Oregon football media day

Former Oregon director of sports nutrition Adam Korzun (left) joins John Sergeant, director of food and beverage, on the opening of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex in August 2013. Korzun is now taking a job with the NFL's Green Bay Packers.

(Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian)

EUGENE -- One of the key behind-the-scenes cogs in the Oregon athletic department will still be feeding a football team in green and yellow this fall. Only now, sports nutritionist Adam Korzun will be working for the NFL's Green Bay Packers instead of the Ducks.

Korzun on Sunday was named the Packers' director of performance nutrition. He was Oregon's director of sports nutrition for two years, where he helped design what, how and when UO's 18 teams ate.

Korzun's departure comes at a hectic time. Football's fall camp begins Aug. 4, and with it, the largest roll-out yet of the NCAA's new "unlimited food" policy for all athletes. In April the NCAA announced all athletes, whether on scholarship or not, could eat at a university's training table. Previously, UO walk-ons had to pay $8.72 per meal to eat with scholarship teammates.

You'd likely never heard of Korzun, not that you should have. But he was one of the dozens of low-profile support staffers, joining athletic trainers and others, who kept Oregon's athletic department humming. When Oregon emerged for spring football practices praising its added weight on the offensive and defensive lines -- even quarterback Marcus Mariota was up about five pounds of muscle -- Korzun played an integral part.

Korzun, who worked for the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association prior to arriving at Oregon, was featured by The Oregonian in an April story about how players gained weight in the offseason. Here's part of how he described his role:

On a recent morning, he was instead next door at the Hatfield-Dowlin football complex, de-stemming 30 pounds of green beans in Oregon's athletics cafeteria as part of the next day's menu served to the football, baseball and lacrosse teams. It's not uncommon to find him moving a pallet of Gatorade from the Moshofsky Center next door, one of 12 that Oregon athletes will drink in a week.

Korzun represents the less conspicuous half -- the underbelly, maybe -- of Oregon football's big offseason storyline of getting bigger.

When Marcus Mariota and his offensive linemen speak of their winter weight gains, they mention their increased time and commitment in the weight room. That side of the story is both accurate and understandable: Setting personal bests in the squat and bench is flashier and more palatable than discussing setting an alarm for 3 a.m. to wake up and drink a protein shake, as some Ducks are doing.

Each half requires the other, however, and Oregon believes its hard work adding weight through eating and lifting will give it a better shot at dislodging big, burly Stanford from its Pac-12 championship perch in 2014.

"You can lift three times a day, but if you're not fueling your body properly you're not getting the gains out of it," said Korzun, a slightly balding man with a slight build whose office is somehow entirely devoid of protein-bar wrappers.

"Conversely you can eat perfectly and if you're not lifting you're just going to get big and not get stronger. It's what you do together, all the components coming together, that makes for improvement and performance."

The job wasn't all about putting a meal in front of an athlete's face. Korzun and his staff tried to educate, as well.

The work of growing and slimming a roster goes far beyond Oregon's walls even if legislation keeps the training table's options limited. Korzun and his staff have taken athletes to Costco a mile away for education lessons on good foods to buy and when to eat them.

"We find out what they like and make it healthy," said Korzun, who does not count calories, but instead tracks meals per day. "My personal message is, it's all on you. ... Short of me placing a feeding tube for you I can't control what you eat, I can just give you the right education to make sure you choose the right things."

A listing for a position similar to Korzun's sports nutrition job has yet to be posted to Oregon's jobs board. Assuming it or a similar position will be, it will join other open jobs in the athletic department as assistant director of basketball operations, assistant men's basketball coach, assistant men's basketball conditioning coach and student-athlete development coordinator.

On to the links:

ESPN's ranking of the Pac-12's top players rolls on, and includes Byron Marshall.

A former UO star running back suffered a setback in the NFL.

Ken Goe recaps the IAAF World Junior Championships at Hayward Field and what it means to Eugene.

Elite hurdlers are talking about Oregon WR Devon Allen.

All the links at Addicted to Quack.

-- Andrew Greif | @andrewgreif