EUGENE — Even amid a rain-soaked win against BYU featuring conditions so poor it’s making identifying Virginia’s strengths a challenge for No. 2 Oregon, a few things stood out about the Cavaliers.

Four, very large men, in particular: the defensive line.

Led by 6-foot-4, 230-pound sophomore end Eli Harold’s 3.5 tackles for a total loss of 17 yards, a stout defensive line has drawn raves from Oregon coaches.

“(Harold) is an unbelievable pass rusher and he’s the quote-unquote ‘little guy’ of the group,” coach Mark Helfrich said. “He reminds me of Dion (Jordan) on the edge and gets in a track stance. The other guys are more total-package guys.”

Harold had 11 tackles overall to lead a unit that’s arguably seen the most change during new defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta’s switch to a 4-3 defense. Tackles David Dean, at 6-1 and 290 pounds, and 6-7, 295-pound Brent Urban, flank the other end, 6-4, 270-pound Jake Snyder.

“It’s size that we didn’t see last week,” offensive coordinator Scott Frost said.

The aggressive play of that front four is one of few aspects about Virginia’s strategy that the Ducks can count on. The combination of five new assistants (including both coordinators) and the opening-game rain that halted play for two hours has watered down the value of the BYU performance and much of last year's results, too. As a result video of North Carolina State (Tenuta’s last stop) and Colorado State (offensive coordinator Steve Fairchild’s last stop, as head coach) has been added as must-review video.

“When they came back out and there’s standing water guys just aren’t going to move how they normally would,” Helfrich said of the value of the BYU game tape. “They’re going to do some things differently offensively, for certain, defensively even perhaps less movement. Defensively you want to be gap sound. If you’re doing some exotic stunt and you slip and there are two gaps open you have major problems, so there’s a lot of stuff that could be different with those conditions.”

Saturday’s forecast calls for an 81-degree day with 10 percent chance of rain.

Tenuta’s defense was installed to turn on its head a defense that was third-worst in the nation in turnovers last season. It’s already shown dividends. Junior safety Anthony Harris blocked a punt to set up one Virginia touchdown, then intercepted a pass to set up the Cavaliers’ winning touchdown. He named the national defensive player of the week by the Walter Camp Foundation and the ACC’s top honor, too.