Tag: Troy Franklin

WATCH: Anthony Brown delivers strike to true freshman Troy Franklin for 1st career TD

Credit to AB for withstanding this pressure, delivering a strike to Troy Franklin for the freshman’s first career TD.

This game is becoming a game of first.

Initially, it was Bryon Cardwell scoring his first rushing touchdown. Now it’s freshman Troy Franklin with his first touchdown reception. The 6-foot-2, 12-pounder used every inch to jump in the air to get Anthony Brown’s floater. He then turned and stretched for the end zone for the 28-yard score.

Franklin came into the game with seven career catches, but so far against the Buffaloes, he has two catches for 44 yards and a touchdown. The former four-star recruit from East Palo Alto, Calif. was the second-ranked player overall in California and the top wide receiver by 247Sports, Rivals and the 247 composite.

He is slowly becoming a very good receiver for the Ducks.

The Oregon Ducks don’t have a clear-cut WR1, and it’s becoming clear they don’t need one

Four games into the season, the Ducks are yet to identify a leading WR. Fans may see that as a problem, but Oregon is using it as an advantage.

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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Oregon stays undefeated through non-conference play, but injuries are taking a toll on the Ducks

The Ducks will enter Pac-12 play 3-0, but the injury bug continues to be a huge concern moving forward.

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After every football game, the hope is always the players come out of the contest relatively healthy. Oregon entered the Stony Brook game with a lot of key players dinged up, and though it looked like the Ducks were able to avoid any major injuries during the 48-7 win over the Seawolves, the injury bug continues to be an issue as the conference season begins.

Oregon’s quarterback Anthony Brown missed the second half due to a couple of big hits towards the end of the first half, but according to head coach Mario Cristobal, Brown should be on the field when the Ducks kickoff against Arizona on Saturday, thankfully.

“He took a pretty good shot there at the end of the half. We were just making sure he was okay,” Cristobal said. “We expect him to be okay and he looks good so we expect him to be healthy for the week.”

Backup quarterback Ty Thompson played admirably in the second half against Stony Brook, but Oregon will need their starting signal-caller moving forward.

Offensive lineman Steven Jones and wide receiver Troy Franklin were also injured, but fortunately for the Ducks, those two starters should be fine to practice this week in preparations for the Wildcats.

The Ducks did hold out a few players that went down against Ohio State, but the good news is players such as linebackers Keith Brown and Bradyn Swinson could have played in an emergency situation. It’s good they got an extra seven days of rest as the conference is now upon them.

Two names Oregon fans are wondering about are of course defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux and linebacker Mace Funa.

“Mace is looking like he’s good to go. We held a lot of guys but it wasn’t just to hold guys. We felt it was best for them, for their health and going into Pac-12 play now,” said Cristobal. “Every week is a playoff game. We felt to get to the health we need to that it was best to rest them tonight.”

Thibodeaux probably could have been on the field this past week, but it would have been silly to risk further injury to their star defender. Oregon was likely going to beat Stony Brook with or without him and they’re going to need Thibodeaux for the long haul.

Oregon has had its issues with the injury bug and to come out of non-conference play despite the health issues is a big plus going forward. But the Ducks need to mend.

“I would like to be healthier, I think we all know that. We are missing some pieces, but it’s football and we’re going,” Cristobal said.

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WR Troy Franklin limited vs. Fresno State after getting ‘nicked up’ in pracitce

We finally got an explanation for Troy Franklin’s zero targets on Saturday; Mario Cristobal said the WR was limited after getting ‘nicked up’ in practice.

One of the players who we were the most excited to see as the Ducks opened up the 2021 season against the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday was true freshman wide receiver Troy Franklin.

The former 4-star recruit has worked his way up the depth chart and won the starting spot at the X receiver position ahead of the first game over both Kris Hutson and Devon Williams. We were expecting a Justin Flowe-level breakout in Week 1.

Instead, Franklin played a very limited number of snaps and finished the day with zero targets and zero catches.

When asked why head coach Mario Cristobal explained it was because Franklin was limited.

Cristobal went on to say that Franklin should be ready to go next week against Ohio State, which will absolutely help Oregon’s wide receiver corps against the Buckeyes.

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Stock-up, Stock-down: Which Oregon players made the biggest impressions in Week 1?

It’s unfair to call these guys winners or losers, but who do we feel better about after the win over Fresno State, and who needs to show more?

We’d be lying if we said that the Oregon Ducks stock as a whole was through the roof after their Week 1 performance against Fresno State.

With the betting spread favoring them to win by three scores, it was disappointing to see the Ducks trailing by a field goal late into the game, needing a go-ahead touchdown from QB Anthony Brown with under three minutes left to keep their home winning streak alive.

Nonetheless, they won the game, and it will ultimately be a small footnote in what hopefully turns out to be a memorable season. But still, in order to learn and get better, we need to look at the individual performances and see what needs to improve, and where the Ducks are on the right track. Here is who trended up, and trended down on Saturday:

‘We’ve got some future Biletnikoff winners:’ Trio of freshmen WRs showing out at Oregon camp

The three freshmen receivers have incredible upside, and their performance throughout Oregon’s fall camp has been impossible to ignore.

Coming into the 2021 season, the Oregon Ducks were sporting a trio of 4-star recruits at the wide receiver position, and there were some high hopes that they could potentially get onto the field early in their freshman seasons, getting a jump start on their college careers.

After almost two weeks of fall camp, those expectations have been blown out of the water. Now it’s not a question of whether or not any of these receivers can see the field in 2021, but rather a wonder of how big of an impact they can ultimately have.

With Troy Franklin, Dont’e Thornton, and Isaiah Brevard all vying for meaningful playing time in the offense, the Ducks have as good of a problem as they can ask for.

“They’re hard workers, you know they’re technicians and they really want to take the coaching points and put it on the field,” said super-senior WR Johnny Johnson III after Thursday’s practice. “I love the way those dudes work, and they’re going to continue to be great. I think we’ve got some future Biletnikoff winners over here.”

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The Biletnikoff Award, given to the best WR in college football for that season, has never been won by an Oregon Duck, but Demetrius Williams was a semifinalist in both 2004 and 2005.

The majority of the spotlight this fall has been on both Franklin and Thornton, due to their already high name recognition with the fanbase. Both freshmen were able to enroll early at Oregon and participate in the spring game, where they surely turned heads. The two led the team in receiving on the day, with Franklin hauling in four catches for 93 yards and Thorton adding 3 catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.

“I think with Dont’e and Troy, the fact that they’ve been here since January, so they’ve had the whole spring and those guys have done a good job of making plays,” said Offensive Coordinator Joe Moorhead. “And Isaiah has come in with the rest of the other freshmen, and he’s actually — we’ve got to get him up to speed on what to do — but he’s made a lot of plays and caught a lot of touchdowns in camp. Between the three of those guys, it’s as impressive of a true freshman recruiting class as I’ve been around in a long time.”

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Fans may not have been too familiar with Brevard before fall camp started, but the freshman has done a good job of getting up to speed with the rest of the guys. In Oregon’s first scrimmage of fall camp, which was open to season-ticket holders, Brevard caught the only touchdown of the day in 11-vs-11 drills, hauling in a 38-yard pass from QB Robby Ashford. Brevard also had two other catches on the drive to set up the score.

“He has all of the physical abilities,” Johnson said of Brevard. “I think at the beginning, the playbook was kind of the biggest thing for him to figure out, and I think he’s starting to tighten up on that. He’s continued to make plays. He made a lot of plays in the last scrimmage, and he’s going to continue to do that.”

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With so many veteran and experienced receivers ahead of them on the depth chart, it may be hard to crack the starting lineup for any of these freshmen. With Johnson, and Mycah Pittman, and Jaylon Redd, and Devon Williams all jockeying for touches, there could simply be too much talent on the field to get everyone the targets that they deserve.

At a position group where the Ducks have historically underachieved over the years, that sounds like a great problem to have.

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Ducks Depth Chart Preview: Experienced wide receiver group buoyed by talent-rich freshman class

With a solid mix of experienced veterans and high-ceiling freshmen, the Ducks are stacked at the WR position going into 2021 season.

If your goal is to find the position group with the most depth and the highest ceiling on the Oregon Ducks roster, it’s hard to look past the wide receivers.

With a trio of veteran players ready to lead the group, plus a couple of true freshmen that could potentially emerge as the most talented players on the field, the Ducks will likely have no problems with the passing game this season, assuming that quarterback Anthony Brown is all that we expect him to be.

Spread across three positions, we can expect a lot of rotating for Oregon as they look to stay fresh and get all of their talents on the field. So how will the depth chart fill out across the board? Here’s our prediction, with a breakdown of each player.

‘They look like veterans:’ Early-enrollment has benefited Troy Franklin, Dont’e Thornton at Oregon

Both Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton, two 4-star recruits, are hitting the ground running, according to Cristobal, thanks to early enrollment at Oregon.

When you’re a true freshman, coming to a D1 school and expecting to hit the ground running in a Power-5 conference football team is a big ask. For some players, though, that transition from high school to college is being made more seamless, and a level of production that we haven’t seen before is becoming the new normal for 18-year-old kids.

A lot of this is thanks to the early-enrollment process, which allows high school students the ability to graduate a semester early and come to college in the spring, rather than waiting until the summer after graduation. With this comes several weeks of spring practice, and an entire offseason to get acclimated to their new surroundings, making them more ready for the season when the fall rolls around.

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For the Oregon Ducks, a number of players have taken advantage of early enrollment, and after the first day of Fall Camp on Friday, head coach Mario Cristobal remarked at what a difference it is making. In particular, he singled out both Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton, two true-freshman wide receivers who came to Eugene in the spring and have been working their way up the depth chart ever since.

Both Franklin and Thornton were 4-star recruits coming to Oregon, so we know that they have the talent to be among the best players on the field. We even saw in the Ducks’ Spring Game that they’re certainly are able to make an impact on the field, with the two combining for seven catches, 182 yards, and one touchdown on the day.

If you can add in the fact that both players will now be in the groove of college life by the time Week 1 rolls around, then there should really be nothing standing in their way.

It’s not like the Ducks have an advantage over any other schools because their players can enroll early, but as a fan of the sport, the talent level is certainly going to rise with players getting bigger and better, faster than they have before.

For Oregon, it will be exciting to watch just how much of an impact the duo of freshmen receivers can have on the field this year. If you were to ask Cristobal about it, they certainly look like they belong.

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These 3 true-freshmen in Oregon are expected to have a huge impact in 2021

After their showings at the Spring Game, the trio of Dont’e Thornton, Troy Franklin, and Kingsley Suamataia are being tabbed as freshmen to watch.

There is one thing that the Oregon Ducks surely aren’t lacking as they head into the 2021 college football season — immense talent across the field.

With defensive players making a push for the Heisman Trophy, and an offensive skill group that has loads of experience and reps under the belt, there is very little doubt that Oregon will be one of the most talented teams in the Pac-12 conference, and there’s a good chance that they can make some noise at the national level as well.

However, if you look deeper into the roster, a few young players will stand out as real threats to have an impact in the first year of their careers. Those players are offensive tackle Kingsley Suamataia, and wide receivers Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton.

We all saw them impress at Oregon’s annual Spring Game about a month ago, and now those three have been listed as ‘Freshmen to Know’ ahead of the season, according to 247 Sports.

Here’s what they had to say about Suamataia:

Penei Sewell would be nearly impossible to replace at most programs. At Oregon, his potential successor is a higher-ranked recruit who played his high school ball in the same state as Sewell. Suamataia, the highest-rated lineman ever to sign with the Ducks, is already drawing plenty of hype: “I think he’s got the potential to be a first-round pick down the road. That I will say and I won’t shy away from that,” Oregon o-line coach Alex Mirabal said earlier this spring.

With five returning starters on the o-line (the one bright spot of Sewell opting out), Suamataia isn’t exactly a lock to start. But he’s already the team’s second-string left tackle. Given that none of Oregon’s tackles finished with better than a 72 PFF College grade last year, there’s an argument to be made that Suamataia is the type of player who can elevate the o-line from good to great.

We don’t know if we will see Suamataia at all this season, especially with the high expectations that everyone currently holds for LT George Moore. Regardless, it is never a problem to have loads of talent and depth at one of the most important positions on the field.

Here is 247’s take on the two stud receivers on the roster:

Oregon returns its three leading receivers from last year with Johnny Johnson, Devon Williams and Jaylon Redd projected as starters. But Franklin and Thornton are very much looming, and the expectation is they’ll play plenty as true freshmen. Franklin (No. 40 in 2021) and Thornton (No. 56 in 2021) were two of the top seven receivers in the country for the 2021 cycle and both of them had really strong spring, including dominant spring game efforts. Given that none of Oregon’s receivers had even a 70 PFF College receiving grade last year, there’s room for Franklin and Thornton to siphon some snaps from the starters.

If the Spring Game told us anything, it’s that the Ducks will be absolutely loaded at the WR position. Thornton and Franklin had stand-out days, and though we didn’t see much from the incumbent starters, there’s great faith that they will produce when the time comes.

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Spring Position Preview: Johnny Johnson III heads up a deep and talented receiver corps

When Johnny Johnson III announced he was returning for one more season, Oregon’s receiver group went from good to great just like that.

Oregon Ducks head coach Mario Cristobal may have a big decision to make where it comes to his quarterback, but whoever that is, he’s going to have plenty of targets to throw to as the Ducks will feature a group of receivers that is second to none.

That receiving group was already going to be outstanding with Mycah Pittman and Devon Williams on the field. The group went from great to possibly elite when senior Johnny Johnson III announced he was coming back for another season.

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The Chandler, Ariz. native has turned into a dependable playmaker that can beat nearly every defender despite his 6-foot, 199-pound frame. Johnson comes into the 2021 season with 114 career receptions for 1,617 yards and 14 touchdowns. His breakout season came in 2019 when Johnson caught 57 balls for 836 yards and seven scores.

Johnson was primed to have another monster season in 2020 until the world was turned upside down. He also had to learn a new offensive scheme under coordinator Joe Moorhead, plus a new quarterback tossing the pigskin. All of those factors, as expected, put a damper on his season as Johnson caught just 19 passes for 267 yards and two scores.

Now with more of a normal senior season ahead of him, Johnson can have a year the Ducks know he can have, But Johnson isn’t nearly the only weapon at Oregon’s disposal.

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On the other side of the field, Pittman is also out to prove that 2020 was a fluke, but for different reasons than his receiving counterpart. He was sidelined after five games due to COVID-19. His freshman season was also cut short due to injuries, so the Ducks are hoping those maladies are history and they can see what Pittman can do in a full 12-game season.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder came to Eugene in 2019 as one of the top prep wide receivers in the country and has shown flashes of brilliance on the field.

With names like Johnson and Pittman on the roster, it’s easy to forget players such as Jaylon Redd and Williams. Oregon is looking forward to having all four of those players healthy at the same time just to see the havoc they can do against opposing defenses.

Redd is entering his senior season with 118 career receptions for 1,238 yards and 14 touchdowns. He chose to use his extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic and the Ducks have to be thrilled with that decision. Redd can be used in multiple ways due to his size and speed.

At 5-foot-9 and 187 pounds, he has been used as a scatback or a slot receiver, making it difficult to find him in the formation. Redd has five career rushing touchdowns.

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Williams, at 6-foot-5 and 205 pounds, led the Ducks with 286 yards and two touchdowns in the six games he played. When he committed to USC in 2018, he was considered the top athlete in the country. He played all 12 games for the Trojans in 2018 but caught just four passes for 87 yards.

With his size, the Ducks will be able to exploit mismatches in the secondary for easy touchdowns. He classified as a sophomore, so Oregon hopes it gets two or maybe three full seasons with Williams on the field.

If for some reason an injury occurs to one of the four main receivers, the Ducks will be able to turn to players such as freshman Troy Franklin, a 6-foot-2, 170-pounder from East Palo Alto, Calif. He was one of the top receivers in the 2020 recruiting class.

Freshman Kris Hutson saw limited playing time last season as did sophomore Josh Delgado.

The only thing that could stop this group is injuries because defenses are going to have a difficult time keeping these Ducks covered.

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