Oregon football spring practice media availability

Oregon's Dior Mathis (right) waits to talk to members of the media on Friday outside UO's Hatfield-Dowlin Complex. Mathis, a redshirt senior, is in the running for a starting cornerback job.

(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian)

EUGENE -- On a recent sunny morning, Dior Mathis slipped out of a side door from Oregon's football complex and strolled to a nearby parking lot by weaving behind a row of cameras focused on teammates.

He carried a Styrofoam to-go box from the cafeteria and a chip on his shoulder. He wore a black T-shirt whose white lettering read, "Detroit vs. Everybody," and a sour look on his face.

In other words, this was an unremarkable morning in the career of Mathis, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound redshirt senior cornerback whose four years in Oregon's secondary have been a combination of being out of the limelight and in perpetual competition with everybody to show his four-star recruiting rating was for real.

"When you come in as a high recruit and you get redshirted and you’re not playing for three years it does something to you," said Mathis, a Detroit native who doubles as a UO sprinter each spring in the 100 meters.

"But along with that, I had to learn nothing is guaranteed. I’ve had nothing given to me in my life."

Like any good corner jumping a route, Mathis knows making a play for the starting job opposite All-American Ifo Ekpre-Olomu will require quickly changing the course of his up-and-down career. He has been patient. Now, he wants to finally be

the difference-making corner his coach -- and Mathis himself, he admits -- often thought he might never be.

If traced on a football field, his route to his senior year might resemble a lost cornerback trying to find his receiver, full of stops and starts and being spun around.

Secondary coach John Neal says Mathis now has a sense of where he is.

"I’m really pleased with him, because most of us thought he would not be a player here," Neal said. "He started to really come on strong and I've been lucky.

"When we were fortunate to be ahead of somebody and I could get my down-the-line guys into the game Dior was actually really productive. I was aware of that, but still you have to practice that way all the time and you have to be dependable all the time in practice so we know we can trust you in a game. And really, until I was forced to play him last year I never let that go. I let that go, and I think he did, too. Maybe I was the one holding him back."

***

Mathis was blessed with a sprinter's speed, the kind of acceleration that put him on the fast track out of Detroit's Cass Tech, a high-achieving school in the otherwise eroding downtown core of the city he is fiercely proud of.

As a U.S. Army All-American recruit, he had offers from Michigan State to Miami before choosing Oregon.

In Eugene, he has spent his spring weekdays fighting for playing time in UO's nickel package and his weekends sprinting in a green and yellow singlet. He's run 10.51 in the 100 meters and also in the NCAA Championships on a 4x100 relay. That speed crossed over to the field most notably in September at Virginia, where he went 97 yards for the longest non-touchdown interception return in school history by alternately dodging plodding lineman and cutting back against quicker skill players.

Just 5-9, he can dunk a basketball with two hands.

"When I step on the field it might sound cocky but I feel like I’m faster than anybody on the field so I don’t really worry about people’s size or strength," he said.

Despite this speed, Mathis was not blessed with particularly good timing.

Just as Mathis exited his redshirt season in 2010 ready to contribute, true freshman Ekpre-Olomu arrived and fellow redshirt freshman Terrance Mitchell blossomed. Each became a three-year starter at corner, leaving Mathis to dabble briefly at receiver in 2011 before returning on defense to help on nickel packages. And that's where he remained as a junior in 2013, where he had 18 tackles and two pass break-ups in 13 games.

Mathis says his frustration "transferred on the field to off the field. I'm in my freshman, sophomore year and my grades were slipping, my family had issues that occurred and my mind and my head weren't where they were supposed to be.

"I had a lot of growing up to do in my head, so just those couple things, those really kept me off the field those first two years."

He had seven tackles in five games as a freshman, and 16 as a sophomore, with two interceptions that he ran back an average of 35 yards.

Somewhere between Detroit and Oregon, his four-star promise became unfulfilled potential. But transferring wasn't an option.

"I'm never a quitter at anything," he said, riding out the low moments of his career with a deep religious faith and the advice of his parents, Pam and Mecah.

In a span of six weeks last season, everything changed for Mathis.

Before the Civil War in November, defensive backs Erick Dargan and Troy Hill were suspended for an unspecified violation of team rules, which thrust Mathis into the oft-used nickel coverage against one of the nation's most dangerous passing attacks in Oregon State. He rarely drew the assignment on Biletnikoff Award winner Brandin Cooks, charged instead with making sure another receiver didn't torch Oregon.

"It’s the best passing team in our league and you know I was ready to turn him loose and I felt good about it for the first time," Neal said.

Four weeks later, Oregon faced Texas in the Alamo Bowl without Hill and Dargan. Though the Longhorns were nothing of the passing threat of the Beavers, Mathis was instrumental in ensuring that remained the case. Teammates Bronson Yim and Reggie Daniels each said this was when they saw Mathis' demeanor change back to the loud on-field talker they'd remembered.

Neal once gave Mathis the nickname "The Incredible Hulk" because of the fire it took to motivate Mathis before games. When he'd arrive at Mathis' locker late last season, however, he found Mathis had done the job for him instead.

"If you piss the hulk off he turns into a monster and that’s sometimes what we do with Dior," Neal said. "But I’m seeing a little less of that and more consistency."

When Mathis speaks of those two games now, his well-worn sour look disappears into a confident smile.

"I'm having a ball, man," Mathis said.

"He was the difference maker in both those games because each of those teams has a go-to guy but you can’t let that other guy beat you," Neal said. "If you let that other guy beat you you’re going to give up a million yards and points. Dior, when you watch the tape afterward, you said hey this guy did everything we asked him to do at a high level."

To cap the six-week stretch, Mitchell declared early for the NFL draft in early January, leaving his long-sought spot open for the taking -- if he could hold off his teammates.

***

Mathis is scheduled to graduate on June 16 with a social science degree and has already plotted a path for his future. When football was not going according to plan, he had ample time to consider what was next.

"I want to start some businesses back in Michigan," he said, adding he gets his natural salesmanship from his mother, whom he might just try to go into business with. "I have a lot of things in mind."

He's getting valuable experience in self-promotion this spring by selling his case to become the next starting corner.

Through six of 15 closed spring practices, he said he has earned first-team reps often, alongside redshirt freshman Chris Seisay and Hill, a fellow redshirt senior who is similarly trying to win the job in his final chance.

At worst, his coach says, Mathis will be what he considers a "starter" by playing with the first team nickel package UO often uses.

"His confidence level has grown and his performance is growing and he’s going to play this year and he’s going to play a lot" Neal said. "He's a fabulous athlete. I'm really happy with where he's at right now."

If Mathis and Dargan earn starting jobs alongside returning All-American Ekpre-Olomu, Oregon could reload its defensive backfield missing three starters with two seniors, valuable experience on a defense with many question marks.

Count Mathis as one Duck who might no longer be considered such a mystery. After allowing playing time to be usurped by younger players and confidence stolen by self-doubt before in his career, he's risking nothing so close to its finale.

"I compete against everybody every single day," Mathis said, sticking out his chest. "I don't call it a challenge, I call it competing."

It's still Dior vs. Everybody, but he's never liked his odds this much.

-- Andrew Greif | @andrewgreif