Oregon Ducks College Football Pregame Quote, 10/13/2025

Q: Do you feel you can fix everything you identified from Indiana or does that take a longer period of time?

DL: “I don’t think you look at that game and say everything was broken either. We lost to a really good team. We’re tied in the fourth quarter and we don’t finish the game. Did we play our best game? No. We didn’t play our best game in the first half, but what’s success look like? It looks like improvement. It looks like us getting better and not making the same mistakes in that last game, doing a better job of identifying what’s working for us and what’s not as coaches, and doing a good job of leaning in on what’s working for us, and having good answers for what the opponent is doing.

Q: How will Jordon Davison’s role continue to increase between the 20s with the way he played over the weekend?

DL: “I think he’s earned those opportunities. He did a good job at times. There were some runs that were really successful for us on Saturday and there were some that weren’t. That’s scheme related and it’s also the way some of our backs do a really good job at certain runs and some of the runs that Jordon does a really good job at showed up on Saturday.

Q: In terms of things Dante cold’ve done better, were those things he missed and didn’t see at the time or things Indiana did defensively to mess with what his reads might’ve been?

DL: “Probably a combination of both, but we got off of some of our initial reads a little too quick at times, didn’t key through the things we’re supposed to key through at times. The routes weren’t always ran to the right place. So the guy he’s supposed to be throwing the ball to, and he’s expecting to be at a certain spot, wasn’t where he needed to be. It’s always easy to say ‘Oh, that’s the quarterback or the call’, but the wideouts need to be in location where they’re supposed to be at the moment when he’s looking to deliver the ball. So all those things add up. Those are things we’ll sharpen up. 

Q: How important was tempo against Indiana, and how important will it be to establish it to your liking this weekend?

DL: “I think tempo is something you always want to vary. There were moments where we were really fast and it wasn’t good, and there were moments we went really fast and it was really good. You’ve go to be able to do a little bit of both. That’s part of it. More than anything, we’ve got go out and execute and do what we’re coached to do, and make sure we’re coaching the proper things in those moments, very important. 

Q: These will be two of the best contested catch wideouts you see all year. How important will Brandon Finney’s play be and what’s the plan at the other spot?

DL: “We’re going to make sure that we’re going to have guys who can go out there and compete at a high level. I think we have guys who can play winning football. Brandon is playing at a really really high level right now. He’s earned the opportunity to be on the field as much as we can have him there as long as he’s fresh. As far as teams that we play that throw the intermediate passing game, they have one of the deepest depths of target in our league. These guys really push the ball down the field. Their quarterback delivers a really good ball. They’ve got great size outside and then they have a slot receiver who can flat out run. This is a team that has really good talent. Like I said, outside you’ve got to match up well from a body standpoint and you have to be able to defend the contested catches. They’ll throw the 50-50 ball and expect their guy to come down with it consistently. 

Q: You guys ran it with success in the first half, and barely ran it at all in the second. Why make that adjustment?

DL: “We had limited opportunities in the second half because we didn’t do a great job of getting drives running, but we should have absolutely looked for more opportunities to run the ball and do some of the things that were effective. 

Q: Does the struggles with Elijah Sarratt motivate your corners to take on another big challenge this weekend?

DL: “I think you always want to perform to your best.

Q: How much of the pass protection issues were assignment related versus execution related?

DL: “I couldn’t give you a percentage. Their guy beat our guy. There wasn’t always somebody necessarily accounted for or worth throwing hot off of them. We did a good job throwing it hot at times, to Gary on an empty protection where we were hot. That was one of our bigger gains of the day. And there were times we didn’t do a great job of that or redirecting protection. It’s a combination of both. 

Q: What’s your perspective on all the coaching changes and how quickly things can change in this profession?

DL: “That’s the business that we’re in. It’s a heavy-pressure position. There’s high expectations. Fanbases want to win. They expect that. There’s some really good coaches where it’s really about what have you done lately. That’s college football and that’s the world we live in. It is what it is. There’s not a lot you can say about it other than ‘go do your job and try your best to go win games’. 

Q: What makes Rutgers run-game and their running back Antwan Raymond unique?

DL: “They do a great job with their stretch. They run wide zone variations and they run some inside zone. So they’ve got some complements to their run game. They don’t have a lot of indicators in the run-game, which allows them to take the ball in multiple directions. They do a great job of getting north and south. When they make a decision, they hit the hole and they hit it with violence. Really good run-game and it’s built off of some of the stuff we saw last week with RPOs down the field. If you load the box, they have the ability to throw it to the guys outside and take advantage of it. 

Q: Kyler Kasper was listed as out on the pregame availability report. Could you give us more details?

DL: “He had an injury to his foot and ended up having surgery on that, so he won’t be available for us unfortunately. 

Q: How do you feel about the havoc rate from the front-seven? How do you get home more consistently?

DL: “It could certainly improve and then again it’s sometimes dictated by who you’re playing and how quickly they get the ball out and what they do. 

Q: What’s allowed Bear Alexander to have so much success recently, especially on run downs?

DL: “He’s doing a really good job. He’s improved throughout the season. We talk about taking our medicine every single week and saying what can we improve, what can we get better at? He’s a guy who’s done a good job of attacking those things each week and he’s proven to be a guy who can play snaps for us.

Q: We saw Dorian Brew warming up for the first time before this game. What’s his recovery been like and what’s he doing to get on the field for you?

DL: “Working everyday. He’s working everyday and he’s able to practice for us now. He’s doing more for us, so I’m excited to continue to see him develop. 

Q: Is there a point where the kicking game will begin to influence offensive strategy like it has in the past?

DL: “I think kicking and the kicking game always influences strategy.