EUGENE -- When you're as big as Canton Kaumatule, even baby steps are big strides forward.



Kaumatule, a 6-foot-7, 290-pound defensive lineman who enrolled at Oregon in January to get a head start, has so far displayed the gifts that come with his extraordinary size and speed -- and the typical freshman mistakes every Duck coach expects from a player in his first spring.



But overall, the Ducks say they like what they've seen.



"I think it's helping him," Ducks line coach Ron Aiken said last week, not quite halfway through the team's 15 spring practices. "I think he is probably where I thought he would be right now. He is gaining valuable information every day on the field."



Graduating from high school in time for college spring practices is a risk that Oregon coach Mark Helfrich does not universally recommend. It can be difficult, he has said often, to adjust to the all-new experience of college-level academics and football -- an experience some liken to drinking from a firehose. Kaumatule is one of six freshmen already on campus this spring, the largest classes to enroll early in recent memory at Oregon.



Kaumatule, rated the country's 16th-best defender in the class of 2015 by 247Sports, has adjusted as well as could be expected, Aiken said.

"He can process it, but you know being on the field and having to do it and react can muddle things up at times," Aiken said. "He's going to be OK.

Though spring practices for an early enrollee could be approached like a lab where mistakes are encouraged, there is very real playing time on the line. With linemen Arik Armstead gone to the NFL and Sam Kamp retired, a hole big enough for Kaumatule to fit in is open on the depth chart.

"It's really helping him because what he's doing right now is learning the system," Aiken said. "... When he gets back in the summer our guys will review those fundamentals and then hopefully by the second game of the season we can take another step with him, as far as throwing him a little something here and there with the base package, and he'll grasp it. It'll be review for him."



Davis Miyashiro-Saipaia sees similarities in the freshman lineman's adjustment to college from high school in Honolulu, where both played for Punahou alongside Kaumatule's older brother, Luke (who later played at Stanford).



Miyashiro-Saipaia, a 6-foot-2, 300-pound redshirt freshman offensive lineman, saw a "light-bulb moment" happen during Kaumatule's sophomore season.



"You could tell he had potential in him, he just had to start believing in it," he said. "He finally really realized he could really be good and he fit into our system. ... He got comfortable. You could just tell he had that aura to him that he fit in."



So far this spring, finding his fit is again the goal for Kaumatule. Little by little, the Ducks hope the big man with big expectations is making headway.



OK, onto the links:



Surprise! Eugene will host the track meet it thought it lost only a few months ago.

Scott Frost thinks your Marcus Mariota inquiry is probably dumb.

Tight end is again a position where little is settled entering 2015.

Oregon's huge athletics surplus sale is Sunday, but it has a humble backstory.

The Oregon Relays have begun -- the latest multi-event results.

Keep an eye on this recruiting note Friday afternoon.

A Duck women's track athlete is up for the sport's highest honor.

The Pac-12 blog examines future non-conference schedules.

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

503-221-8100

@andrewgreif