The 2021 season for the Oregon Ducks was initially billed as something that we hadn’t ever seen before in Eugene.
For once, it was going to be the wide receivers that took center stage and proved that Oregon was more than just a school for running backs.
That’s a tough narrative to shake, especially when names like Jonathan Stewart, LaMichael James, Royce Freeman, Kenjon Barner, and Reuben Droughns have all had their say. Even the current backfield of CJ Verdell and Travis Dye would likely tell you otherwise. Nonetheless, a new class of receivers like Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton declared in Fall Camp that they wanted to set out and make Oregon known as a wide receiver’s school, and with the help of veteran returners Johnny Johnson III, Jaylon Redd, Mycah Pittman, and Devon Williams, the sentiment that Oregon was going to dominate the passing attack seemed extremely possible.
So now, four weeks into the season, why are we left wondering how good this receiving corp really is, and who the leading man is at the position?
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We don’t have an answer to that question, but it’s hard to find an example of something that is more clear-cut in portraying something that fans care about, and coaches ignore. If I were to try and offer some solace to any Duck fan who is currently troubled about the fact that Oregon doesn’t have a leading receiver at the 1/3 mark in the season, a quote from Brad Pitt in Moneyball quickly comes to mind.
“It’s a problem that you think we need to explain ourselves. Don’t. To anyone.”
Earlier this week, Mario Cristobal was asked about the receiver room at Oregon, and if he could assess where the group was at since they had not exactly found a WR1 thus far. His answer was telling and to the point.
“I think you evaluate every opportunity you have to go win a football game and doing whatever you can to win that game,” Cristobal said. “I think storylines created around anything other than doing whatever is best to win a game from a strategical standpoint is all secondary. We always try to spread the ball around as much as we can because that is effective in helping you win a game. And if you win you really come out of there not having or not trying to have any regrets, you just assess how you can do it better. And that’s really our process. There’s not much focus on creating storylines or anything of that nature. Everything we try to do is for the players for the program and to win the game.”
In coach-speak translation, Cristobal doesn’t give a rat’s you-know-what if one player separates himself from the pack, as long as the group is productive.
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And so far, the WR room has done well in limited work this season. Johnny Johnson III currently leads the team with 10 catches for 148 yards and 1 TD through four games, and freshman Kris Hutson is second on the team with 5 catches for 87 yards. Two other receivers on the team — Jaylon Redd and Dont’e Thornton — have a touchdown each, and a handful of other players have multiple catches on the season.
It may not be the days of old where you have one WR leading the team by a large margin, but the depth doesn’t call for that. So while Dillon Mitchell may have grabbed 75 targets for over 1,000 yards and 10 TD in 2018, while the next highest receiver had just 38 catches, we are unlikely to see that any time soon again in Oregon.
A potential issue that does come up, however, is an unrequited desire for catches. If you have 6-7 receivers vying for catches, all of whom are talented and capable of being a true threat on the offense continually getting overlooked, some unrest can start to develop. There are only so many targets to go around, and in a run-centric offense like the Ducks’ deploy, some mouths are going to be left empty.
“Right now I think we’ve got a hungry group of dogs in our receiver room,” Redd said on Wednesday. “We all have to have a mindset and we kind of emphasize in this mindset that even though we have such a good group of guys, that every limited rep that we get we gotta make the most of it. We got to take that one rep like that’s gonna be the only rep I get all game. So right now we’ve just got to keep our heads up at the same time. Everybody wants the ball, but you can’t be selfish and win games, and that’s gonna help us at the end of the day.”
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There is always going to be competition within position groups, and a coach should want nothing less. We talked earlier this week about the friendly rivalry between Verone McKinley III and Bennett Williams, which has led to them being two of the top interception-getters in the nation.
Fighting over targets is encouraged. What is not, however, is getting down and unfocused when they don’t come your way.
“Whenever there is a pass play called, you should run 100%,” Redd said. “Your best route, give it your all like it’s your last rep that you have all game or all season. That’s how you’ve got to take it, literally like a pitbull that’s never been let off the leash.”
For Anthony Brown, too many mouths to feed is not a bad problem to have. It’s not something he’s unfamiliar with, either. In Brown’s two full seasons with Boston College, it was common to look at the receivers and find the top three options all finish the year within 10-12 catches of one another, often led by Tommy Sweeney, Kobay White, and Jeff Smith.
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So when he came to Oregon and saw the wide array of talent that he was going to be playing with, it had to be enticing.
I asked Brown on Wednesday how great of a feeling it was knowing that any time he dropped back to pass, there was so much talent around him that he could lean on. The Ducks’ QB, who has never been a man of many words, put it simply.
“It’s a blessing, to say the least.”
So while fans may want to look at the Oregon depth chart and be able to pick out a guy that they feel confident will explode each and every week, hauling in six catches for 90-plus yards and a touchdown, don’t get your hopes up.
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The Ducks’ depth allows them to be versatile, and their ability to spread the ball around keeps a defense honest and true, forcing them to defend every pass-catcher on the field.
It may not be flashy or sell jerseys in the end, but it’s effective and productive.
It’s a ‘problem’ that Mario Cristobal doesn’t feel that he needs to explain to anyone. And he isn’t.
Instead, he’s letting the winning do the talking.
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