Or there's the real reason that Oregon slipped in the second half of last season: the sprained MCL in quarterback Marcus Mariota's left knee. Mariota without his wheels is a Porsche stuck in first gear.

Mariota is healthy now, bigger and stronger and coming off a very good spring, which helps, because Helfrich doesn't want to pin the Ducks' November slump on any one player. Not even his best one.

"Stuff happens. That's something that happens," Helfrich said. "That's part of the reason we don't talk about it. At some level, it becomes an excuse. Everybody deals with stuff. Our guys battled, certainly in the Stanford game [a 26-20 Cardinal victory], as hard as we could. We did not battle as hard as we could in the Arizona game, which is probably even that much more frustrating as to why. But we'll learn from it and we moved on."

Oregon is a veteran team and a hungry one. The BCS bowls may be history, but the Ducks want everyone to know they are not.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Without Jadeveon Clowney, South Carolina's defense will take on a different look in 2014.

Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward has big plans for his linebackers, and in watching the Gamecocks practice this spring, it's obvious they're going to get their best athletes on the field.

"Even though we've lost a lot of talent, we're not going to drop off and will be just as good, if not better, than we were last year."

"It could be a mixture of 4-3 and 3-4 with those linebackers stunting around and coming from a lot of different directions," coach Steve Spurrier said. "That may be good for us because our young linebackers are pretty good players.

"We'll be a little different defensively, and if we have to get pressure with linebackers, we'll do that instead of just Clowney. Right now, some of these other rushers aren't close to what he was able to do, but they're coming."

This group of linebackers, led by budding star Skai Moore, has a chance to be as good as the Gamecocks have put on the field under Spurrier. They're fast, versatile and stout enough to hold up in the run game. Ward wants Moore to continue bulking up to hold up physically, but he's a ball magnet from his weakside spot.

Moore isn't the only linebacker capable of causing problems, either. Marcquis Roberts, after two injury-filled seasons, looks like a natural at middle linebacker, which is the deepest unit on defense with Kaiwan Lewis and T.J. Holloman also returning.

Ward also has some flexibility at the hybrid "spur" position with Sharrod Golightly, Larenz Bryant and Jordan Diggs, who's coming off his best spring.

Up front, while there might not be a Clowney, veteran tackle J.T. Surratt is vastly underrated, and both the Dixon brothers (end Gerald Dixon and tackle Gerald Dixon Jr.) look like they could be poised for breakout seasons.

"We're going to show some different things, and we still have a lot of people who are going to step up and make plays," Surratt said. "Even though we've lost a lot of talent, we're not going to drop off and will be just as good, if not better, than we were last year."