Taking over for someone with the stature and pedigree of Alex Forsyth is no easy task. After spending several years at Oregon and acting as one of the most consistent pieces on the offensive line, checking in and out of coverages with ease and keeping one of the nation’s best offensive lines together in 2022, Forsyth’s departure to the NFL certainly leaves a hole behind him.
Now it is up to someone on Oregon’s roster to fill that void going into 2023. There are a number of players competing for the starting spot at center under new OL coach A’lique Terry, and going into the third week of fall camp, the competition is starting to reach a head.
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“Right now, we’ve still got a solid competition,” Terry said after practice on Friday. “We’ve got Jackson Powers-Johnson in there. We’ve got Marcus [Harper] in there. We’ve got Iapani Laloulu. Charlie Pickard and Kanen Rossi. We’ve got five guys right now who are all doing a tremendous job.”
In the spring, it was viewed as a competition mainly between Powers-Johnson and Harper. However, Terry says that the other guys on the depth chart have done a great job of upping the level of competition and pushing those guys at the top.
“I think they’re all competing at a tremendous level right now, and I think it’s a good mixture between JPJ, Marcus, and Poncho (Iapani). The more experience we get at center, the better we’re going to be,” Terry said. “If at any point you’re able to have more than one guy who can think like Alex Forsyth did and be able to get everybody on the same page, the team gets better. Those guys are continuing to progress and continuing to grow.”
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The Ducks are in a tough position of having to replace almost the entirety of their starting offensive line from last year. Only Harper remains from a unit that ranked first in the nation when it comes to sacks allowed in 2022, while the other four starters — Forsyth, Ryan Walk, T.J. Bass, and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu — graduated out.
Finding cohesion among the new group will be a challenge, but they certainly have the talent to be a strong unit once again.
The biggest factor will be finding a center that can keep them all together.
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