When Colorado won the Pac-12 South Division in 2015, the Buffs did it in large part because of their drastically improved defensive unit led and coached by Jim Leavitt.

Now at Oregon, many are expecting the Ducks to make a similar jump the Buffs made from 2015 to 2016 now that they enter year two of the Jim Leavitt defense in 2018.

In Leavitt's first season at Oregon, the Ducks saw drastic improvements across the board in 2017. Oregon's defense gave up 41 points in 2016 and dropped that number to 29 points in 2017. Yards per play, passing yards per attempt, rushing yards per attempt, third down conversions, and on and on the Ducks saw marked improvement in year one under Leavitt.

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Leavitt's availability since the end of the Las Vegas Bowl has been limited. He's given just one interview since that game, but on Monday he gave his first real assessment of how the Ducks performed in year one.

"We played hard. We lined up fairly well," said Leavitt. "At the end, we had two takeaways for touchdowns which I thought was positive in a game that we struggled in."

Oregon is hoping the Ducks can emulate the success the Buffs had in 2016 in year two with Leavitt, which ended that season with Colorado boasting a Top 25 scoring defense, total defense, opponent's third-down conversions, turnovers, and a top-five ranking in opponent's completion percentage.

"I don't think you can even compare like that," Leavitt said of the gains Colorado made in year two to the potential gains the Ducks could make this season. "Everything is different. Everything changes. There are different people, different pieces, different teams, all that."

Instant takeaways from Oregon's Monday fall camp practice No. 4

The Buffs returned multiple starters along all three levels of the Buffs defense in 2016 and featured a depth chart on defense that was mostly seniors and juniors at each level. The same can be said about the Ducks for 2018. Six seniors or juniors are projected to start for the Ducks, including three-year starters Troy Dye, Jalen Jelks, Ugo Amadi, and Justin Hollins. Up front Oregon brings back 247Sports Freshman All-American Jordon Scott. Thomas Graham started 11 games for the Ducks as a freshman while Deommodore Lenior played in all 13 games last season.

Familiarity is there for the Ducks and for the first time in three seasons the Ducks are not changing their defense, which players say is going to be huge for them.

"I’m more optimistic this year because we have the same defense going into year two, and this is the first time for me being able to have the same defense two years in a row since my freshman year of high school," said junior linebacker Troy Dye. "So being able to have the same defense, same terminology, same language, same guys around you that know what they’re doing, and you can focus on little things on defense instead of working on the grand scheme of things is gonna be great for us to have little checks to help us out. Things that we didn’t have last year where guys were out of place by a step or two. We have that step or two this year and we’re working on those things to get better and improve our game."

"We'll see it after we keep going through camp," Leavitt added. "We are installing a lot of stuff right now, so it is still a challenge. I am adding some new things, I am adding some different things than what we did last year."

The results of those improvements will come in less than a month when the Ducks open the 2018 season and Leavitt's second year as defensive coordinator.