Spring ball is moving right along without a hitch and Oregon football looks to have one of the best teams in the country, at least on paper.
Mario Cristobal has assembled quite the roster in Eugene and he’s hoping to compete for another Pac-12 title as well as a national championship but in order to do that, he needs some under-the-radar players to step up. Even if that includes some freshmen.
I touched on potential breakout players for Oregon this spring, but I never really got to talk about which freshman I think could be a household name by the time summer rolls around.
There are plenty of top candidates for the breakout freshman of the spring such as Ty Thompson, Kingsley Suamataia, Troy Franklin, or even Dont’e Thornton, but are any of those guys my No. 1 candidate to be the Ducks’ star newcomer?
Let’s talk about the names mentioned above.
Thompson might be everyone’s favorite to be the breakout candidate because he’s battling for the starting job. He is a top-50 recruit and one of the best quarterbacks from the 2021 recruiting class. He’ll be a front-runner for spring breakout candidate. Franklin and Thornton are four-star receiver enrollees who are going to have really good careers, but they may not break out just yet because the receiving corps is loaded. Lastly, Suamataia could be the perfect replacement for Penei Sewell. It’s tough to really crack the starting rotation as a freshman offensive lineman, though.
Are there any other potential high-impact true freshmen already on campus?
Bram Walden and Jackson Light are in the same boat as Suamataia and Moliki Matavao and Terrance Ferguson join a loaded tight end group so it’d be surprising to see them break the starting rotation as breakout stars.
Keith Brown is a solid option as linebacker may be a position that could use some added depth and Jaylin Davies, too, could break the two-deep.
Early favorite for breakout Oregon football freshman
But who is my favorite to break out?
I’m going to have to go with Davies. The four-star freshman cornerback was the 10th-best at his position in the 2021 recruiting class and Oregon is losing Thomas Graham Jr. and Deommodore Lenoir.
Plus, there’s this quote about Davies from Verone McKinley III:
McKinley says freshmen Daymon David and Jaylin Davies have made the transition to college nicely. Says they "Don't look normal."
— Max Torres (@mtorressports) April 6, 2021
Daymon David and Davies “don’t look normal” early on which is a good thing. The Ducks lost a handful of players from the secondary, including both starting cornerbacks. DJ James, Mykael Wright, and Dontae Manning are the favorites to start early on, but Davies could crack that two-deep and potentially push one of those three guys for a starting job.
Davis has solid size at 6-foot-1 and around 170 pounds and when he adds some muscle during offseason workouts, he’s going to be a star.
I can see Davies playing a ton this season and he’s going to get more praise by the end of spring ball and hopefully fans can see just how good he is during the spring game on May 1.