University of Oregon defensive line coach Joe Salave’a wears the same shirt to practice every day. He runs around in the sweltering August heat, sweating, yelling, and celebrating when the defense makes a play.
The shirt is blue and collared — just like one you’d see a mechanic wearing at the local car repair shop. Every coach and team manager has one with their names across the front, though not all of them wear it every day like Salave’a.
The blue collar shirts are a physical symbol of what Taggart wants Oregon to be. He wants Oregon’s players to rid themselves of the complacency and entitlement that doomed the Ducks last season by instilling the notion of hard work into the team’s identity. He rebuilt programs at Western Kentucky and South Florida, now it’s time for the Ducks to undergo the same changes.
“I’ve done it everywhere I’ve been,” head coach Willie Taggart said. “It’s just a mindset of what we want our football team to be like. … You hear so much about, ‘Oh, guys just come to Oregon for uniforms and all that.’ … We need to make sure we put in the work to get the program back to where it belongs.”
Salave’a sees himself as the embodiment of what the blue collars represent.
“I don’t know better,” he said. “All I’ve known as a collegiate athlete and a professional athlete is you earn your keep.”
It starts with changing the culture.
During the press conference in which athletic director Rob Mullens announced the firing of former coach Mark Helfrich, one line stood out.
“We were on a poor trajectory,” he said.
The downfall of the program was obvious on the field, and it showed with the 4-8 record of the team. But it was behind the scenes, detailed in a report by the Oregonian, where the team lost. Players skipped warmups, arrived late to meetings and eased their way through workouts, among other things, with little punishment from the coaching staff.
Additionally, two players were arrested during the season and numerous others got into trouble with the law. It was a failure to build a culture of accountability and it cost Mark Helfrich his job.

Enter Willie Taggart. He played and coached under Jack Harbaugh and his son Jim Harbaugh. Taggart, a man with energy and enthusiasm, was not shy in his debut press conference.
“I don’t get along with boring people,” Taggart said. “I just don’t.”
He debuted the tag-lines he often uses to define what Oregon is going to be. “Do something” is a popular one. It’s now a hashtag and Taggart made a wristband with the slogan on it. It replaced the popular “Win the Day,” and it’s more than just a typical slogan.
He has his three tenants: “Make no excuses. Blame no one. Do something.” Those words are now displayed on a banner that runs along a wall at Oregon’s practice fields.
So has Taggart done something to replace the previous culture?
By most accounts, yes. The common thread among players is that they are getting to know each other. Taggart noticed this team seemed separated when he arrived, so he created activities that got the
players together.
The activities range from Madden tournaments to going swimming, and all in all, it seems to be paying off.
“We’ve been spending a lot more time with each other,” sophomore linebacker Lamar Winston Jr. said. “That’s huge, building a relationship with the guys that are going to be standing next to you on the field and playing for every down.”
“The chemistry takes our game to another level.”
Winston continued: “Not only when you’re getting coached up by a teammate, but also when a teammate is encouraging you, it just means a lot more when you have that type of bond built between, well, all of us.”
The time spent with one another is a stark contrast to the team vibes just one year ago.
“I feel like everybody was on a different page,” sophomore wide receiver Dillon Mitchell said. “Everybody was going through their own tribulations and nobody connected well. Nobody found a way to make camaraderie”
So Taggart decided to change that.
Coaches and players stayed in the dorms for the first week of fall camp. The close environment forces people to get to know each other, and the rooms were assigned randomly so players could be with guys that they wouldn’t usually talk to.
“That’s a huge thing,” Mitchell said. “We’ve already been talking and just getting to know our roommates closer.”
But it wasn’t all fun. One early morning, the Oregon band played the fight song in the halls as an alarm at 5:30 a.m.
“That sucked,” senior safety Khalil Oliver said. “They actually woke us up like an hour earlier than we had to leave. It was fun though. I think the band enjoyed it a lot more than we did.”
It’s all part of Taggart’s plan.
“Some guys were like, ‘Coach we beat you to it. We was already over here,’ so that was cool,” Taggart said. “Some players were like, ‘C’mon Coach, why you got to do us like that?’ I told them they’ve got to learn the fight song.”
Team bonding is important. It makes sense. How could you play together if you don’t know and respect one another?
But it is also known within the program that tangible improvements need to be made. Playing video games and team dinners are nice, but being able to physically dominate an opponent will have more impact on the field.
Taggart was honest in his assessment of the state of the football team when he arrived, stating he was surprised how the team was out of shape.

He hired a new strength and conditioning staff to manage the team. Irele Oderinde leads in the weight room now, and players are raving about their new physical conditions. There are many players saying “Coach O got us right.”
Taggart even joked about the body improvements of generally shy quarterback Justin Herbert.
“Justin’s walking outside with his shirt off now, and if you all know Justin, that wasn’t him before.”
If the team truly is in a new found physical condition, then that will become obvious on the field. It’s possible the Ducks will make big strides after an offseason of proper strength and conditions. In football, the slightest edge in physical condition can tilt the field.
New coaches always encounter bumps along the way. Oregon is no different. These weren’t typical bumps, more like hills.
During winter conditioning, three players were sent to the hospital after “military style workouts,” as initially reported in the Oregonian.
Taggart refuted the claim that the workouts were akin to the military, but the fact remained that three players went to the hospital. The news spread across the sports world. It was a public relations nightmare, and Oregon suspended Oderinde three months without pay.
Then, newly hired assistant coach David Reaves was arrested in Eugene for DUI. Another assistant coach, Jimmie Dougherty, was a passenger in the car. Reaves was fired, and Dougherty left to coach at UCLA.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the Ducks, but time has passed since those incidents, and all eyes are on the upcoming season.
As always, expectations are high at Oregon. But this is a rebuild, so the blue collar attitude will need to continue throughout the season, and probably carry over to 2018.
Let’s just hope Salava’e remembers to wash his shirt.
Follow Jack Butler on Twitter @Butler917

Gallery • 1 Photos

Salave’a crouches as the Ducks go through special teams drills. He has worn his blue-collar shirt every day of fall camp. (Theo Mechian/Emerald)