No matter who you talk to about Dan Lanning and his defense, one of the first things that is likely to come up is the complexity of the scheme.
Dealing with simulated pressures and all that comes with them, there’s been a common belief that it takes more than a single season for a player to really grasp the entire defense.
Jabbar Muhammad doesn’t have multiple seasons to get it all down, though. The Washington cornerback transfer is in Eugene for just one year, and he’s looking to make the most of it. So during the spring and throughout the summer, the elite CB has gone on a crash course to learn everything he can about the playbook and hit the ground running this fall.
So far, it sounds like he’s been successful.
“I feel pretty good,” Muhammad said on Friday. “I was doing some Zooms before I got here in the spring on the playbook.”
While study sessions may help prepare you, getting on the field and executing at a high level — and more importantly a fast level — is something different altogether. Luckily, Muhammad is as experienced as they come, having played four seasons already between Oklahoma State and Washington.
“At the end of the day, football is just football,” Muhammad said. “I’ve been playing a lot of football, so it’s just different terms and things like that. I just apply the different things that I learned previously into this game but I pretty much know it all now.”
There will be big shoes for Muhammad to fill this year, stepping in as the CB1 after Khyree Jackson graduated last season. We’ve seen him play a major role on the field in years past, though, particularly for the Huskies a year ago when he had 16 pass break-ups, among the top in the nation.
Can he do that again this year for the Ducks? We’ll see in a matter of weeks, but going into fall camp Muhammad feels primed and ready for a massive season in Eugene.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3]