The biggest question surrounding the 2023 Oregon Ducks is how the offensive line will fare. Oregon had one of the top blocking units a season ago, but most of those players have graduated and moved on. However, while there is a lot of inexperience on the O-line, there isn’t a lack of talent. Many of the projected starters for the upcoming season were top recruits in their respective classes.
On Pac-12 Media Day, Dan Lanning mentioned how impressed he’s been by the O-line’s commitment to building that experience early so that they are still primed and ready to go in the latter stages of the season.
Recently, Ducks’ O-line coach A’lique Terry, had a lot to say about the differences between this year’s O-line group and last year’s, as well as what goes into preparing for the upcoming season.
“I wouldn’t call it pressure, but there is a standard,” Terry said. “We say to ourselves that other people are going to put pressure on us, but we’re going to hold a standard ourselves that we want to keep it at.”
While the Ducks have a lot of starters to replace in 2023, that doesn’t mean that they feel pressure to be as good as the unit was last season. Every year in college football, a new group of players will be compared to what the team looked like a year before.
“The pressure of it being a new year and all that, every single year in college there’s probably going to be a new piece to your line of some sort,” Terry said. “As long as our standard is the same, we’re looking at it realistically because we have a standard to upkeep. Then once we get there, let’s raise that bad boy.”
No one experiences pressure like an offensive line because if they don’t perform, no one performs. Teams with elite QBs and poor blocking rarely succeed, and teams with mediocre QBs can succeed with strong protection. Bo Nix was the beneficiary of top-tier protection last season, so it will be important for him and the rest of the Oregon offense that a high standard for blocking is maintained, which creates a lot of pressure for that group.
Terry says that he is going into the season trying to put all of the pressure on himself, though. That way, he can answer any questions that come forth about performance, good or bad.
“There’s a pressure that is really on me. But I let them let me have all the pressure. You all go out there and play ball and have fun doing so.”
It will be interesting to see how the offensive line fares against Portland State on September 2nd, but their first real test will likely come against Texas Tech the following week. Hopefully, they can respond to the pressure Terry mentioned, have built the experience that Lanning spoke of, and are able to be one of the top O-line groups in the country once again.
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