Oregon defensive tackle Bear Alexander will not face discipline after the play that drew attention in Saturday’s 17-15 loss to UCLA, when Dan Lanning said he was making a late effort to punch the ball free from quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
TV replays showed Alexander twisting Iamaleava’s helmet and then swinging his right arm as the quarterback was being tackled on a second-quarter scramble. The blow hit Iamaleava in the chin, but the ball stayed put. Iamaleava also came away with a knee injury on the play, and UCLA coach Bob Chesney said earlier Monday that the team had “serious concern” about his outlook.
Chesney said he didn’t see the punch live, but he did note that Iamaleava told him he was being punched.
"When you see it, it's certainly egregious," Chesney said. "It shouldn't be a play that is allowed to occur in this sport, and it's a shame that that was missed [by officials]."
Lanning said Oregon was trying to be aggressive about attacking the football on quarterback runs, even if that specific attempt went too far and wasn’t done correctly.
"Obviously [the punch is] late and it's not the way it needs to be done and wasn't executed the right way," Lanning said. "Bear knows that.
One of the first things he said to me was, 'I wasn't trying to hurt the guy.' ... You don't want to see it play out like that, but you want your players to be aggressive."
Alexander ended the game with six tackles.
Lanning also said the Ducks will make changes to their offensive operation going forward, though he wouldn’t spell them out because of the competitive edge involved. He backed offensive coordinator Drew Mehringer and the rest of the offensive staff as Oregon gets ready to host Nebraska this week.
"There's going to be some changes, some differences in the way that we operate and what we do, and there already is, the way we've operated this week," Lanning said. "But as far as revealing how we'll do that, what things will look like, I'm not going to share that with [the media]."
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