With the departure of second team All-American DeForest Buckner, Oregon defensive coordinator Brady Hoke will turn to a deep group of young players to step up on the defensive line as he implements a new 4-3 scheme.
At times last season, Buckner played like a one-man army, obliterating opposing double teams while lining up all over the defensive line. Buckner finished with 9.5 of Oregon’s 38 sacks, and anchored an abysmal Oregon defense that surrendered the third-most passing yards in college football.
With a shift to the 4-3 — meaning, Oregon will now play with four down linemen, as opposed to the three that it played with in Don Pellum’s 3-4 scheme — Hoke hopes to create a frenetic Duck pass rush in order to reach opposing quarterbacks on a more consistent basis. Oregon doesn’t have a pass-rusher anywhere near Buckner’s caliber in the fold this season, but it does have several talented players who could emerge immediately in Hoke’s rush-happy play-style.
Junior defensive end Henry Mondeaux was the lone underclassmen to crack the starting lineup along Oregon’s defensive front last season and finished with four sacks and 22 tackles. The Portland, Ore., native will likely be Oregon’s top pass rushing threat, and emerged as a team leader during the spring. At 6 feet, 5 inches and 280 pounds, Mondeaux will start at strong-side defensive end.
Starting opposite Mondaux at weak-side defensive end could be senior Torrodney Prevot. Prevot was inserted to Oregon’s starting lineup at outside linebacker for the final five games last season and will slot into Hoke’s scheme as an edge-rusher. One of Oregon’s longest tenured players, Prevot has appeared in 28 consecutive games, but a starting job is not a formality. Redshirt sophomore Justin Hollins sat out the entire 2015 season with an injury, and like Prevot, is shifting from outside linebacker to defensive end this year. Hollins led all Oregon players with eight tackles during the Ducks’ spring game and at 6-6, 230 pounds, he posesses the prototypical build for an edge-rusher.
Junior Austin Maloata and sophomore Rex Manu will likely anchor the defensive tackle positions, and there will be few players with game experience to spell them — Of Oregon’s nine interior linemen, six are underclassmen. The most promising of the bunch is Canton Kaumatule, a massive 6-7, 295 pound sophomore nose tackle who garnered five star accolades before coming to Oregon. Kaumatule was ranked as the 15th overall prospect by ESPN in the class 2015 and became the gem of Oregon’s recruiting class when he signed in November of 2014. Kaumatule was thrown into the fire for eight games last season as a true freshman and should benefit heavily this year from that crash course.
Oregon’s defensive line as whole is another question mark on a defense filled with them. But the pass rush should benefit immediately from a change in scheme, and Hoke’s arrival offers a fresh start for players who may have felt buried on the depth chart last year.
“All the guys are freshmen again; no one has a spot,” Mondeaux said following Oregon’s spring game. “We’re returning starters but it doesn’t mean anything because everyone’s starting from the same point. It was definitely a good motivator because guys have maybe gotten discouraged or guys that were maybe in the three-deep or four-deep last year now are on the same level as the guys starting last year.”
Follow Jarrid Denney on Twitter @jarrid_denney