By all accounts, the Oregon Ducks got after it during their few weeks of fall camp. There were pads cracking, players running hard, and drops of sweat in the bucket, as head coach Dan Lanning would say.
The Ducks “embraced the strain” to use another popular Lanning quip.
That’s what you want from your team during the summer as they prepare for a season of football, especially when things are as fresh as they are in Eugene at the moment. With a new coaching staff, and entirely new offensive and defensive schemes, you need hard work to put everything into place.
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But what happens when you’ve worked incredibly hard for a month, and are now faced with a game against potentially the best team you’ll see all year?
It’s a hard balancing act to deal with.
While conventional wisdom would show that the Ducks should be pedal to the medal while ramping up for Georgia, we’ve actually heard somewhat of the opposite over the past few days. Lanning has stressed that they’re trying hard to use this period for recovery as they get ready to head out of Eugene on Thursday.
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“Yeah, it’s a hard balance. You know, it’s a hard balance,” Lanning said.”We still have some recovery days between now and game day. So I think that’ll certainly help. I would say this, I’d rather push and overwork now on the front end and feel like we didn’t do enough later on. I feel like that’s where we’re at as a team, but we’re definitely in recovery mode. And being really conscientious every rep we take.”
That’s a sentiment felt by both coaches and players. While the coaching staff has been working hard behind the scenes, parsing through practice tape and developing a game plan for the weekend, it’s been on the players to physically perform and get their bodies in a position to succeed on Saturday.
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“Yeah, this was definitely a taxing camp,” safety Bennett Williams said. “And I say that in the best way possible. Right. I think you know, our preparation was top notch and the growth we’ve made since you know, coming into camp has been astronomical really. You know, we’re definitely feeling it. You know, feeling the fatigue and stuff, but you know, it’s a really good camp I think for the whole team.”
While the Ducks will have one more light practice on Thursday morning before they fly out for Atlanta, that doesn’t mean the preparation for the game stops. That’s something that will be on the forefront every hour between now and game day.
“Mental prep, the way you hydrate. First games you see more guys cramp than any other game of the year,” Lanning said. “I think it’s really important that we take care of our bodies and we’re conscientious of you know, of that piece, the nutrition aspect, the extra film work. We’ve got a flight that we can watch a little film and while we’re on that trip, you also got to take a chance to check out a little bit for your players given that opportunity.”
At this point, the team has gone through the motions and done what they need to do to be ready on the field for the season-opener. Whether they can come out and execute how they planned is yet to be seen.
“I think I said it before, the hay is not in the barn,” Lanning said. “We got a lot of work to do. We’re gonna keep working until the balls kicked.”
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