Recapping yesterday’s practice
Because we were caught up in the hubbub of some late-night scheduling news and other stuff for the paper we never got a practice report up last night. We make amends for that omission after the jump.
…
The Cougars focused heavily on technique in yesterday's practice and spent most of the time going through position-specific drills. The offensive linemen pushed offensive line coach Clay McGuire around the field on a blocking sled, defensive linemen worked on slicing through two pulling blockers, the running backs worked on footwork and the linebackers worked on getting off blocks by running a drill in which a linebacker ran up to and engaged three consecutive blockers, needing to disengage from each one before moving onto the next.
"We'll face a good team but we face three-straight speed-option teams, tempo-option teams. The carryover should be good, we've just got to get better at what we're doing and being in the right spots against these guys," linebackers coach Ken Wilson said.
He added that the most important thing when facing a team like the Ducks isn't trying to match their speed but to try and outmuscle UO's quick offensive players.
"You've got to be more aggressive," Wilson said. You have to be in your right gap and you have to force them to get off those double teams in the front. If they can push our defensive line with two or three blockers on each guy, they're going to have a lot of rushing yards. We've got to get that off, we have to be in the right spots and we have to be fast enough to get into our run gaps."
The receivers ran lots and lots of route and the quarterbacks threw them many passes.
There were some players who didn't participate in any of the drills, most notably Kristoff Williams and Theron West who were both in yellow no-contact jerseys and bystanders during practice. Also limited were Destiny Vaeao, Drew Springfield, Nate DeRider, Mack Hopkins, Mitch Peterson, Isaac Dotson and Chester Su'a.
With Vaeao out, Darryl Paulo ran with the ones at defensive end and Lyman Faoliu took over his spot with the twos.
The Cougars then broke up into passing-game units and running game units and went to separate practice fields. The quarterbacks threw passes to receivers who were covered by the regular ones and twos in the secondary, while on the other field the defensive front seven worked on defending the run game.
It was a good day for the defensive backs who had a lot of success in one-on-one matchups with the receivers. Charleston White had a nice breakup on a deep ball to Daniel Lilienthal, and Taylor Taliulu shortly followed with one of his own against Isiah Myers. Darius Lemora broke up a pass intended for River Cracraft.
Later in practice Marcellus Pippins intercepted Connor Ennis.
Gabe Marks again ran the scout team offense as a stand-in for Oregon's Marcus Mariota, and he had one really nice run, appearing to roll out to his right before quickly darting back into the pocket and then rushing untouched up the middle of the field.
"Whenever we've been in the past in places I've been we've always struggled with finding a guy that can run the pistol, the zone-read and all that stuff, and Gabe's a natural at it," Wilson said. "He's a very good competitor and he just battles every snap out there. It's his Super Bowl every day so it's fun to have him around.
The defense got him back soon after, however, when cornerback Pat Porter read Marks' eyes and was ready and waiting to intercept a pass that was also probably slightly underthrown.
