By Rob Moseley

Editor, GoDucks.com

Venue: Outdoor practice fields

Format: Full pads

In the final period of Wednesday morning's practice, Royce Freeman explosively cut to avoid a defender in the backfield then burst through the line for a nice gain. A few reps later, he was bulling his way through the line, refusing to be taken down.

Freeman was running with a purpose – perhaps because of how things had gone in the previous period. That one was spent in the red zone, and though Freeman had a significant gain on the first rep, he was generally bottled up over the next few minutes. Alex Balducci, DeForest Buckner and Danny Mattingly all were involved in plays on which Freeman couldn't find much running room.

Those reps were a continuation from Tuesday's scrimmage, a highlight of which was tackling by the defense. Tackling is one of those things the layman doesn't necessarily notice unless they're being missed, but defensive coordinator Don Pellum – far from a layman – said after reviewing film that tackling was a highlight from the scrimmage.

After a few missed tackles in games early last season, Pellum and his staff implemented new drills in practices. Then in spring ball, periods every day were spent breaking down the basics, of blocking on offense and tackling on defense.

“You hope it carries over, obviously,” outside linebackers coach Erik Chinander said. “We tackled much better in this scrimmage than we did a year ago in that scrimmage. So I think all the extra drill work and the emphasis helps.”

There was ample time between spring drills and preseason camp for rust to develop. But even though players didn't do any hitting in their summer workouts, they could still shore up their tackling in order to start strong this month, senior linebacker Rodney Hardrick said.

“It all comes down to fundamentals, so we don't really need the contact, or need the coaches there to do it,” Hardrick said. “We have the drills ourselves, we can run it. So this summer we went against the offense, or sometimes serviced ourselves, just to work on those steps.

Chinander said the very nature of tackling has changed, given the proliferation of spread offenses. That can require an adjustment for high school players coming out of more traditional systems.

“It used to be you fit against the run, one gap's open, and one guy has to tackle in about a 3-foot space,” Chinander said. “Now the game's on the perimeter. So it's become leverage tackling – what's my leverage, what's my angle? And who am I working with, because if I miss the tackle I've got to get it to him. It's become a different ball game.”

Other highlights: The day began with the offense trying to convert fourth-and-short situations. Freeman converted for the ones, Kani Benoit used a nifty cut in the backfield to get the short yardage and more for the twos, but linebacker Kaulana Apelu brought down Tony Brooks-James in the backfield with the threes. … In position drills, Reggie Daniels broke up a pass and Torrodney Prevot had an interception against Morgan Mahalak. Vernon Adams was a little short on a deep pass, but Dwayne Stanford won the 50-50 ball when Arrion Springs jumped just a hair too early. … Matt Mariota leaped to pick off Adams in 7-on-7, while Kirk Merritt had a great catch reaching back across his body to haul in a pass that didn't lead him quite enough. … Chris Seisay picked off a pass in 7-on. …

Buckner, Balducci and Joe Walker had tackles for loss in the first team period, which emphasized run plays. Taj Griffin had a nice run after stiff-arming Apelu, who for the second day in a row was consistently around the ball. … Tyler Johnstone bested Mariota but had more trouble with Buckner in 1-on-1 pass-rush drills. Matt Pierson, Tyrell Crosby and Evan Voeller teamed up at one point to win three straight reps for the offense. .. In the red-zone period, Taylor Alie had TD passes to Bralon Addison and Dwayne Stanford, Jeff Lockie ran for two scores and had a TD pass to Johnny Mundt, and Travis Jonsen hit Byron Marshall for a score.

Other observations: Adams was in pads for the first time, after getting through the four-day acclimation period mandated by the NCAA. … He showed off his competitiveness between drills at one point. The quarterbacks had been at one end of the field and needed to participate in a drill at the other end. Alie had a big head start getting there, so Adams turned it on to try and catch him. …

In the special teams “tube” drill, Henry Mondeaux and Lane Roseberry stood out as blockers, while Ty Griffin and De'Quan McDowell each had a couple good reps as coverage players. … Steve Greatwood swapped roles for a couple of his true freshmen in some drills, working Zach Okun at guard and inserting Jake Hanson at center. Okun is still working on the consistency of his snaps. ... Linebacker Jonah Moi joined the team Wednesday and participated in the afternoon practice. He wore a helmet to begin his acclimation process. Moi's arrival makes it six straight years in which the Ducks have enrolled their entire recruiting class.