Venue: Outdoor practice fields

Format: Helmets

Senior offensive lineman Cameron Hunt 's Sunday routine in the early going this season has been to head to the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex and meet up with quarterback Dakota Prukop . They review film from the night before, and look ahead to the upcoming opponent.

This week, a day after Oregon moved to 2-0 with its win over Virginia, Hunt's first look at the upcoming opponent seemed very familiar. The Ducks play Saturday at Nebraska (12:30 p.m. PT, ABC), which is coached by Mike Riley and several of the assistants from Riley's tenure at Oregon State.

"You saw a lot of the same tendencies, but with different talent," Hunt said Monday following Oregon's first practice for the Nebraska game. "It's going to be a good game, and it's going to be fun."

Riley is entering his second season with the Cornhuskers, and only a handful of Ducks remain who have experience against his OSU teams. The group includes most of Oregon's top offensive skill position players, but few key contributors on defense.

Among the few defensive regulars who faced Riley's OSU teams is defensive back Tyree Robinson . His first glimpse at Nebraska appeared to him to be "just Oregon State two years ago," he said.

The offense Robinson will face this week has employed two wildly different game plans to open this season. This past week against Wyoming, the Cornhuskers and quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. passed for 412 yards, while averaging just 3.2 yards per rush. That followed Nebraska's season-opening win over Fresno State, in which the Huskers rushed for nearly 300 yards, passing just twice in their first 20 plays, Robinson said.

After the Ducks allowed 193 rushing yards to Virginia, Robinson figures Nebraska will try to attack that element of the UO defense this week.

"They're going to try to run the ball down our throats, try to expose us from the games we've already played," Robinson said. "We've just got to be there to make plays."

Oregon's challenge is amplified by the fact linebackers Johnny Ragin III and A.J. Hotchkins and safety Juwaan Williams have been limited at times the past two weeks. UO coach Mark Helfrich said the likes of Danny Mattingly and Jimmie Swain IV could be relied upon more in the coming weeks; in practice Monday, Swain worked extensively at inside linebacker, where he played the past two seasons and off the bench against Virginia, after initially playing SAM linebacker in new coordinator Brady Hoke 's defense during the spring and preseason camp.

Robinson said the safeties can't overcommit to the run, however; Riley's offenses try to bait them into sneaking up to the line, then hit them with play action over the top. But Hunt said he expects Nebraska's own safeties to also be involved against the run, as they were under Riley in Corvallis.

"It's going to be big-time for our receivers to make some blocks, and then have our offensive linemen finishing," Hunt said.





Practice highlights: The travel squad went head to head in a 7-on-7 period after position drills. Charles Nelson split the safeties and caught a Prukop pass early on, but mostly the coverage seemed solid; lots of checkdowns and scrambles by the quarterbacks. … Bryson Young took some reps with the first unit in team drills, and had a couple tackles for loss in the first 11-on-11 period. Malik Lovette added an interception in that period, also with the ones. … Over on the offensive field, Prukop hit Freeman for a long gain, while Jihree Stewart won a rep for the scouts by slapping away a ball intended for Dwayne Stanford . …

In the last team period, Khalil Oliver ran with a scout receiver and intercepted a pass in the end zone. On the other field, Prukop had a crazy throw of about 40 yards to Jalen Brown while rolling out to his left. Really strong throw given that he couldn't really set his feet or turn his shoulders into the throw. … In pass rush drills, Young was locked up by Tyrell Crosby but had more success against a scout-teamer. Similar story for Canton Kaumatule – he couldn't find a path past Hunt, but in a later rep against a backup, Kaumatule used a really quick first step to blow by the blocker at the line.



