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With the Oregon State football team preparing to square off with Washington, BeaversEdge chats with Brandon Gipson and Scott Reed from Duck Sports Authority to learn more about the Ducks!
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1. Bo Nix is a Heisman Finalist... How has he been able to take his game to the next level this season compared to last?
Scott Reed: "I mentioned in a piece earlier this week that Bo Nix is a professional quarterback playing college football. Where I see the biggest difference is in his understanding not just pre-snap reads – a lot of QBs are good there, but he seems to have a special understanding of what a defense is doing at the snap and just after and he absolutely knows the right response every time.
There is a lot of talk about ‘check-downs’ which is somewhat misguided. Nix and the Oregon offense tale plenty of shots downfield – and over the last half of the season, he has gotten better at connecting on those longer throws.The other thing is that he has shown an exceptional knowledge of where the Oregon receivers are going to be; his feel for the offense this season is unreal and it has shown on the field. Most importantly, I think, is that he has not had to carry the ball as much this year and that has really helped him stay healthy – that and one of the best protection units in the nation keeping him clean.:
Brandon Gipson: "Nix has definitely elevated his game over the last season, but you’d have to point to his leaving Auburn and getting out of his father’s shadow as the genesis of this change. Nix has never been questioned on his physical gifts, he was a five-star coming out of high school, and started as a true freshman at Auburn (against Oregon) in his first game. Going back to last season, Nix reunited with Kenny Dillingham and found new air in Eugene. A place where he was free to let his hair down (so to speak). Coming to Eugene he learned to love playing the game of football again and started to gain the confidence to help lead him into his senior year.
Having the support of the Oregon fans, his teammates, and his wife by his side (they even spent time handing out Voodoo doughnuts to students at the start of the year), Bo has taken his game to the next level. Although there are no official stats in the category, I’d be surprised if there was another quarterback in the nation who spent as much time as him on film.
Beyond his physical skills, he has started to master the cognitive portion of the game, going well beyond pre-snap reads, and to multi-read split-second decisions. He is an extra coach on the field (and on the sidelines), and when he pairs together his pre-game preparation with his split-second reads, he has the confidence of the coaching staff to audible out to the play call of his choice.
Oregon has stepped up their game in the video production game and started to highlight some of these decisions in games, where you can see the preparation he put in, the audibles he made, and the explosive plays that resulted. Finally, he doesn’t allow himself to put himself and the team in bad position. Nix has thrown two interceptions this year, and both were catchable balls, that deflected off the wide receiver."
2. Oregon has really made strides on defense and boasts one of the stouter units in the league, what's been the key to success there?
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SR: "The defense has a lot of the same names out there, but there is significantly better depth on the front line and a couple of transfer portal additions have shored up the defensive backfield. Let me start up front. It isn’t just that Oregon landed Jordan Burch from South Carolina as an edge rusher, but that they saw the return of NT Popo Aumavae, Brandon Dorlus coming back, Casey Rogers and Taki Taimani making a bigger impact, it is that they have added depth through their first signing class as well with Teitum Tuioti and Matayo Uiagalelei getting significant playing time.
The added depth on the front line has allowed Oregon to generate a lot more pressure packages than last season as they are more capable of implementing linebackers and defensive backs with better defensive line play.
The Ducks also picked up a couple of key linebackers through the portal. Jestin Jacobs missed the first half of the season, but has been really impressive in his play since returning. Finally, the defensive backfield picked up three starters in the portal with Khyree Jackson, Tysheem Johnso, and Even Williams all making significant contributions and providing much better coverage in the backfield."
BG: "Getting down to the truth, a combination of a lot of fresh faces and willingness to buy into the defensive scheme has put Oregon’s defense on a different level. You can’t ignore the additions of talent through the portal, bringing in Jordan Burch, Evan Williams, Tysheem Johnson, Jestin Jacobs, and Khyree Jackson. Jestin was injured for a chunk of the season, but the other guys have all been mainstay starters on this improved unit.
They also added some key pieces through recruitment including five-star Matayo Uiagalelei, four-star Blake Purchase, and Teitum Tuioti, all major contributors. Additionally, the offseason development (true for both sides of the ball) has brought a new level of speed and conditioning to the Ducks, and even better yet for Oregon, the depth of talent allows less wear and tear across the season.
Honestly, Oregon has a level of talent on defense that would rival any former Duck squad. Beyond being bigger, better, and faster, the most important change was the buy-in by the players on the defense this year.
Last year, there were a few players who were more interested in personal glory and made the scheme look pretty bad by being out of gaps or just on the wrong page. Once you can get players to see the results and buy-in, you go from a team that was 74thin scoring defense at 27.4 points per game, up to 10th, allowing only 16.7 a game."
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