EUGENE -- Oregon finished its 13th of 15 spring football practices Monday, and here was what was seen and heard after practice, which was held on the outdoor practice fields:

-- Senior wide receiver

Johnathan Loyd walked out of practice with a brace on his knee, something that head coach Mark Helfrich said shouldn't keep him out of Saturday's spring game.

"The ankle brace business, the boot business, that's a great business," Helfrich said. "There's a lot of reasons why they wear those things that's not due to anything major."

Helfrich said Loyd looked "great" in Monday's practice.

-- The Ducks completed their draft for Saturday's spring game. Oregon released the roster Monday afternoon.

"It was good," Helfrich said. We found out a lot about what guys think of each other…which was entertaining to say the least."

-- With one practice left before the spring game, Helfrich said there are still plenty of things he'd like to see ironed out before the Ducks break for summer. He said the tempo at practice has improved since the start of the spring, but there are still some players who haven't quite found that fifth gear.

"There's a couple younger guys that still haven't quite unleashed everything," he said. "Which happens. We'd like to get that number to zero. It's closer to zero than five."

-- Spring camp closes on Saturday, but don't expect to get a depth chart until Sunday. Helfrich said the chart is fluid at the moment, a lot of guys are still fighting for their place on the roster.

"We have no rush on that," he said. "I know that's neat to put in blogs to have everyone's depth chart all crisp and clean, but it's a moving deal."

-- It's not often a

walk-on earns a starting job on a team the caliber of Oregon, but punter Ian Wheeler could be in line for such a role come fall. His hurdles to accomplishing a starting gig are Matt Wogan, the rising sophomore starting kicker who is also competing for the punter job, and his inconsistency.

Special teams coach Tom Osborne said Wheeler has been "pressing" this spring, and the pressure has yielded up-and-down results. In the Week Four scrimmage, for example, Wheeler had two very nice punts but two others right after that weren't as good, Osborne said.

The coaches will use this spring as an important tool to evaluate the punters, but they're also remembering Wheeler's strong fall when he beat out scholarship punter Dylan Ausherman for the backup job behind Alejandro Maldonado. That was because of Wheeler's consistency as a punter who doesn't outkick coverage, Osborne said. Like many position battles, punter will last until August.

-- Oregon men's basketball coach

Dana Altman and director of operations Josh Jamieson attended Monday's practice, presumably to see the progress of Loyd.

-- OK, an admission:

This quote is from last week, but I'd forgotten to include it then and only found it today after listening back to defensive coordinator Don Pellum speak. Still, I think it's of interest because many readers asked about redshirt freshman linebacker Danny Mattingly entering April.

Here was Pellum, being a little vague, on Mattingly:

"Danny’s looked good. You know, his knowledge is good, his movement’s good, we just need to continue to feed him reps. We’re excited about him, I think as we get through spring but get into fall camp you’re going to hear his name called a little more."

-- Look for a video

from practice with the thoughts of myself and co-beat reporter Tyson Alger, as well as stories that touch on Wheeler's progression.

-- Andrew Greif and Tyson Alger |