After practice Friday they asked Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi what his focus was at fall camp, and while his delivery isn't the polished, forceful cadence of his former mentor NIck Saban, the conviction is evident.
"A poet once said, 'I'm gonna treat everyday like I was an intern,' and that's what I try to do in making it contagious," Lupoi said.
"Anybody who that poet is?" Lupoi chided the reporters. "The notorious B.I.G."
In his fourth year with the Ducks the former national champion DC at Alabama said his defense has to avoid the two poison pills. "We're not going to focus upon the poisonous pill of success of what we accomplished last season and and beating the national champions and Michigan and Penn State and all the cool stuff and .the the Big 10 championship."
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"And at the same time, we're not bringing up the pill of depression either, focusing on like, hey, what's our growth from the last game that didn't end up the way we wanted to be and how do we build from it?"
He recognizes that this year represents a new challenge. "I'm challenging every day," he said.
"We're out there in spiders and we're going to play with with fundamentals and technique. We're executing our assignments pretty strong, but I called the Dline out yesterday."
"We just lost roughly $42 million between three guys up front, as far as their salaries in the National Football League." Derrick Harmon, Jordan Burch and Jamaree Caldwell, now plying their trade with Pittsburgh, Arizona and the Chargers.
"We're looking for impact players, right? We're looking for the guys that have been chomping at the bid to get those reps. And this is your opportunity."
When they asked him about the secondary Lupoi took a moment to praise last year's unit, "Five absolutely amazing DBs last season that played their butt off, and the tallest guy being 5-10 and a quarter, you just can't respect more what they did for us."
"But certainly our system is built around guys with length and, of course, speed and then short area quickness and a physical tackler."
He cited Christian Gonzalez, an NFL first-round draft pick in 2023 as the perfect example of what he looked for in the secondary. Gonzalez was 6-1, 205, agile as Spiderman.
This year's secondary has the length and speed he's looking for, opening up new possibilities. "Not necessarily doing a whole bunch of new things but what we could do probably better caters to us, maybe getting away from smoke and mirrors to hide matchup issues."
Up front, Matayo Uiagalelei could emerge as "one of one," meaning the No. 1 overall pick the NFL draft.
"The guy has elite smarts," Lupoi said, alluding to his leadership, length and versatility at 6-6, 278.
"We're rotating him. You're going to see him rushing interior. You're going to see him rushing off the edge."
"He lines up in a two-point, lines up in space and we have absolute full confidence in him in those positions. He plays Sam backer, Jack Backer, big in edge, three tech, just a unique guy."
Lupoi doesn't have a reputation as a defensive mastermind, an x's and o's guy. But he is 100% authentic and committed to his players, a superb evaluator and motivator, a top-notch recruiter. In 2025 he has body types to rival what he put on the field at Alabama, where the Tide won national championships in 2015 and 2017.
In 2015 they put up 53 sacks, In 2017 they led the nation in scoring defense at 11.9 points a game. So at the very least Lupoi understands how good good can be.