These are seven guys opponents don't want to mess with. Last season Teitum Tuioti and Matayo Uiagalelei combined for 16 sacks, and this year they enter their third year of college football. Uiagalelei is one of the top players in the game.
Tuioti is an unsung beast, technically sound and consistent, 5.5 sacks, 58 tackles, a 6-3, 263 junior from Laie, Hawaii and Sheldon High School in Eugene who started 14 games last year and posted sacks against Oregon State, Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin and Washington.
Uiagalelei is poised to break the Oregon sack record of 13 in a season. The Big Ten record is 16.5 by Chase Young, while the Oregon career mark is 29.5, by Nick Reed. Uiagalelei may be a first-round draft pick in 2026, so he would need 17 this season to tie Reed, difficult but not impossible.
In the offseason the 6-5, 275 pass rusher from St. John Bosco worked on his agility, finishing plays when he reaches the quarterback. Last year's total, while impressive, included a handful of whiffs. Tuioti got even stronger.
These two Oregon fans know. The truly impressive thing is how much strength, quickness and talent there is in the entire room:
Best edge room in the B1G https://t.co/NkEl7Jm3AC
— QB11 (@Qb11Sd) August 29, 2025
From left to right in uniform, Elijah Rushing (47), Uiagalelei (10), freshman Nasir Wyatt (32), Torrence Williams (45), Tobi Haastrup (19), Blake Purchase (9) and Tuioti (44).
This is the quickest and most talented set of edge rushers Oregon has ever assembled, led by Uiagalelei a five-star player and a probable No. 1 draft pick. Freshman Haastrup is an athletic freak who just started playing football a season ago, a 6-4, 235 specimen who runs the 100 meters in 10.7 and erupted for five sacks in his first high school game.
It's a group where you can't just hype one guy. Elijah Rushing was a four-star prospect from Tucson, Arizona, five stars at 247 Sports, the No. 45 prospect in the country who had 13.5 sacks as a senior at Salpointe Catholic High School.
Elijah Rushing joins a stacked EDGE/DE crew with Teitum Tuioti, Blake Purchase, and Matayo Uiagalelei, brimming with talent and depth. Video also shows OT Matthew Bedford fully healthy—can’t wait to see these guys crush it! 🦆📈👀 pic.twitter.com/TLqKh0gCX7
— DuckZone503 (@DuckZone503) April 6, 2025
Blake Purchase, 6-3, 245 from Green Valley Ranch, Colorado, returned a fumble 56 yards for a touchdown in the Oregon Spring Game.
Ify Obidegwu forces the fumble and Blake Purchase brings it back 🦆pic.twitter.com/GUHfgGLiy0
— Oregon Updates (@oregon__updates) April 26, 2025
Redshirt sophomore Ashton Porter honed his body to a powerful 6-3, 290 this offseason, enduring the loss of his mother Chassidy Troylynn Roussell, who died last September. He talks about at 19:50 on the video.
“He’s become more of a productive rusher. He’s a guy that plays both inside and outside,” defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi said about him at Fall Camp. “He offers some of that versatility and to do that, you better be tough and you better be physical and Ashton certainly is. He’s put on some solid weight and some muscle mass,"
Porter's a four-star from Cypress, Texas. Few players can match his sense of purpose, or the strength he's show in coping with a tremendous loss. Going into his third season in Eugene, he knows his why.