Dan Lanning didn’t leave Autzen Stadium on Saturday with a finished evaluation of Oregon’s first fall scrimmage, but he did walk away encouraged.
The Ducks went through an estimated 120-play workout behind closed doors, and while the head coach had his complaints - ball security and special teams among them - the overall takeaway was positive. Oregon got the physical test it wanted, and it got through the day healthy.
“The things you're always hoping for a coach in this moment is you want to test physicality, the ability to tackle and break tackles, but you also want to walk away healthy, and we were able to do that today,” Lanning said in his opening remarks. “I told our players that there's two things that we're looking for when we grade a scrimmage.
Are you accountable? And are you capable?
Do you do your job when you're asked to do your job and are you capable of doing the job we ask you to do? If you're not, then you're going to get limited reps.
If you do, then you'll continue to grow on this team.”
Because the scrimmage was closed to the media and the public, Lanning was the only real source for what happened inside the stadium. He didn’t offer much in the way of specifics, though he did single out safety Peyton Woodyard for an interception. Even without a stat sheet, the message from the coach was clear: Oregon is moving forward, but it’s not there yet.
“I’m always a pessimistic guy when it comes to what the performance looked like because I want us to be the best version of us,” he explained. “And we're not the best version of us yet, but we're making strides.”
Defense, by Lanning’s account, showed up with real bite. He said the ball-hawking work this fall has been the best the Ducks have had in camp under his watch, and that the offense has had to feel that pressure.
“I think this is the best fall camp we've had as a defense in terms of attacking the ball, which is good,” he said. “Our offense needs to see that.”
The kicking game, though, left room for improvement. Lanning pointed to a missed long field goal, shaky kickoffs and punt locations that drifted out of bounds. With so few special teams chances in a scrimmage setting, he made it plain that those reps have to be cleaner.
“We tested our guys today. We tried to kick a long field goal, and we didn't make a long field goal.
We had some poor kicks on kickoffs. We have to be able to count on those guys to have great kicks on kickoff.
Punt locations, we had some balls that were out-of-bounds,” he said. “In special teams you get one play to be right, right?
And they have to be right, and they weren't all right today.”
Even so, Lanning said the effort level never dipped. After the scrimmage, Oregon pushed into conditioning work before an off-day on Sunday, and the players kept going.
“The guys were asking for more,” Lanning said. “I think that's a great example of guys saying 'We just went through an entire scrimmage and my body is telling me no, but my mind is telling me yay'.
You know the song right? That's what these guys are doing.
They're pushing for more. It's the other way around obviously in the song, but you get the idea.”
By the end of the day, Lanning said he saw enough to believe in the roster’s direction.
“I think there's some flashes that you saw that we've got the right guys on this team.”
Oregon will practice again on Monday and continue through another full week of camp. Coaches and players are scheduled to speak with the media after workouts on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and again after next Saturday’s second and final fall scrimmage.
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