Tag: Seven McGee

Bo Nix, Seven McGee and Chase Cota all impress in Oregon’s spring game

The offense was the story at Oregon’s spring game, with Bo Nix, Seven McGee, and Chase Cota leaving big impressions.

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It didn’t take long for Bo Nix to proclaim that he’s at Oregon for a reason and it’s not to hold a clipboard on the sideline.

With the first play of the game, Nix signaled he means business in the competition to be the starter heading into fall camp with a perfect throw to Seven McGee on a crossing route for a cool 70 yards. Nix found McGee a couple of plays later for a five-yard touchdown and the Yellow Team was already rolling.

In the end, it was a fun day had by all as an estimated 42,000 Oregon fans came out to watch the Ducks on a sunny day at Autzen Stadium.

Officially, the Yellow Team defeated the Green Team 31-21, but the final score doesn’t matter on this day. What Oregon fans and players alike will remember from this day is seeing their favorite stars from the past, present, and future.

Arik Armstead, De’Anthony Thomas, LaMichael James, and Haloti Ngata were on the sidelines calling plays in the fourth quarter as well several notable past Ducks in the stands.

Nix threw for 230 yards and three touchdowns and after a slow start, Ty Thompson had a nice day with 168 yards through the air and a score. Dont’e Thornton caught three passes for 116 receiving yards and a touchdown and while Chase Cota didn’t find the end zone, he had six catches for 100 yards.

The transfer from UCLA and the son of an Oregon legend, Cota showed what kind of season he’s primed to have in 2022. He was open all day and the Duck quarterbacks, mainly Thompson, found him.

In the first half, yellow scored again to make it 14-0 and this was when Thompson began to settle down and make plays. He found Kris Hutson for a 40-yard completion to set up a seven-yard touchdown pass to Troy Franklin.

Quarterback Jay Butterfield made his presence known early in the second quarter with a 36-yard pass that found Josh Delgado in the right corner of the end zone to tie the game 14-14. Butterfield finished the game 263 yards playing for both teams.

Green was up 21-14 thanks to transfer running back Noah Whittington’s 47-yard touchdown run down the right side that the offensive line sealed off the defense and left a running lane open.

Whittington led all rushers with 84 yards. Sean Dollars added 49 yards on nine carries. Byron Cardwell was held out of the game for precautionary reasons. The only in-game injury scare came when Jackson Powers-Johnson was rolled up from behind after a play. According to Lanning, both players are fine.

“Yeah, it was precautionary there with Byron. With JPJ, it looks like he’s gonna be okay,” he said. “We’re gonna continue to get the medical professionals evaluation on it but it sounds like he’s okay. I got to see him right there in the locker room after.”

Yellow’s defense made an impact early in the third quarter on Twikweze Bridges Pick-6 where the corner took the ball away from the intended receiver and followed a convoy of yellow jerseys before spinning his way into the end zone.

Nix ended his day just as he began it … with a bang. His last pass was a 70-yard strike to Thornton midway through the fourth quarter.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

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Seven McGee feels the pressure of ‘De’Anthony Thomas 2.0’ comparisons

“It’s a lot of weight on my shoulders.” Seven McGee knows that fans want him to be De’Anthony Thomas 2.0 heading into the spring game.

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There was a time earlier in this offseason when Oregon’s Seven McGee was strongly considering leaving the program entirely. Now, he’s entering his second spring game while dealing with the heavyweight comparison to one of his Eugene idols.

Thanks to his new position change, transitioning him from a running back to more of a hybrid slot receiver, there is maybe no player on the Oregon offense who fans are more anticipated to see on Saturday than McGee. We know that he has all of the tools to be explosive — McGee was a 4-star commit, ranked as the No. 9 RB overall and No. 1 player in New York — but with a new emphasis on getting him the ball more in the Ducks’ offense, it’s been common practice to hear that McGee might be the new De’Anthony Thomas 2.0 in Eugene.

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“It’s a lot of weight on my shoulders,” McGee said on Thursday leading up to the spring game. “But at the end of the day, just being me, working my craft day by day, listening to coaches, and getting the coaching.”

That comparison should not be made lightly. ‘DAT’ was one of the most electric players that we’ve seen not only in Eugene but in all of college football over the past decade. His 1,890 rushing yards and 26 rushing touchdowns were one thing, but when you add to it the 1,296 receiving yards and 15 receiving touchdowns, you see what a dynamic offensive threat Thomas was. He even contributed in the special teams game, with 5 total return touchdowns in his career.

Those are certainly some big shoes to fill, but McGee knows that all comparisons are made out of a desire to see him succeed.

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“It means a lot, you know,” McGee said. “Watching the Ducks in the Rose Bowl, watching the Ducks who went to the national championship, watching De’Anthony Thomas when he was here. He’s a great player, and I’m glad he’s gonna be here this weekend.”

We aren’t exactly sure who divided up the teams for Saturday’s scrimmage, but with De’Anthony Thomas acting as an honorary coach for the yellow team, it seemed more than fitting that McGee would show up dressed in yellow as well. In the third quarter, the honorary coaches — Thomas, LaMichael James, Haloti Ngata, and Arik Armstead — are going to be calling the plays.

Don’t be surprised if you see a heavy dose of Seven — or rather, De’Anthony Thomas 2.0 — during that time.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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‘I feel like it’s a Chip Kelly offense from back in the day, just utilizing everybody’

WR Seven McGee didn’t hold back when professing his love for Kenny Dillingham’s new offense with the Ducks.

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It’s pretty hard to argue about when the peak of Oregon Ducks football was.

The actual mountain top came in the 2014-15 season when Marcus Mariota and the Ducks reached the national championship game under Mark Helfrich. However, you’d be hard-pressed to find any Oregon fan that would tell you it was anyone other than Chip Kelly who got the Ducks to the peak of their powers at the start of last decade.

Since then, Oregon has struggled to find an explosive offensive identity, undergoing the single season of Willie Taggart at the helm, followed by the successful, yet conservative, ground-and-pound years of Mario Cristobal.

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With a new staff in the mix, though, a new era of Oregon football is set to take place.

When talking with wide receiver Seven McGee on Thursday about what he liked in the new offense, the sophomore gave some incredibly high praise.

“I love the offense. I feel like it’s a Chip Kelly offense from back in the day, just utilizing everybody,” McGee said. “Like I said before, just putting people in a position to win great 1-on-1 matchups.”

The offense was a major selling point for McGee when deciding not to transfer away from the Ducks this past offseason. He says that Dan Lanning got on the phone with him to lay out their plans for that side of the ball, and a mix of vertical attacks and an emphasis on capitalizing on matchups is what stood out to McGee.

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“Just to utilize me everywhere in the field, which is something that we didn’t do last year,” McGee said. “As a team, just moving parts and putting people in places to create one on one matchups. That’s why Coach Lanning and Coach Dillingham are great right now with the offensive scheme. Obviously, Coach Lanning is a defensive coach which is great because he knows the leverages of defense — he had the number one defense, arguably, ever to play the game.” 

Chip Kelly changed the game of college football a decade ago with his no-huddle spread offense that emphasized read options and quick tempo. None of this is to say that Kenny Dillingham is going to transcend the game as Kelly did, but it is encouraging to hear some of the players enthralled with the potential.

While we’ve only seen glimpses of what the offense can look like in practice so far, Saturday’s spring game will offer a great view at just how exciting the new scheme will be. It’s likely that Dillingham won’t show all of his cards just yet, but you can guarantee that he pulls out a couple of tricks out of his sleeve just to let fans — and recruits — see a bit of what Oregon is in for this season.

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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Seven McGee opens up about decision to return to Oregon after entering transfer portal

We talked to Seven McGee for the first time since he left the transfer portal in December. He said it was Lanning’s “tough mentality” that helped bring him back.

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In the wake of all of the news that was surrounding the Oregon Ducks in early December, with the recent departure of head coach Mario Cristobal and the new hire of Dan Lanning, many players on the roster were faced with a decsion.

Would they stay, or would they go?

For running back Seven McGee, it was a tough choice to make. He had been committed to Oregon since his freshman year in high school back in 2018, and had just seen a relatively successful true freshman year with the Ducks. But with the coaching staff change, he wasn’t sure Oregon was the place for him anymore.

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On December 13th, two days after Lanning’s hire, McGee announced that he would be entering the transfer portal. Just a couple of hours after announcing that decision, McGee retracted on Twitter, saying that a conversation with Lanning had convinced him to stay in Eugene.

When talking to McGee for the first time since last season, he opened up about that process.

“It was hard, you know, with me being committed here since 2018 as a freshman,” McGee said on Thursday. “You know, seeing that staff leave and having a commitment with [Mario] Cristobal and [Jim] Mastro and a couple of other coaches on our staff. It wasn’t easy, you know? So just going through that process and then just talking to my mother and my family back home just really just making the best decision for me. So just giving Coach Lanning a chance and it’s working out, it’s great.”

So far this spring, McGee has drawn rave reviews from coaches and teammates alike, all of whom say that he is embracing the position change from running back to wide receiver.

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It’s been that, plus the new offense that Oregon’s offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham has introduced, that has McGee excited about his future. Following McGee’s announcement that he would be leaving, he had a talk with both Lanning and Oregon coach Don Johnson. They laid out a plan for how he would be used going forward.

“Just to utilize me everywhere in the field, which is something that we didn’t do last year,” McGee said. “As a team, just moving parts and putting people in places to create one on one matchups. That’s why Coach Lanning and Coach Dillingham are great right now with the offensive scheme. Obviously, Coach Lanning is a defensive coach which is great because he knows the leverages of defense — he had the number one defense, arguably, ever to play the game.” 

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While the X’s and O’s are important, McGee said that Lanning’s energy also went a long way to convince him to give the new head coach a shot. It was his vision for the program that ultimately got him to stay.

“Just wanting to win,” McGee said. “Simply just wanting to win, and bringing that mentality to Oregon that we’re going to be a tough-ass team. It’s not just gonna be a team that’s built off fast and wanting to move fast. It’s a tough mentality.”

Contact/Follow us @Ducks_Wire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oregon Ducks news, notes, and opinion.

Let us know your thoughts, comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.

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Oregon football storylines to follow: Who is changing or adding positions?

Seven McGee, Jackson Powers-Johnson, and DJ Johnson could all be playing new positions during Oregon’s spring practices.

The past couple of months of Oregon Football have certainly been eventful, all the while very little action took place on the field. A new coaching staff has been put into place, and a top-25 recruiting class has been signed. Meanwhile, highly-rated transfers have come to Eugene, and a few key players have left for new destinations.

For an Oregon fan, there are a lot of storylines to keep track of, and with Spring Practice starting on March 10th, we will likely get a few answers in the coming weeks. So which ones should you be paying the most attention to? We tried to help answer that question in our continuing Spring Preview by singling out a few and highlighting what makes them so interesting.

Same players, but at new positions

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There’s no doubt the primary focus for Oregon Ducks fans and analysts during spring football will be on the newcomers: how the key transfers look, how any incoming freshmen who are already on campus look, and of course what we can expect from new head coach Dan Lanning and his coordinators, Kenny Dillingham (offense) and Tosh Lupoi (defense).

That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of exciting storylines to follow regarding returning players, however, including three players are returning – but potentially in an entirely different role.

The first of those is Jackson Powers-Johnson, who is definitively moving from the offensive line to the defensive line this spring, a move that first happened against Oklahoma in the Alamo Bowl when Powers-Johnson stepped up and played defensive line for a team ravaged by injuries and opt-outs.

“Jackson is going to start off on defense for us this spring,” Lanning told media after signing day. “We’ll continue to evaluate that. We want him to be able to help us. How can he help our team as fast as possible and how can he enhance himself and his career. So right now Jackson is gonna be on defense, but [that’s] always subject to change.”

Powers-Johnson initially joined the Ducks as a highly ranked offensive line recruit, and he played as a backup at both guard positions in 2021 – doing well in his limited role. This gives him an opportunity to carve out a bigger role on the team right away.

“I really don’t care. Whatever is best for the team,” he said in response to which position he’d like to play. “I love both [offense and defense], I played both in high school. I just like hitting people and being violent. So, whatever gives me the opportunity, I’ll go.”

Next up is a running back who could pull a De’Anthony Thomas for this team next year…

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Oregon players we can’t wait to watch in Spring Football: RB Seven McGee

Seven McGee is primed to take on a bigger role in 2022, but where exactly he lines up is a question we hope to see answered in spring.

Though we are in the thick of basketball season, and the offseason in football keeps rolling along, a light has shown itself at the end of the tunnel. For the Oregon Ducks, that light is spring football. On March 10, Dan Lanning and his new coaching staff will hit the gridiron for the first of 15 practices with the team, giving us an oasis of things to talk about. 

One of the things we are looking forward to the most is seeing some individual players take the field. How do they look after the offseason? Are they healthy? What improvements have they made? How will they be used in the new scheme? 

The list of guys we can’t wait to watch is endless, but we highlighted a few key players to keep an eye on.

Running Back Seven McGee

Size: 5 foot 9, 181 pounds

Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY Sports

A great deal about Oregon’s offensive position groups is unsettled here in late February, including a brewing quarterback battle and a lot of new faces out wide, but perhaps no position has more question marks than in the running back room.

Travis Dye is gone to USC, CJ Verdell to the NFL and Trey Benson to Florida State. The departures leave the Ducks with only Byron Cardwell and Seven McGee as returning running backs who carried the ball for the Ducks last year.

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Sean Dollars, who missed last season with a knee injury, will factor as well, along with new four-star recruit Jordan James, who coach Dan Lanning flipped from Georgia to Oregon in a big win for his first recruiting class.

While each of these four backs brings plenty of intrigue in spring ball, it will be McGee who garners the most attention, in part because of his jaw-dropping athleticism and in part because of how Lanning and new offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham choose to work him into the playbook.

McGee, who had a combined 21 touches for 145 yards and a touchdown in his true freshman season with the Ducks, is set to see a much bigger workload this year. That much is clear. But it might not be exclusively in the backfield, as many believe McGee could fit well in a slot-receiver/running back hybrid role, much like De’Anthony Thomas back in the day.

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Lanning did nothing to assuage those rumors, indicating in a post signing day press conference that he plans to be creative with some of his running backs offensively.

“We have some talent at other positions obviously, on offense, and we’ll use guys in a variety of ways,” Lanning said. “You know, even if that means putting a wide-out in the backfield or moving people around, I think we can do that here. But we’re always going to look to enhance the backfield.”

McGee, who changed his number to seven after Verdell’s departure, is potentially going to benefit significantly from more touches this upcoming season, and how he is used in spring ball will help give fans a good idea of what exactly that role could look like.

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Seven McGee announces change to No. 7 after departure of CJ Verdell

It just makes sense, doesn’t it? Seven McGee announced he’d be taking the No. 7 at Oregon after CJ Verdell’s departure.

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It just makes sense…doesn’t it?

On Monday morning, just a couple of hours after former Oregon running back CJ Verdell announced that he would be departing for the 2022 NFL draft, freshman RB Seven McGee had an announcement of his own to make.

That announcement was that he would be taking ownership of the No. 7 jersey at Oregon in 2022 and making it his own.

Like I said, it just makes sense.

McGee, who had a combined 21 touches for 145 yards and a touchdown in his true freshman season with the Ducks, it set to see a much bigger workload in the future with both Verdell and Dye now off the roster. Many believe that McGee will fit well in a slot-receiver/running back hybrid role, much like De’Anthony Thomas back in his days.

While we will have to wait and see how Dan Lanning and Kenny Dillingham plan to use him in the offense, we won’t have to wait to see if he will be wearing his namesake on his chest.

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Oregon running back Travis Dye enters the transfer portal

Oregon tailback Travis Dye has entered the transfer portal, but as recent history indicates, he could exit the portal as quickly as he entered it.

Not many people saw this coming.

Oregon Ducks running back Travis Dye has entered the transfer portal. Dye was the Pac-12’s leader in all-purpose yardage in 2021 and it was assumed he would either enter the NFL draft or return to Eugene. Dye is poised to have his best year in 2022 as he would be the Ducks’ No. 1 tailback.

But entering the transfer portal wasn’t considered by many close to the program. And just because Dye has entered the portal, that doesn’t mean he won’t be a Duck next season.

Head coach Dan Lanning has had remarkable success in convincing current players to exit the portal and come back after players such as Sean Dollars and Seven McGee announced they would be transferring.

Dye could be the next Duck to test the waters of the portal and have a talk with Lanning and come back. But if he chooses to go elsewhere for his senior season, Dye has set himself up to be a first-round draft choice as tailback No. 1 for another school.

He gained 1,271 yards on the ground and scored 16 touchdowns for Oregon in 2021.

Oregon RB Seven McGee reverses decision to enter transfer portal

Hours after announcing that he would enter the transfer portal, RB Seven McGee said he will be sticking with the Ducks following a talk with new coach Dan Lanning.

It looks like Oregon’s new head coach is making a big impact on the Ducks already, just hours after his introductory press conference.

Earlier in the night, freshman RB/WR Seven McGee announced on social media that he would be entering the transfer portal and leaving the Ducks. Just a couple of hours later, McGee took to Twitter to announce that he was actually going to stick with the Ducks after having a conversation with coach Lanning and Coach Don Johnson.

In his freshman season, McGee had 14 rushes for 61 yards and a TD, plus 6 receptions for 78 yards. Depending on which RBs return to the team next season — CJ Verdell or Travis Dye — McGee could have a big role in the offense, especially in a RB/WR hybrid role, close to what DeAnthony Thomas did years back with the Ducks.

The early signing period is still a couple of days away, but Coach Lanning got one of his bigger wins on Monday night by convincing Seven to stay in Eugene.

 

Ducks RB Seven McGee announces he will enter transfer portal

Oregon Ducks freshman RB Seven McGee announced on Monday night that he will enter the transfer portal and leave the Ducks.

The Oregon Ducks freshman running back who has been committed since 2018 announced on Monday night that he will be entering the transfer portal and attempting to find a new school.

McGee was very vocal on social media after former head coach Mario Cristobal announced last week that he was leaving the Ducks to take the head coaching job with the Miami Hurricanes. McGee was recruited by Cristobal and had a close relationship with the coach.

New Oregon head coach Dan Lanning was introduced on Monday afternoon, and made it known that one of his biggest priorities was recruiting the players already on the roster, rather than looking at outside commits.

It appears that he was unable to sway McGee into staying.

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