EUGENE -- Bad news for high school centers trying to get recruited by Oregon. The Ducks aren't looking for you.



It isn't that the Ducks aren't in a full-bore search for a new center during spring practices, which began their second week Monday at Oregon. Far from it: The graduation of four-year starter and All-American Hroniss Grasu has led to so many spring auditions that offensive line coach Steve Greatwood likened it to a "cast of thousands."



But to find their next center, the Ducks are not searching - and have never searched in Greatwood's 24 seasons coaching the line at UO -- in the place one might expect.



Namely, the ranks of thousands of high school players who exclusively toiled at center.



"Usually you go around most high school teams and their kind of small, little dumpy guy is their center. That's why I played center in high school," said Joe Bernardi, a graduate assistant on the offensive and defensive lines and Fresno State's starting center for four seasons until 2010. "You want someone who's an athlete, you want someone who's a leader, you want someone who's smart and can think on their feet. Those are the guys who are the best centers."



To find them Greatwood and the Ducks cast a wide net and keep an open mind. If Oregon posted a job listing for its center job, it might read "no experience necessary."



Grasu? He left Los Angeles' Crespi High as more of a defensive end or tackle prospect.



Jordan Holmes, an all-Pac-10 selection at center in 2010? A prep offensive tackle who didn't allow a sack in three years at Yuba City (Calif.) High.



Max Unger, the former all-Pac-10 and NFL All-Pro center who preceded Holmes? A guard coming out of Hawaii who only began playing football as a high school freshman.



"I've never had a center that's played center (in high school)," Greatwood said. "I wouldn't worry about that."



When selecting his next center, Greatwood prioritizes both the measurables of arm length, speed, footwork and athleticism with the intangibles of leadership, intelligence and calm.



This spring, those criteria have led him to consider, among others, Matt Pierson, a high school golfer; Jake Pisarcik, a prep tight end; Cameron Hunt, a guard and tackle his first two seasons at Oregon; and Doug Brenner, who snapped in high school but also played defensive line and fullback.



"You get a newfound respect for center when you start doing it," said Pierson, who began practicing snapping in January, soon after Oregon's loss to Ohio State in the College Football Playoff national championship.



"It's hard," Bernardi said. "If you've never played the position it's hard. When you have a 300-plus (pound) person that's sitting right in front of you and you essentially have one hand because you have to put a ball between your legs and you have to think about what's going on in front of you, it's hard."





Oregon Ducks line coach Steve Greatwood and center Hroniss Grasu (55) developed a tight bond in Grasu's four years as starter. But now he's gone, and at least a half-dozen successors are lined up to play.

It also makes some around Oregon reconsider how easy Grasu made the job -- identifying the defense's intention, calling out protections, delivering an accurate snap and all while keeping pace with Oregon's breakneck tempo -- look.



Said offensive coordinator Scott Frost: "We were always for the most part in the right blocking scheme because he was smart and got everyone on the same page. We're going to have to fix that right away and get other people in there who can get the right calls out."



"Hroniss just knew how to get off the block, work up to the second level (linebackers)," said defensive tackle Alex Balducci, a senior who has worked against Oregon's rotating centers every day from the opposite side of the line of scrimmage. "I think guys like Pierson, he's a tall guy, 6-foot-6, having him at center he's able to do really well in that regard. He'll be taller than most the guys he goes against. He's definitely a great blocker in that sense. Soon as he gets comfortable with it he'll do great."



The benefit, Greatwood says, of his approach is that offensive linemen arrive on campus without any bad habits from high school.



But many also don't arrive with any muscle memory at center, period, which carries its own set of struggles when the linemen do to learn the position from scratch. Learning a new position is nothing new at Oregon, which asks its linemen to play at least two. Guards must know center and vice versa while tackles must play learn to play both on the left and right sides.



Yet center is a different beast given its responsibilities.



"It's a little different being in the center of the offense and just trying to read the safeties and where the linebackers are," Pierson said.



The Cardinal sins are easy to identify. Can't deliver a consistent snap in Oregon's shotgun offense? You won't play. Forgetting to play with a low center of gravity? The bench awaits.



More difficult, Oregon's prospective centers say, are the nuances to the job. Chief among those is walking the fine line between perfection and pace, the acceptance that a center's best decision isn't always spending time to make the right call but instead the fastest one in order to feed Oregon's tempo.



It's like a speed golf tournament being your first round on a course.

Grasu has acted as a sounding board for his potential successors, and dropped by practice Monday. But by the end of the month, the Ducks will be on their own when he leaves for his new NFL home.



"You trial and error it," Bernardi said. "Some guys can do it, some guys can't do it but some guys are more calm than the others. Like Jake Pisarcik is a really calm guy, Matt Pierson is a really calm guy. Very smart guy, very intellectual thinker, and Matt processes stuff very fast because he's a very smart person. Jake's a very smart person. You look for those types of qualities."



At Oregon, the search continues. The same program that values centers who can make split-second decisions is comfortable playing wait-and-see.



"We don't play until September," Bernardi said, with a smile. "We can work out till then."



-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

503-221-8100

@andrewgreif