EUGENE -- Heading into the season, Oregon's wide receiver corps looked thin. Some players were lost to graduation. Other departures came unexpectedly, setting up a fall camp where there was just one proven commodity at the position and a host of talented -- and green -- new faces.

Yet the veteran wide receiver continually told reporters not to worry. We're going to be fine, he said.

And after a couple of weeks, he was proven to be right. The Ducks were fine, as wide receivers blossomed to be one of the biggests assets to the team.

And while this may sound like the current Oregon Ducks squad, which has weathered the departures of Dwayne Stanford, Darren Carrington and Devon Allen in the offseason, it's not.

This was in 2014, when Keanon Lowe was the lone veteran surrounded by a bunch of newcomers.

It's why after Oregon's win against Nebraska -- when Brenden Schooler and Johnny Johnson shined -- things felt a bit familiar when Charles Nelson, the veteran of the group, took to the podium and told everyone, essentially, I told you so.

"I told everyone from when fall camp started that these guys will be special," Nelson said Saturday. "They all did great things when they got the ball. They're out there making plays."

A couple days later, Nelson thought it felt familiar, too. In 2014, the year the Ducks would go on to play in the national championship game, the Ducks' receivers were expected to be one of the team's biggest questions after Josh Huff left for the NFL and Bralon Addison went down with a knee injury during the spring.

Lowe was Oregon's leading returning receiver with just 40 receptions for 477 yards to his name. He was joined by a bunch of unproven guys, such as Stanford, Carrington, Allen and Nelson. Out of that group, only Stanford had played in a game prior to the season.

It didn't seem to matter much. Oregon had seven players eclipse 300 yards receiving that year. Nelson had one of the breakout seasons, coming on late in the season to catch 23 passes for 327 yards and five touchdowns. Looking back on it three years later, the now-senior said it helped a lot having a leader like Lowe support them, which is what he's been trying to do with Oregon's current group.

"It was great to have somebody believe in us," Nelson said. "We were all young. We believed in each other and we wanted to show what we could do and there was a guy there that had played and had a lot of experience preaching that we were going to make plays.

"And we did."

Coming into this season, the Ducks weren't supposed to be so unproven at receiver. Nelson and Carrington were expected to be the stalwarts and some new talent was ushered in. But once Carrington was dismissed from the team in July, all of a sudden Nelson was the lone wolf. Oregon's No. 2 receiver, Dillon Mitchell, had two receptions to his name.

But Nelson was never worried. On Saturday, Nelson had 117 yards and a touchdown. Mitchell had 80 and a score. Johnson -- a true freshman -- had 80 as well. And Brenden Schooler, a safety last season, caught three passes for 40 yards and his first career touchdown.

Now, just as Nelson praised Lowe for his leadership, the new guys are doing the same for him three years later.

"He's always just trying to give us confidence because he knew what we could do," Schooler said. "We just needed to go out there and show people."

-- Tyson Alger

talger@oregonian.com

@tysonalger