By Andrew Greif, The Oregonian/OregonLive

Oregon Ducks spring football practice report, April 17

Practice eight of 15, on Kilkenny Fields in Eugene

Players in helmets, shoulder pads and shorts

Media available to watch first 40 minutes

Don't Edit

Jen Beyrle/The Oregonian

Highlight

I left Saturday's scrimmage feeling Justin Herbert played well due to his strong play at the finish — throwing multiple touchdowns to targets Jacob Breeland and Darren Carrington — despite starting uncharacteristically sloppy, with an interception and another near-pick. And I was wrong. Oregon's coaches left feeling Travis Jonsen deserved the first-team reps during 11-on-11 Monday morning, and Herbert reps with the second unit. Because reporters talked with coach Willie Taggart before practice, we didn't get to ask him about why Jonsen was No. 1 for the day, but he did offer kudos to Jonsen and Braxton Burmeister in a signal to the change atop the daily depth chart. It suggested Jonsen's run with the No. 1s was a reward for playing cleaner, more consistently, on Saturday.

"We don’t want them to turn the ball over but they’re making plays," Taggart said. "I think it’s been pretty good watch Braxton and Travis make plays with the 'twos.' I think whenever you can go out and make something happen with the backups you’ve got something going. I shouldn’t say it's easy, but it’s a little easier to go out and do it with the starting guys, but when you can go make some plays with guys who are not in the starting group I think it says a lot about you."

Taggart also addressed his evaluation of Herbert's play Saturday:

"Just like everyone else (Herbert) did some good things and did some bad things. You expect that, again it's a new offense and so he's going to make some mistakes here and there. Again, we don't want to start scrimmage off with an interception. ... Just like the rest of the guys there were some misreads that he had in the game that he can be better at but it was good to see him bounce back out of some of those mistakes. He's got to continue to improve with our guys. Understanding the offense, managing the game, I think there are times we're trying to go for the big play all the time when we can take the easy play there and we have some good backs that we can get it in their hands and let them do what they do best. That just comes with time."

Don't Edit

Five observations

1. Freshman corner Graham a mainstay with first defense

Praise for true freshman cornerback Thomas Graham Jr. has come from all corners this spring. Teammates included.

Senior corner Arrion Springs, himself a top-rated recruit who played as a true freshman in 2014, said before Monday's practice that veterans have taken to calming Graham down at times — "he gets a little ahead of himself" — but added the 5-foot-11, 188-pound player from Rancho Cucamonga, California, is "really good."

"A lot better than I was my freshman year," Springs said. "I’m proud of him. I’m really proud of him."

Graham, along with classmate Jordon Scott at nose tackle, was again with the first-team defense to begin 11-on-11 work during the portion of practice open to media Monday.

Don't Edit

Serena Morones/For The Oregonian

2. Springs feels defensive overhaul is 'a lot further along than I expected'

Entering his fourth season at Oregon, Springs has played for three defensive coordinators and was recruited by a fourth. While that kind of turnover, he said, hasn't forced him to overhaul his play at corner as much as some teammates at other positions, the experience has left him plenty familiar with the time it takes to install a new scheme. Coordinator Jim Leavitt “threw the whole package” at his players during the winter, Taggart said, preferring to force-feed players rather than bring them along slowly, yet Springs felt the defenders have begun to digest the playbook more quickly than anticipated.

“A lot further along than I expected,” Springs said. “Coach has been doing a great job of pushing it and putting more pressure on us to do more film study and stuff like that.”

Leavitt, writing on Twitter early Sunday morning after reviewing film of UO’s first scrimmage, felt “very encouraged by what I saw.”

Part of what has helped, Springs said, is having two coaches in the secondary in corners coach Charles Clark and safeties coach Keith Heyward. John Neal had run the secondary by himself since 2003 — graduate assistant Kwame Agyeyman had been a big help in recent seasons, too — before UO’s staff was let go en masse after last season and Springs singled out Clark for helping teach “press” coverage.

“I feel like individually I’ve gotten a lot better than last year,” he said.

The defense won’t improve unless it communicates and tackles better, of course. It’s unclear whether UO’s old staff ran a drill like this, given we could not watch practice, but Leavitt has kept the safeties, in some drills, from speaking at all. That’s pressured the rest of the defense to coordinate their communication before the snap.

“He’s putting a spotlight on guys that can’t just sit and hide anymore,” Springs said.

Don't Edit

3. Spotted at practice: Squirt guns

Oregon added to the rain sprinkles already coming down during a special teams drill in which a staffer shot a water gun at the ball as a returner prepared for the catch.

Degree of difficulty on punt returns raised by avoiding water guns. Dillon Mitchell here. pic.twitter.com/HhMmmjCbka — Steve Mims (@SteveMims_RG) April 17, 2017

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

4. Practice quick hits

It looked like kicker Zach Emerson, a redshirt freshman from Bend, was handling kickoffs with the first-team during a kickoffs drill to begin the day. ... CB Arrion Springs said he felt UO is hitting more often this spring — as often as it can with the NCAA guidelines for contact, anyway — and one avenue for that is a blocking/tackling drill UO repeated Monday. Some featured a receiver trying to block a defensive back while a ballcarrier ran behind, and in others a defensive lineman had to tackle a ballcarrier running behind an offensive lineman. Freshman nose tackle Jordon Scott's tackle on one rep drew some whoops from teammates, while fellow d-lineman Hunter Kampmoyer was another who brought down a ballcarrier much to the delight of position coach Joe Salave'a. ... Offensive guard Jake Pisarcik was back in uniform Monday after sitting out of Saturday's practice, but Pisarcik worked with a strength coach off to the side instead of taking part fully. Meanwhile, running back Tony Brooks-James was back taking part after sitting out Saturday. ... Two roster changes to note: Along with QB Terry Wilson, reserve defensive lineman Davis Miyashiro-Saipaia has left the program. ... With Wilson no longer at practice and Taylor Alie working out with the wide receivers Monday, Oregon was short a quarterback during throwing drills. So, who filled the void? QBs coach Marcus Arroyo, who passed back and forth with Justin Herbert and also threw to receivers during UO's route-tree drill.

Don't Edit

5. Encouraging signs so far. But also a lot of work to be done.

Oregon passed the halfway point of spring practices Monday after reviewing its progress in the spring game. It was encouraging, Taggart said. But no one should look at Saturday's action and see anything close to a finished product.

"We made improvement but I still feel like oh lord, we still have a long ways to go," Taggart said. "It’s getting there. We don’t expect to be where we want to be right now. We still have seven more practices after today and training camp to get ready for a game. We’re going to gradually bring these guys along. When spring practice is over with, if we can say we’re pretty good at this or pretty good at that, I feel good about our progress."

Don't Edit

B-i^

CB Arrion Springs on whether he liked that Oregon is hitting more often in practice this spring: "Not really, because you've got to see Royce (Freeman) every day."

Don't Edit

Serena Morones/For The Oregonian

Up next

Oregon practices Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this week.