Ducks could get even more potent for playoff run

Oregon is a team with a growth mindset and an energetic environment in practice. There's competition and the desire to create pressure that simulates a gameday environment. Players push each other and positive, detailed coaching occurs every day.

In that atmosphere a team improves from week-to-week and over a season. It creates a culture where a player can play his best game of the season in a setting like the Big Ten Championship, the way Nikko Reed, Dontae Manning, Kenyon Sadiq and Tez Johnson did a year ago.

This season Dan Lanning and his staff have a plan for developing a team that peaks in the playoffs. They've brought along young players and developed deep rotations at running back and in the secondary. Nine to 12 players get meaningful snaps along the defensive line.

Early season game control allowed them to play deep into the roster in nonconference play. There's teach tape for the first 85, even beyond. And the structure of internal leadership within the team fosters growth. The message throughout the roster is, "You're important. We believe in you. We're committed to your success."

When Dante Moore met the media this week he said, “Like, every day we run our own race, we don't listen to the hype, we don't listen to other things. We kind of just keep our, you know, our head focused on straight. So, like, overall, we’re a young team and people think, when we're young, that this outside noise is going to, you know, grab our attention, but every day we just come to work.”

Watching Moore's growth and confidence over the first seven weeks of the season has been a marvel, even more so as fans realize how this group takes confidence from each other. It's a brotherhood.

“And like when I took the field against Penn State, and I looked at Poncho (Iapani Laloulu) in his eyes, like he looked at me, and it's like, I have confidence in the team. Even my teammates, they have confidence in me,” Moore said.

While Moore's growth has been phenomenal, it's powerful too that four different quarterbacks have taken snaps for the Ducks this season, and a fifth, true freshman Akili Smith Jr., continues his development. Up and down the roster the Oregon players take their cues from their quarterbacks. The commitment to growth is reinforced.

Another way the Ducks are growing and developing is in training and injury rehab. Safety Trey McNutt and receiver Evan Stewart, two more above-the-line talents, are pushing toward a return to the lineup. In an interview with Chris Low of On3 Sports, Lanning offered a hopeful update on Stewart and his progress toward a return.

Lanning told Low, “We’re not going to push it and put him in a bad spot, but I think there’s a chance. He’d love to get back out there. He’d be a great weapon to get back. I’m encouraging him, and his rehab is going well. We’ll see.”

Getting a weapon like Stewart back for November and a playoff run would add new punch to this offense, a physical, big-play receiver opposite Dakorien Moore. Gary Bryant Jr., Malik Benson and Jeremiah McClellan have all been solid in that role, but Stewart is another Duck with next-level talent.

The game with No. 7 Indiana today, Saturday 12:30 p.m. PT on CBS from Autzen Stadium is exciting for Duck fans, not just because of the presence of ESPN College GameDay and the playoff stakes (a win would put the team firmly in position for a playoff slot and a high seed) but it's another opportunity to witness the growth and confidence in this group.

They have a sound, detailed plan towards becoming the best team the program has ever had, the best version of themselves.