A'lique Terry likes what he sees from the Oregon offensive line in Fall Camp, development that's ahead of schedule.
After earning finalist honors for the Joe Moore Award the last two seasons and sending five to NFL camps, Oregon reloaded over the offseason by picking up three four-star transfers from the portal, Isaiah World, Emmanuel Pregnon and Alex Harkey.
Matthew Bedford came back from injury while center Poncho Laloulu has started 15 straight games for the Ducks, a Rimington Award candidate. Already the group has gelled like a veteran unit.
"You couldn't tell they've been here for six months. They feel like they've been here for about a year, two years," Terry said Tuesday after practice. "The conversations that happened off the field, the cohesiveness that they build off the field, you can start to see that already building right now. You really couldn't tell those guys were transfers."
Terry credits their experience and maturity for the smoothness of the transition, noting that holdovers Laloulu and Charlie Pickard made a terrific effort to invite the newcomers into the culture.
"I think more than anything, it's the blessing that they got here early in spring. They got more than just a fall camp to get together to get that cohesiveness,." Terry said.
It's a group that hangs out together and works actively to build communication and trust. Erik Skopil of 247Sports notes in his report that individually they have over 130 career starts in college football, but developing that 'five as one" mentality is essential to handling blitzes, audibling at the line of scrimmage, and seeing that every defender gets blocked in the heat of battle.
Head coach Dan Lanning singled out "Poncho" Laloulu's leadership snap-to-snap. “You see so many things at center. You’re in charge of ID-ing so much from a defensive perspective… his communication is really key to our success up front," Lanning said after Saturday's first scrimmage.
"He’s done an unbelievable job of having poise in chaos, because there’s a lot of chaos. There’s not a look that we could put up there that Poncho wouldn’t have an understanding on how to handle.”
In his report, Scott Reed of Duck Sports Central noted, "Improved pre-snap recognition, cadence discipline, and situational checks are helping the offensive line find its rhythm."
That rhythm was missing when the Ducks took the field against Idaho and Boise State last year, and it wasn't evident two years ago during an early road game against Texas Tech. A more cohesive start for the offensive front gives them a greater chance of being at top efficiency when they travel to No. 2 Penn State on September 27 in the fifth game of the year.
The environment in Beaver Stadium will require them to communicate silently and anticipate each other, the ultimate test for an offensive line against a top opponent. The Nittany Lions have two future NFL players on the defensive front in edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton and defensive tackle Zane Durant.
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