Chantel Jennings, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Spring practice primer: Oregon Ducks

Oregon starts spring football this week with practices Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. We’ll have updates coming each day, but to prepare you one last time, here’s a breakdown of a few things that should begin to sort themselves out this spring in Eugene.

The quarterback competition

Ever since Vernon Adams Jr. signed with Oregon, we’ve spent a lot of discussing his fit in the offense, his athleticism and how well his skill set will translate from the FCS level. But he doesn’t get to Eugene until the summer and this spring, every rep that Jeff Lockie or Morgan Mahalak or anyone else takes is one that Adams will not be taking. As Oregon moves past Marcus Mariota, the QB position is going to draw lots of conversation. Even though not all competitors will be here this spring, it’s certainly something to keep an eye on, because whoever wins the job this spring will be Adams’ biggest competition this summer.

Watch the early enrollees

Here’s the thing about spring ball: A lot of it is weighted toward personal development, so sometimes the guys who shine the brightest are the ones making jumps from scout team to third string. Therefore, players and coaches talk a lot about players who won’t be talked about too much by the fall. When it comes to early enrollees or true freshmen, it’s hard to say how much of the talk will be backed up. Royce Freeman is a great example of a guy who got a ton of talk last preseason and backed it up during the season. But we’ve all seen the opposite happen.

But here’s why the talk matters with this year’s early enrollees: Most are at position groups that are low on depth. A lot of how well these guys do will be more based on how they balance college life, academics and football rather than simply how skilled they are, but they’re still names to keep an eye on because we could very well be talking about a few of these guys this fall. Defensive back Ugo Amadi comes into a secondary looking to replace starters and contributors. Defensive lineman Canton Kaumatule could be an instant-impact player. The offensive line is going through transition and showed how important it is to harvest depth last season, so Zach Okun could be a name to watch. Wide receiver Alex Ofodile enters a wide receiver group that will welcome him as a 6-foot-2 deep threat. And Taj Griffin -- if healthy -- could factor into the race at running back based on his sheer athleticism. Quarterback Travis Jonsen (formerly known as Travis Waller) is jumping into a position that has a bit more competition, so it seems pretty likely that this season could be a redshirt year. But it's never too early to start looking ahead to the 2016 season in which Jonsen could be a big name. This spring could be the springboard to that.

Who emerges on defense?

The Ducks have quite a bit to replace on defense. Though there are a few names that we know we’ll hear (DeForest Buckner, Alex Balducci, Joe Walker, Rodney Hardrick, Reggie Daniels, etc.), it’ll be interesting to see who separates themselves from the rest of the group this spring. Who emerges at cornerback opposite Chris Seisay? What names will be brought up as quality pass rushers, and will they get more of a pass rush going?

Charles Nelson moves to defensive back

This was a pretty surprising off-season position move. Nelson, who forced the coaching staff to move him from special teams to offense last season, was really coming into his own. But Mark Helfrich joked that several position coaches -- including defensive back coach John Neal -- had their eyes on Nelson and his abilities. Looks like one of those coaches got his way, so this means one of two things (most likely, a combination of both). No. 1 -- Oregon feels good enough about its depth at wide receiver that moving Nelson (who finished the season as the team’s seventh-leading receiver) to defense didn’t cause passing game coordinator Matt Lubick to worry. No. 2 -- The Ducks lack so much in the secondary that the Ducks need a playmaker like Nelson at a place of need. It’ll be interesting to see how he grows into that position and if he can break into the starting rotation.

The offensive line continues to adjust

The many changes Oregon's offensive line went through last season produced a silver lining for this spring. Even though they lost Hroniss Grasu, Hamani Stevens, Jake Fisher and Andre Yruretagoyena, there are still quite a few players on the roster who saw reps last season. Given last season’s experience, it’ll be interesting to see how the O-line responds. Every team constantly stresses the mantra of “next man up” and “practice like you’re going to start the next game,” but since that literally happened at Oregon countless times last season will there be a newfound energy and fight in that group because they saw how quickly lineups and rotations could change? Will coach Steve Greatwood coach the group any differently and rotate the guys even more than he did before? Will there be a greater urgency within that position group?

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