Though we are in the thick of basketball season, and the offseason in football keeps rolling along, a light has shown itself at the end of the tunnel. For the Oregon Ducks, that light is spring football. On March 10, Dan Lanning and his new coaching staff will hit the gridiron for the first of 15 practices with the team, giving us an oasis of things to talk about.
One of the things we are looking forward to the most is seeing some individual players take the field. How do they look after the offseason? Are they healthy? What improvements have they made? How will they be used in the new scheme?
The list of guys we can’t wait to watch is endless, but we highlighted a few key players to keep an eye on.
Running Back Seven McGee
Size: 5 foot 9, 181 pounds
A great deal about Oregon’s offensive position groups is unsettled here in late February, including a brewing quarterback battle and a lot of new faces out wide, but perhaps no position has more question marks than in the running back room.
Travis Dye is gone to USC, CJ Verdell to the NFL and Trey Benson to Florida State. The departures leave the Ducks with only Byron Cardwell and Seven McGee as returning running backs who carried the ball for the Ducks last year.
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Sean Dollars, who missed last season with a knee injury, will factor as well, along with new four-star recruit Jordan James, who coach Dan Lanning flipped from Georgia to Oregon in a big win for his first recruiting class.
While each of these four backs brings plenty of intrigue in spring ball, it will be McGee who garners the most attention, in part because of his jaw-dropping athleticism and in part because of how Lanning and new offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham choose to work him into the playbook.
McGee, who had a combined 21 touches for 145 yards and a touchdown in his true freshman season with the Ducks, is set to see a much bigger workload this year. That much is clear. But it might not be exclusively in the backfield, as many believe McGee could fit well in a slot-receiver/running back hybrid role, much like De’Anthony Thomas back in the day.
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Lanning did nothing to assuage those rumors, indicating in a post signing day press conference that he plans to be creative with some of his running backs offensively.
“We have some talent at other positions obviously, on offense, and we’ll use guys in a variety of ways,” Lanning said. “You know, even if that means putting a wide-out in the backfield or moving people around, I think we can do that here. But we’re always going to look to enhance the backfield.”
McGee, who changed his number to seven after Verdell’s departure, is potentially going to benefit significantly from more touches this upcoming season, and how he is used in spring ball will help give fans a good idea of what exactly that role could look like.
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