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Oregon and interior DL
lawsandl
Member Posts: 1,555
in Duck Refuge
Are you bearish, bullish or neutral and why?
Seems like there is a lot of concern on the board for the unit.
Seems like there is a lot of concern on the board for the unit.
Comments
We haven’t recruited a true defensive tackle since Jordon Scott.
My favorite unit on the team, rather easily.
I think if you're going to go out and get linebackers like Sewell, Flowe, LaDuke and Brown that can stack up the OL, you can afford quick twitch DL instead of a true nose tackle. Dorlus will probably end up close to 300 and 6'4" and he's probably the prototype 3 tech. Jaylen Smith is in that mold too. I think you see them paired with a long-levered player like Jayson Jones and Keanu Williams.
Moving Thibodeaux out to a Von Miller role makes sense (think of how Leavitt used Justin Hollins, now with a bigger body type player). You'll probably see "breakout years" from Adrian Jackson and Steve Stephens simply because the position they were recruited to play is now back on the table. The flip side is some players are also not going to adjust well to the new scheme. My concern is that Avalotti spent two years stocking the shelves with his version of OKG on the D-line and now DeRuyter is going to come in and shift what OKG means again. The more telling feature (and take it with a grain of salt, because Cal wasn't offering the South) is that Keanu Williams and Shipley are the only two Oregon D-Linemen that Cal offered.
7-5 will be a good season for MontLake Helfrich and his Top 40 recruiting classes by 2023.
On the DL, Dorlus will be the key. Any top end consistency from him and the PAC 12 can quit.
Oregon’s defense sucked. Yet they allowed fewer rushing yards per game and a lower yards per carry than Washington in Pac-12 play. They held 5/7 opponents under their season average in YPC.
Cal had 88 yards on 47 carries. 21 of those came on a broken play scramble by the QB.
UCLA ran it on everyone. Including 290 yards on that tuff Stanford team that Washington struggled with.
The only reason to be neutral is that both Scott and Austin Faoliu are gone. Although Faoliu remembered at the end of the season he wants to have coffee in the NFL and played well enough to score a combine invite to the virtual combine.
I’ve thought for two years that Popo is better than Scott. I don’t think I’m alone in that thought, Popo actually moves people. Depending on what front they use either Popo or Kristian Williams or both will be starting.
Brandon Dorlus and Kristian Williams are the bright spots. Thanks to Gemon Eaford for the contribution of his 600 spots lower ranked teammate, his biggest impact on Oregon football, because Dorlus is legit. Kristian Williams started the last two games instead of Scott and he’s looking like a major steal for late in that recruiting cycle.
2020 diamond in the rough, because that’s how Oregon recruits DL now: Jaylen Smith. He was with the OL because he’s decent at both and they needed him for Covid roster minimums to avoid having to forfeit games to your rivals. He actually played in almost every game. Explosive, and he’s the best athlete in the group. Listed at 292 lbs and they’re playing him as an edge like KT or Bradyn Swinson - but I bet he winds up with this interior group.
As for the other guys: Ware-Hudson is a rotation guy at both spots, and too early to say bust but I think I noticed him twice all season even on re-watch when trying to find him. Jayson Jones and Maceal Afaese are projects, and if the team didn’t suck as much ass and there was more garbage time they could have played. Jayson Jones can actually play just by using his arms to keep blockers away from his body but he would be better off for his sake as an OT, he’s got good feet. Jake Shipley is behind all of those. Sua’ava Poti supposedly gets worked. Hopefully Keanu Williams isn’t a bust, pretty wild that they only signed one big DL when this is all they have.
Washington was playing Arizona #71 rushing team in the nation as their southern division opponent.
The Fiesta Bowel drove that average up, although it was Iowa State’s third lowest YPC game. They also held those corn retards to their second worst passing game. In their worst Big-12 game they averaged 1.1 yards per play more, but none of that matters when you allow the other team to run 39 more plays.