamer has left
for Louisville, where he’ll be the defensive coordinator.
In the middle, Oregon loses Moretti, the team’s leading tackler this season, and Garret Graham, the starting outside linebacker for most of the season. The lone returning linebacker, junior Kevin Mitchell, knows there’s a lot to do before Oregon’s first game at Mississippi State on Aug. 30.
“The younger guys coming back, we’re just going to have to regroup and learn how to work and learn how to play with heart, pride and desire — learn how to play football,” Mitchell said. “All we do is go to school and play football. School’s not that fun. Why not take what’s fun and go with it, make it the best time of our lives? We’ve lost some of that.”
What the Ducks have lost in the secondary, they should gain up front — with the intent of not letting their opponents gain anything on the ground. One positive for the Ducks is that they allowed just 106 rushing yards per game in 2002.
The transition to replace starters Seth McEwan and Darrell Wright at the defensive end positions should be fairly smooth because of the late-season emergence of Devan Long and Rod Wright.
At tackle, Oregon has little to worry about. With Igor Olshanksy, a sophomore, and freshman Haloti Ngata, the Ducks have one of the best tackle combos in the conference.
With spring practices three months away, Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti has declared that every position on the team is open.
“We just have to learn from it and get on with it,” Bellotti said. “We have to help ourselves in recruiting, and work in the weight room and on our speed to be a better defense.”
Just forgive and forget– if it were only that easy. But that’s all the Duck ‘D’ can do.
“Oregon’s got a great program,” Moretti said. “We have some young guys, and we had some problems this year. But we have a great coaching staff and some great kids.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see this team back on top again next year.”