EUGENE — Coaches thrive in the routine.

One rep at a time. One practice at a time. One game at a time.

Creatures of habit, right?

Well, defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi, how would you describe the first few days of fall camp?

“Pure chaos,” Lupoi said.

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The Oregon Ducks kicked off the 2025 football season on Monday with their annual media day. While fall camp officially begins on Wednesday, here are 10 things The I-5 Corridor learned about the latest installment of Ducks.

Isaiah World is aptly named

At first glance, Isaiah World isn’t all that imposing. Oregon’s new offensive lineman has a big laugh and it was a treat to listen to him earnestly answer a question on Monday about why his peers have identified him as one of the team’s biggest personalities.

“I’m just happy,” said World, a three-year starter at Nevada who transferred to Oregon in the offseason. “I’m grateful for this position I’m in. That comes with whatever shenanigans — I try to be, I don’t know, as fun as possible. I don’t like to have the same stoic demeanor. I just like bringing happiness and joy.”

World seemed a little nervous at times speaking to the 20 or so reporters that attended his session, rubbing his massive hands under the table and taking his time to find the right wording.

But then he stood up.

There’s been an evolution of bodies at Oregon, something that began under Mario Cristobal and has continued here in Dan Lanning’s fourth year. And it’s always something to write down 6-foot-8 and 310 pounds in the offseason when these players are just names and those are just numbers. But 6-foot-8 and 310 pounds with a barrel chest in a room full of sports writers is quite the sight in person.

I’ve never seen anyone quite like World.

He looks like an NFL defensive end, but bigger. He looks like if Penei Sewell grew two inches, then spent every free minute off the field pumping iron. He looks like if Zion Williamson got in shape.

It makes sense now that the San Diego native has seen his name rocket up 2026 mock drafts: there’s a whole lot there for a future NFL team to work with. Part of why World said he came to Oregon was to push himself everywhere else.

“I just love the way Coach [A’lique] Terry approaches everything,” World said. “He makes you want to learn about football.”

Bear Alexander has never seen a bear

Not up close anyway — there aren’t that many roaming around where Oregon’s new defensive tackle grew up in Texas.

“It came from my father,” said Alexander, whose legal name is Keithian. “It was my father’s nickname so they just kinda threw it on me.”

Alexander is 6-foot-3, 310 pounds and now lives in a state that’s home to the American Black bear, which can weigh between 200 to 600 pounds and stands anywhere between 5 to 7 feet on its hind legs.

Bear Alexander is 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds. Throw on pads and a helmet and I’d take the USC-transfer over Smokey in the Oklahoma drill.

“He’s worked his tail off since he’s been here,” Dan Lanning said. “He’s been a pleasure to coach.”

Oregon’s corners have a new look

Oregon lost its top three cornerbacks from last season.

But maybe hold on to your predictions that Oregon’s secondary is about to take a step back.

Take it from Jahlil Florence, who started nine games for the Ducks in 2023, missed 2024 due to injury and returns in 2025 as a projected starter.

“I’d say you can keep your eyebrows raised,” Florence said. “We got a game coming up and you guys will be able to see for yourself what the group has. I feel like if you look at the groups — and I don’t really want to compare — but just look at the athletic abilities and the size and the differences in the speeds just based off the last group we just had and the group we have this year. All we got to do is play and I feel that’ll prove everybody and answer everybody’s questions that they have.”

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I was going to write my takeaways from Big Ten Media Days on the flight back from Las Vegas, but the “light turbulence,” as experienced in seat 33E, felt a bit how I would imagine trying to tackle Kenyon Sadiq in space is like.

So here it is today.

1. The Big Ten is getting less of Sadiq

Bryce Boettcher told me that I needed to see Kenyon Sadiq without his shirt on.

I wasn’t ready for that at 9 in the morning on one cup of coffee, so I told the senior Oregon linebacker that I’d take his word for it.

“It’s like Hercules,” Boettcher said of his teammate. “Guys who look like that usually aren’t that fast.”

Or can jump that high.

Remember, Sadiq is the 6-foot-3, 245-pound tight end who was known in Eugene before the Big Ten Championship game, then known around the country after doing this against Penn State:

“The exposure changed,” Sadiq said. “It was people knowing that I had the ability to do that. It’s great, but it came with a little expectation with it, just to keep performing at that level.”

Sadiq caught 24 passes for 308 yards and two touchdowns as a sophomore in 2024 — numbers that figure to increase in 2025 with the departures of Terrance Ferguson and Patrick Herbert.

But for those to go up, Sadiq wanted his body fat to go down. Last season, Sadiq said he was between 12 to 13 percent. This year, he’s at 10 percent.

And yes, Sadiq said it does allow him to run faster and jump higher. But more than anything, he said he did it for his health.

“Injury prevention,” he said. “Our nutritionist has done a great job of helping me with supplements, joint health, overall body health — those types of things. It’s just about longevity down the road.”

2. This pirate trend is going to be the new look of the 90s

Player attire on Wednesday had quite a variation. Some looked like they were headed to weddings. Others appeared destined for board meetings.

Then there was Matayo Uiagalelei, who picked up this beautiful number at a thrift shop before hopping on the flight to Vegas.

In his own words: “I look like a pirate.”

“I brought every jacket and dress pants that I own,” said the 20-year-old junior. “I didn’t know what to wear. I never really had to wear a suit until I got to college.”

Boettcher had a more uniform look on, with a green tie layered on top of a white suit.

“I had two or three suits from baseball because we had to wear suits when we travelled at the airport,” said Boettcher, who came to Oregon as a 190-pound baseball player and now sits as a 230-pound football player. “But I’m a little bigger now, so it’s constantly changing.”

Boettcher said they got a stipend and were told to go to town at Men’s Warehouse.

Said Sadiq, who wore an all-black ensemble with Meta Ray Ban glasses: “I’m new to the suit game, so this is my first one. It was a good experience. I wasn’t too picky.”

3. Where’s the juice?

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LAS VEGAS — I didn’t need Matayo Uiagalelei to warn me, but it did help to know I wasn’t alone.

I had just finished up with Oregon’s junior in Mandalay Bay’s South Convention Center when I asked the edge-rusher for a little advice.

Hey, I got Coach after this for 15 minutes. He’s already done three interviews today. What can I ask him that’ll actually get him talking?

Uiagalelei laughed. Then, for the first time in my sports writing career, I sensed a semblance of empathy coming from the athlete across the table.

“We had to fill out some form before we got here and it asked us what our fears are,” Uiagalelei said. “I put tarantulas down. I also put Dan Lanning.”

My eyes widened.

I knew why Lanning gave me the nerves. But this was the first time I’ve heard the same from a 6-foot-5, 270-pound one-man wrecking crew who returns in 2025 as the Big Ten’s top-returning sack artist.

Why?

“OK, I wouldn’t say I’m scared of him,” Uiagalelei backtracked. “It’s just, like, a respect. A fear.”

Say less, Matayo. I follow.

This is my fourth year covering Oregon’s head coach. In those prior three years, I’ve found Lanning to be plenty of the things the public sees. Lanning is cerebral. He plans ahead, thinks a lot about messaging, knows how the internet works and is by and large a players’ coach. Yes, he’ll jump in a pool for a kid’s commitment video — but he’s also a guy, Uiagalelei said, that doesn’t differentiate just for the content.

“He’s never too good for you, or too high,” Uiagalelei said. “You can say ‘Hi.’ You can ask him questions and he’ll give you his attention.”

This was a little of the reassurance I needed.

To be clear: I rarely get nervous for interviews these days. I’m in Year 14 of my career and, not to brag — but definitely to brag — I’ve caught a few bigger fish. I’ve interviewed Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. I’ve interviewed Marcus Mariota and Justin Herbert. Heck, I got through a 20-minute call with the rapper Big Boi back in 2020 not only without embarrassing myself, but I managed to essentially get a “hell yeah, brother,” when I brought up the fact that he once ran routes in a 2005 music video for the song Kryptonite.

But Lanning is a tough cookie to crack. With the current state of Oregon’s football operation, the 39-year-old doesn’t need the media to get his message out there. His own cameras can catch the pre-game speeches and the smashing of helmets at halftime, then combine them into post-game recap videos that have literally won an Emmy.

Lanning doesn’t make headlines when he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t offer up things by accident and there’s little chance that he woke up on Wednesday morning in Las Vegas without knowing:

1. What most people were going to ask him.

2. How he would respond.

Lanning would definitely be asked about the Rose Bowl. He’d be asked about being a leader in the transfer portal, the changing NIL landscape, replacing one of the most experienced players in the sport at quarterback and how he plans on climbing back up the mountain after finishing last season just short of the summit.

I was wondering how I could come at this differently when I arrived for media day on Wednesday, then I saw Lanning at 8:45 a.m., already in his first 1-on-1 of the day and realized I had little chance to be different.

Well, I figured, let’s begin off the field.

How’s the golf game?

“Hasn’t improved.”

Any thoughts on Ozzy?

“Not really.”

What are you reading?

“I’m not on a book. I’ve been asked that three times already.”

It was 9:45 a.m.

At that point, I figured I might as well be honest.

Well, you’re a tough interview, Dan…

A smile grew on his face.

If I ask you direct football questions, you’re not going to answer them…

“Right.”

If I ask you all goofy off-the-field things, you’re going to think I didn’t come prepared…

“Yeah.”

There’s a fine line in interviewing you where you have to thread the needle between the two.

“Well, how about this,” he said. “I saw the F1 movie.”

An olive branch! Common ground!

I saw that. What did you think?

“Brad Pitt is Brad Pitt,” Lanning said.

He really is.

And, Lanning is Lanning.

And, well, I’m Alger, and Alger finally realized that he had 15 minutes in this interview, could ask Lanning whatever he wanted — whether he opened up or not — and it best be taken advantage of.

I asked Lanning what’s the proudest thing he’s been able to share with his parents since taking the Oregon job and he told me about how much he values getting to show them new things and places now that they’re retired.

I asked him if he ever has to think about Bryce Boettcher’s baseball career when the senior linebacker is out there throwing his pads around and Lanning told me “Bryce is well aware of the risks involved" and that “there are some great opportunities for him in football, too.”

I asked him what’s the best play he’s ever called, and he tells me about a game against Tennessee when he was the defensive coordinator at Georgia.

“Called Siamese — it’s like a double-cat pressure — and Eric Stokes sacks the quarterback and it turns into a fumble, and Tae Crowder picks it up and runs it back for a touchdown.”

It was minute No. 9 of the interview, and then Lanning offered something up.

“I was actually having this discussion with a good friend this summer,” Lanning said. “But it was the opposite. ‘Let’s talk about the worst calls.’”

My eyes widened again. His smile returned.

“I won’t hop too much into that.”

Didn’t think he would.

Our interview ended at 9:58 a.m., we shook hands and I don’t think I heard a sound from Lanning when I joked, “Got you out of here two minutes early.” His mind was already onto the next thing, which included a 15-minute speech/QA to the national media in the room as I popped my earphones in and out while transcribing our conversation.

A Lanning transcription can be humbling for one’s ego, but so can a press conference — as I was combing through good, useable stuff that Lanning gave me for stories on Boettcher, Kenyon Sadiq and Uiagalelei, the coach fielded his first question from the presser.

There's a school in this conference that's suing over player tampering. Do you think that's something that needs to be cracked down even more on in college football?

“Yes.”

Anything else?

“No…”

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor

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EUGENE — The rock is so close to everything, just a couple of minutes from campus, up in the twisting residential streets carved through the hilled woods that make up Skyline Boulevard.

Fresh off a win at Hayward Field, Steve Prefontaine was driving home from a party when his gold 1973 MGB convertible crossed the center lane, hopped a curb, ran into the rock and flipped, fatally trapping the Coos Bay native beneath.

He was dead at 24, about a four-minute run away from where he became a legend.

Six days later, the “Bowerman Classic” began with a new name.

“Our Oregon Track Club Board concurs that in living memorial to Pre — his inspiration, his ambition — the meet he did so much to make successful should bear his name,” retired Oregon track coach Bill Bowerman said in 1975. “Next Saturday evening you may attend the Steve Prefontaine Classic, a first step in a parade of opportunities to share directly in the dreams of Steve Prefontaine.”

Jamaica’s Don Quarrie ran the 220-yard dash in 19.9 seconds on that June Saturday to break the world record. Six more have fallen since and Eugene buzzed Saturday in anticipation of a 50th Pre Classic that included 17 Gold medalists and full podium rematches from Paris in five disciplines.

But 30 minutes before the competition on Saturday, it’s quiet at Pre’s Rock as sun peeks through the trees and brightens a memorial that’s become a pilgrimage for runners.

Visitors have left Nike, Adidas and Under Armour shoes. There are water bottles, runners’ bibs, photos, flowers, wristbands, a rubber duck and a baton. “PRE 5-30-75” is scratched into the rock and a two-hour parking zone waits around the corner.

The road is empty, and as a breeze picks up the only sound comes from medals hung up along a railing chiming against one another. They’ve come from marathons in Taipei and Austin, from the Portland Turkey Trot, from the high school championship races and others earned with enough something for the owners to think of them as a worthy offering to the runner who captivated the sport.

It’s getting close to 10 a.m., a sellout is expected down the road and the serene silence of this Saturday morning is about to segue into the roar of Hayward Magic.

It’s time to go.

There’s 12,606 spectators here to watch events around the track. Music hums, there’s the occasional burst of applause for the field events and the crowd always charges into gear with runners down the home stretch.

But just before a big race, as anticipation meets the present, a hush falls over Hayward as quiet as the morning at the rock.

The only sound heard as the Women’s 5,000 sets to begin is the whir of the television cameras flying around the stadium on cables as Beatrice Chebet eyes a second Pre moment. A year ago, the 25-year-old Kenyan smashed the 10,000 world record by seven seconds, becoming the first woman to break 29 minutes (28:54.14). Now, after a recent win, she returned to Eugene eyeing the 5K throne.

“After running in Rome, I said I have to prepare for a record, because in Rome I was just running to win a race, but after running 14:03, I said that I'm capable of running a world record,” Chebet says later. “When I was coming here to Eugene, I was coming to prepare to run a world record, and I said I have to try.”

Chebet keeps even with the 14:00.21 world record pace for most of the race and shifts into another gear on the final lap. She kicks as she enters the final straightaway, passing lapped runners as fans rise to their feet and the silence gives way to a roar.

“She’s going to get the world record!” a young girl screams from the row behind me. “She’s going to get the world record!”

Chebet crosses at 13:58.06, finishing with a 61-second final lap to become the first woman to break the 14-minute marker. She raises her arms. She embraces her coach and eventually makes her way around the track in a victory lap, slapping fives and sharing hugs with fans revelling in the moment.

“I just had to believe in myself. The last 400 I had to get the energy,” Chebet says later. “I pushed for myself. I was the one who wanted the world record so I had to push for myself and go for it.”

The run leaves the stadium buzzing, even as the next few events fail to live up to the same type of moment. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden wins the women’s 100m in the 15th-fastest time in world history as Olympic gold medalist Shaccari Richardson finishes last. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins the women’s 400 but admits the race “wasn't my best work.” The Bowerman Mile saw a thrilling photo finish between Niels Laros (3:45.94) and Yared Nuguse (3:45.95), but the race was without world record-holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:43.73 in 2023 at the Pre) and saw Oregon favorite Cole Hocker, the gold-winner in Paris in the 1500, finish a second-and-a-half off in fourth.

“You have to be in world record shape if you want a medal. You have to be flirting with that,” Hocker says later. “I wanted to race better today than I did, but I’m really confident about the next one.”

The crowd tries but can’t quite lift Mondo Duplantis above the bar in his world-record attempt in the pole vault, and the electricity in the stadium begins to grow as the meet’s final event, the women’s 1500, approaches.

The race is highlighted by Faith Kipyegon, who fell six seconds short in her publicized bid to become the first woman to break a 4-minute mile a week earlier. Kipyegon’s attempt was featured as a documentary on Amazon Prime and she came to Eugene fully understanding the responsibility of an athlete chasing a record at the Pre.

“I think it’s an honor,” Kipyegon said before the race. “[Usually] the mile is the last one on the track, and to have the 1500 be the last one, I feel even better. You have many people believing in you, and then your event is moved to being the last one, that is a big honor in a high way.”

Kipyegon is the star of this event and embraces competing not just with her peers, but the memories of a crowd that’s celebrated the likes of Allen Webb’s 3:53.43 mile as a high schooler, Maria Mutola’s 12 wins in the 800m, Ingebrigtsen’s 2023 double and every single time this meet’s namesake emptied his tank.

Prefontaine understood these legend-crafting moments more than most, even back in high school when he ran a 4:06:09 mile to win the Coos County meet and was later found crying.

“They all came to watch me break 4 minutes, and I failed them,” Prefontaine told his friend, Ron Apling.

Kipyegon and former Oregon runner Jessica Hull have both requested the track’s Wave Light pacer system to be set at World Record time. The runners are introduced, they take their marks in the southwest corner of the track and silence falls over Hayward once more.

The starter’s pistol sounds and Kipyegon charges out to the front. Hull and Diribe Welteji keep a step behind for the first three laps as the three maintain a record pace. With 300 meters to go, Kipyegon pushes her lead to 10 meters. She doubles it with 200 left and is accelerating here entering the final stretch.

Hull and Welteji are gone. The crowd is on its feet. And when Kipyegon passes through the finish line to beat her own world record by half a second (3:48.68), Hayward Field unleashes its final offering: a befitting roar that surely echoed a mile east, cutting through the woods and breaking the silence at the rock.

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor

A few minutes into a call with John Tofi it became apparent why the father of Oregon’s new offensive line commit enjoys the idea of his son playing inside of Autzen Stadium for the next few years.

Oddly enough, it began with a question about Europe.

Tofi, 41, is the father of Tommy Tofi, the 6-foot-6, 330-pound tackle from Archbishop Riordan (San Francisco) who flipped to Oregon earlier in the week after an initial commitment to Cal. Tommy is the No. 133 player in the 2026 class and part of a position that has become the backbone of Oregon’s No. 10 class following the Thursday addition of 5-star tackle Immanuel Iheanacho.

That’s nearly 13 feet and 675 pounds of linemen the Ducks have added in the last two days, and in Tofi’s case it’s easy to see where the size comes from. John Tofi is 6-foot-9 and a former professional basketball player. After playing center at UTEP, Tofi spent eight seasons playing in the Belgium Pro Basketball League, where he won the 2016 MVP award after leading Okapi Aalstar to the championship round.

And while I did call John to talk about Tommy, I couldn’t help but pick his brain about playing hoops in Europe.

What were those environments like?

“I tell people that if you haven’t experienced going to a professional game in Europe, it’s something that you want to do,” John said. “The closest thing you’ll get to that environment is that Oregon atmosphere, like it was last year against Ohio State. Take that atmosphere and then add people throwing flare guns and waving flags and beating on drums the entire game. That’s exactly what it’s like watching a professional game in Europe.”

Sounds like a good time.

It also sounds like Oregon’s Oct. 12 win over the Buckeyes left enough of an impression for Tommy to make a unique route to Division 1 football just a bit longer.

***

On paper, Tommy Tofi is a textbook recruit. He's got size. He’s got athleticism and the type of drive and discipline that can be passed down from having a professional athlete in the family.

But he’s also still pretty new to this football thing.

Tommy and his older brother John Jr. — a 2025 Cal signee at linebacker — were toddlers when their dad began his pro career in Belgium, where they spent their formative years immersed in European life.

“It was different,” John said. “I’m sure you’re familiar with Polynesian culture. We’re family-oriented and very deeply rooted in our culture. So it was tough initially, but I think it was a blessing for my kids, especially because it was just us. My kids being around their brothers — that’s kind of all they had for a long time. I think that played a big part in our kids growing up, being able to grind, so to speak, together and do everything together and being able to live abroad, visit countries and places that we’d only see on TV, going to school, learning a different culture and growing up in a different lifestyle of living. It helped mold them and shape them to become a little bit more well-rounded young men.”

The kid spoke English, but used Flemish at school. They played basketball, followed European sports and really only knew American football from afar.

It was a good life, one that John said they were tempted to keep living following his retirement in 2018.

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With the days getting shorter, it’s time to kick off our preseason coverage of the Oregon Ducks 2025 college football season. We begin today by looking at the quarterbacks.

Dante Moore was walking into receiver Dakorien Moore’s apartment earlier this spring when the QB Room group chat lit up on his phone.

Redshirt freshman Ryder Hayes had the news: Dillon Gabriel had just been drafted. Oregon’s 2024 quarterback was selected in the third round by the Cleveland Browns after a spectacular collegiate career that saw Gabriel pass for 18,722 yards and 155 touchdowns — the last 3,857 and 30 of those coming in his one season with the Ducks where he finished third in Heisman Trophy voting.

It was a proud moment for Moore, who transferred to Oregon in the same offseason as Gabriel and served as the team’s backup throughout a 13-1 season. A former 5-star who started five games as a true freshman at UCLA in 2023, Moore had places he could have played immediately outside of Westwood, but instead chose to compete with and learn from a player whose talent was validated with his April NFL selection.

“The adversity he's gone through playing for three different schools, people saying his height and that he wasn't a good player, but if you just look at the stats, they talk for themselves,” Moore said. “He's a winner and a great competitor. He pushed me a lot. I pushed him. I was born in East Cleveland and he'll be in Cleveland now. I feel like that's a good spot for him to be at to learn. Overall, he's a baller and he always told us, ‘Ballers ball, so go be a baller.’”

The Ducks have grown accustomed to those at quarterback throughout the Dan Lanning era, which is what makes the state of Oregon’s quarterback room in 2025 so intriguing.

First, the known: The Ducks have been exceptional at the position since 2022. Over the last three seasons, Oregon QBs have averaged 4,000 passing yards, 35 TDs and 6 INTS while finishing first (Bo Nix), first (Nix) and second (Gabriel) nationally in completion percentage. With their calm and veteran play at the position, Nix and Gabriel were the focal points of an Oregon program that went 35-6 in their three years to solidify the Ducks as one of college football’s powerhouses.

Yes, the prolific numbers Nix and Gabriel produced were aided by an offense that thrives on efficiency, with quick passes and screens accounting for a hefty portion of each’s completions. But these are also two quarterbacks who went to New York for the Heisman ceremony and are now on NFL rosters, with Nix being a finalist for the 2024 NFL Rookie of the Year award with the Denver Broncos.

Ballers, indeed. And a tough act to follow.

Here’s where the Ducks stand.

Moore is the heir apparent. The redshirt sophomore from Detroit totaled 9,880 yards and 135 passing touchdowns while leading Martin Luther King to consecutive Michigan state titles in high school. He earned 5-star status, was named the No. 1 player in the 2023 class by Sports Illustrated, committed to Oregon, flipped to UCLA and found himself in his first spring camp with the Bruins as a 17-year-old fighting for a starting job.

He lost the race to Ethan Garbers to start the opener, but Moore ultimately started five games for the Bruins in 2023, passing for 1,510 yards (53.5%) with 11 touchdowns and 9 interceptions — including three straight games where an interception was returned for a touchdown, which ultimately led to Garbers reclaiming the job.

“I think he’s a very resilient young man. He’s mature beyond most kids of that age. He’s still an 18-year-old kid, 18-year-old young man,” Moore’s former coach Chip Kelly said amidst his turnover struggles. “But I think that’s one of the things. He’s got a great set of intangibles. He’s a really, really resilient person. I think he has the ability to live in the present. He doesn’t live in the past. He doesn’t live in the future. He lives in the present and that’s a really special quality for people to have. So, I think it’s something in every situation he learns and he’ll grow from it.”

Kelly left UCLA that offseason. So did Moore, who ended up back in Eugene with a pretty good highlight reel and has spent the last year sharpening his command of everything about the position not taken care of by his God-given talent.

“I feel like I’m out there making more fast and decisive decisions. I’ve been protecting the ball really well,” Moore said in April. “Something I’ve been keen on is protecting the ball. I learned a lot my freshman year, but I thought this spring has been a better spring.”

He’s also letting himself make some mistakes, reminiscent of Gabriel’s arrival in 2024.

Despite coming into Oregon a year ago as one of the most accomplished passers in college football history, Gabriel was far from perfect a year ago as he grew accustomed to his third collegiate offense.

Said Gabriel in December: “Coach Lanning and [offensive coordinator Will Stein] know this spring wasn't the prettiest, but they also understand it's a marathon, and that growth happens through failure and learning,” Gabriel said. “How are you ever going to know if you can fit a ball through a tight window or challenge a certain coverage, if you don't do it?”

And said Moore in April: “This is the first phase of the season, spring ball. There's going to be a lot of mistakes, but that's good. If you're perfect, and it's insane how it can be like that, but overall I’m glad to see mistakes because you get to learn from it and build from it — especially with the young guys — it teaches a lot of great things. The chemistry is going to get there for sure.”

Plus, if Moore doesn’t push himself, Austin Novosad and the Ducks backups are nipping at the 5-star’s heels.

Novosad, a former 4-star from Dripping Springs, Texas, has seen limited game action — 13 career attempts — but has showcased a lively arm the last two springs and continued to earn praise from Oregon’s staff for his development.

“I think the guy's just a winner. I mean, he has become really comfortable in our system,” Lanning said. “He understands it, you know? And I think that Coach Stein and the offensive staff do a good job of continuing to push that, but he's just really level-headed."

Novosad isn’t the projected starter heading into the fall, but Oregon’s coaching staff hasn’t ruled him out. And while he could have been one of the dozens of quarterbacks to enter the transfer portal in the offseason and spring window, Novosad has instead kept his focus on climbing the ladder in Eugene.

"I think the biggest thing is just what we have going here, like Coach Stein, Coach Lanning, the whole offense," Novosad said when asked why he’s stuck around. “I think it's a good fit for me, and I just wanted to come out here and get better this spring.

“I think the competition within the room is super healthy. We go out there each day and push one another and help one another to be the best room that we can be. Because, you know, come fall, we're going to need all of us within that room, and I think we got a really talented one. And so it's gonna be a fun year for sure.”

Behind Novosad is where things get interesting. Luke Moga is a second-year freshman who drew eyes every time he touched the ball in the spring game. The former three-star out of Phoenix is 6-foot-2 with track star speed who showed improved touch in passing for 112 yards and a touchdown during the spring game.

With his dual-threat athleticism the position, Moga is reminiscent of Robby Ashford, who began his career with Oregon, was Auburn’s offensive player of the year in 2023 and has since moved on to South Carolina and now Wake Forest.

As more advanced passers, Moore and Novosad fit an Oregon system reliant on a high completion percentage better than Moga. But if he keeps improving, don’t be surprised to see him featured in a package or two this season to showcase his explosiveness.

Moga could also see his stock rise for the 2026 season, when the Ducks could conceivably — though highly unlikely — return an entire QB room that also includes four-star true freshman Akili Smith Jr. and walk-on redshirt sophomore Brock Thomas.

Coming off their Big Ten championship, Oregon’s roster has far more questions heading into the season then it did a year ago. They’ll need receivers to emerge, new faces on the offensive line to gel and a defense to maintain the standard set by a group that held eight opponents below 20 points in 2024.

But this is still Oregon, which means the Ducks’ roster is loaded with game breakers across the roster with a ceiling that will be determined by whether their quarterback can get them the ball at the right time.

Want to become a baller at Oregon? Start by putting the ball in the hands of one.

“Everyone wants these 50-yard bombs every play,” Stein said last fall. “It’s not reality…Everyone wants air yards and all this BS crap. Let’s score touchdowns. How do you score touchdowns? Get it to your playmakers fast.”

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor

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Nate Bittle had a feeling he knew what NBA teams were going to tell him.

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There were two things that helped Oregon’s offense power the Ducks to a 13-1 record in 2024.

The first is talent: six players from Oregon’s offense were selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, including a first-round pick in offensive lineman Josh Conerly Jr. and quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who went in the third round to Cleveland after finishing third in Heisman voting.

The second was availability. The Ducks stayed relatively healthy in 2024, with players like Gabriel, Jordan James, Traeshon Holden, Kenyon Sadiq, Evan Stewart, Tez Johnson and Terrance Ferguson playing in at least 12 games on the year.

With that in mind, it’s understandable why this week’s news about Stewart can feel like a bit of a gut punch for the Ducks two months before camp begins.

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Oregon’s home postseason woes continue to haunt the Ducks.

The Ducks were eliminated from the Eugene Regional on Saturday following their 10-8 loss to Cal Poly at PK Park. The loss came despite the regional No. 1-seed Ducks hitting five home runs and taking an 8-5 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning.

The loss came less than a day after Oregon’s dramatic 6-5 defeat to Utah Valley, a game that saw an Oregon run in the bottom of the eighth inning wiped from the record following a controversial replay review.

The Ducks have now failed to advance out of their last five postseason series at PK Park.1 Oregon finished the year 42-16, won the Big Ten regular season title and set a program record with 115 home runs. But the Ducks’ arms hit a rut at the wrong time, with the Ducks allowing 23 runs in their final three games — including a 7-3 loss to Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament.

“We got beat in three games in a row,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “I don’t think it was a catastrophic collapse or anything like that. We got beat three games in a row after we won a conference championship, earned a one seed and played very well. Had a very good year. We came up short.”

Jeffery Heard had two home runs in the loss, Dominic Hellman homered and drove in three while Ryan Cooney homered, doubled and drove in a pair. Oregon starter Grayson Grinsell allowed six earned runs and struck out a pair in six innings.

Here are photos courtesy of Darby Winter:

— The I-5 Corridor

The call came from Pittsburgh, Mark Wasikowski said.

At least, that’s what the Oregon coach said the umpires told him following last night’s controversial ending to an eighth-inning rally that took a run off the board and a player out of the game in a 6-5 loss to Utah Valley in the first round of the Eugene Regional.

Down three entering the eighth, Oregon cut the lead to two with a Drew Smith solo shot. Anson Aroz followed with a walk, reached third on a Maddox Molony single and then tagged up on a Chase Meggers fly ball to left to set up a play at the plate. With Utah Valley catcher Mason Strong blocking the plate in anticipation of the throw, Aroz crashed through Strong in a slide attempt that was called safe by home plate umpire A.J. Wendel.

The score was 6-5.

Then it wasn’t: Utah Valley challenged the call, and upon a seven-minute review it was ruled that Aroz made malicious contact with Strong. He was called out, the run didn’t count, and Aroz was ejected from the game.

“All they said is it came from Pittsburgh,” Wasikowski said. “I feel bad for the umpires. They said it came from Pittsburgh, and it was out of their hands, and I'm really proud of the way Anson Aroz went into home plate the way he did. I was taught to play hard. I was taught to get after it by my dad and my coaches growing up, and unfortunately, playing hard was not rewarded tonight by whatever rule was supposedly violated by a player that was playing hard.”

While the Ducks would add a run in the bottom of the ninth, the one run taken off the board in the eighth ended up making the difference in a 6-5 loss that sends Oregon into an elimination game with Cal Poly today at 12:06 p.m.

Here’s photos from Friday night’s game from Darby Winter:

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EUGENE — The last time Sabrina Ionescu wore a jersey in this building, time seemed endless.

The Ducks had just defeated Washington 92-56 on senior night, a game that saw Oregon’s star score 13 points with 11 assists, then take the mic during post-game celebrations to not-so-jokingly call Matthew Knight Arena the “House that we built.”

But riding a 16-game winning streak with the Pac-12 Tournament and the NCAA Tournament on the horizon, the end was nowhere in sight for a team that looked destined to compete for another month.

“I think it would be a little tough if I knew this truly was their last game here,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said on March 1, 2020. “But I’m fairly certain we’re guaranteed at least one more here in the next few weeks. This is a group that left quite the legacy. We have some iconic players that we’re losing, and it will be tough to recover at some point. We’re going to miss them so bad. But I think the future is really, really bright.”

Nearly 2,000 days later, Ionescu stood at the center of a new Matthew Knight Arena floor — right in the middle of the O — and took the mic once more. Her jersey was different this time. So was her resume and tax bracket. In the five years since the pandemic took away Ionescu’s chance to pen a final chapter with the Ducks, the now-27-year-old was taken as the WNBA’s No. 1 overall pick, lent her name to one of the best selling shoes in all of basketball, overcame injury, married Marcus Mariota’s college center and, most recently, did the one thing bad luck prevented her from accomplishing back when the jersey she wore was green: she won a championship.

“It’s great to be back home,” said Ionescu moments before the New York Liberty’s preseason tipoff against Japan’s Toyota Antelopes. “And as always, go Ducks.”

So much had changed — but that sound, oh, was that familiar. From the moment Ionescu took the floor in an eventual 84-61 New York victory, a sold-out Monday night crowd cheered her every move.

They erupted during player introductions, exploded after Ionescu hit her first three and lived vicariously through the video board highlights during a timeout showing Ionescu and the Liberty winning the 2024 WNBA title.

Throughout the weekend, it became clear what Eugene meant to Ionescu. It’s why she invited fans out to Rennie’s Landing on Saturday night. It’s why she held a youth clinic on Sunday and participated in so many media sessions it was impossible not to understand that this town, 500 miles north of where she grew up in the Bay Area, has become a special place.

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A tip of the cap to Darby Winter for this one.

Darby’s been taking photos—along with JJ Anderson—for us here at The I-5 Corridor for the past year, and he insisted this week on shooting the Oregon Twilight, UO’s final home regular-season meet of the year at Hayward Field.

With blue skies and that good light forecasted, who was I to say no?

Here’s Darby’s perspective of the Oregon Twilight, where the Ducks men and women combined for 11 wins.

Here are the full results. And here are Darby’s fantastic shots:

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— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor

After the Oregon men’s basketball team’s season came to an end in March with a 87-83 loss to Arizona in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Ducks’ coach Dana Altman came to the podium and tried to explain how the Ducks were going to puzzle this thing back together.

The 2024-25 Oregon Ducks were a success, a team led by a star guard and a star center, who helped UO reach the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year. With both players — Nate Bittle and Jackson Shelstad — harboring remaining eligibility, the Oregon coach could have been elated at the prospect of taking the core of this team into a third season together. Heck, the last time the Ducks did something like that, Jordan Bell, Dillon Brooks and Tyler Dorsey took UO to the Final Four.

But college basketball has changed since that 2017 run. And while the Ducks have used the transfer portal to their advantage, Altman’s lost some good players over the years, too.

And with Bittle’s NBA Draft decision looming on the horizon, Altman sounded like a coach who knew what could be, but was worried about it all coming together.

“I want our guys to be happy. I hope they can be happy at the University of Oregon,” Altman said. “You can’t be your best in any relationship unless you’re happy and you want to be in that relationship. I hope and pray that the guys want to stay, because I want ‘em to stay. Everybody that can come back, I want ‘em to come back. But they got to be wanting. Like I said, every relationship is two-fold. I’ve been married for 41 years, I’m all in, I hope Reva is all in, but that’s any relationship.”

Sticking around

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Officially, the Fighting Ducks defeated the Combat Ducks 24-20, with Dante Moore being intercepted on the game’s final play to secure the win for the FDs.

We’ll go more in-depth with what we learned about this Oregon team over its 15 spring practices early next week. Until then, our JJ Anderson was on the sideline to provide you his perspective of Saturday’s action.

— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor

EUGENE — Tony Tuioti usually has his coaching cap on. This spring, Oregon’s defensive line coach has been busy breaking in a new-look front after the departures of Jordan Burch and Derrick Harmon — both likely to hear their names called in this week’s NFL Draft.

The Ducks have guys to replace them — they’re especially fond of Bear Alexander, the 6-foot-3, 315-pound tackle the Ducks took in from USC who Tuioti describes as “twitchy, powerful and strong.”

“We got talent,” Tuioti said. “But just experience is what we need.”

It helps having Matayo Uiagalelei and his 10.5 sacks in 2024 returning to anchor the defensive line. And it certainly doesn’t hurt having Tuioti’s son, Teitum, in the front seven.

Teitum, an outside linebacker, tallied 5.5 sacks, 8 tackles for a loss and forced a fumble during his sophomore season with the Ducks, and it’s here, in Teitum’s first spring as an upperclassman, that Coach Tuioti has to take a moment to enjoy these days from a different perspective.

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EUGENE — For all the talk and expectations, it’s important to know that the player at the heart of the 2025 Oregon Ducks hype train is just 19 years old.

Granted, Dante Moore is not your typical teenager.

For one, Moore has been at the heart of Oregon discussions for nearly half a decade, ever since the former No. 4 overall recruit initially committed to the Ducks back in 2022 as a five-star out of Detroit.

And he’s lived a few football lives since then. He decommited from Oregon that December, signed with UCLA, started five games for the Bruins as a true freshman, wrote a book, entered the portal, recommitted to Oregon and joined a Ducks’ roster as a bit of a unicorn in the modern college football world: Moore, a blue-chip with dozens of suitors, signed up for a role with no guaranteed playing time.

From the Oregon perspective, it was a heist. In an era where programs struggle to plan for the future, the Ducks brought in Moore and Dillon Gabriel at the same time — one a seasoned vet with one year left of eligibility, and the other as a high-ceiling youngster who could fill two roles: He could be the best backup quarterback the Ducks have ever had, while also pencilling in as Oregon’s starter for 2025 and beyond.

Though when you talk with Moore, that’s not exactly how he saw things when he arrived in Eugene last year.

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EUGENE — Koa Ka’ai thought the Alamo Bowl was the end of it.

You remember the game: Oregon was up 31 points at halftime against TCU before the wheels came off in an epic collapse.

The Ducks lost that Jan. 2, 2016 bowl game 47-41. And in the moments after the game, Ka’ai, a tight end then on Oregon’s roster, figured his football career was done.

“The last time I ever put on shoulder pads and a helmet was that game,” Ka’ai said.

It wasn’t, however, the last time he would take the sideline with the Ducks. See, Ka’ai is now a coach and in his fourth year back at his alma mater. He’s assisted with tight ends, running backs and, this spring, was announced as the team’s assistant quarterbacks coach.

The I-5 Corridor caught up with Ka’ai after Thursday’s spring practice to figure out how Ka’ai went from the Alamo Bowl back to Oregon, what it’s like having Marcus Mariota on speed dial and how he’s penning a new chapter to an ending he didn’t like.

(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length)

I-5: Nothing makes me feel older than interviewing a coach who I used to interview as a player. And I remember back in the day during spring ball, they had you moonlighting with positional changes. What do you remember from that time?

Ka'ai: Man, I think spring was definitely one of the most fun times as a player. You know, in regards to everybody practicing, there's not really any pressure, or there's not the same type of pressure you get in the season where you have to win games. Obviously there's pressure to get better. But spring was definitely a fun time. I didn't really see it as a grind. I mean, some guys will see it as a grind, like, we have no games why are we practicing? I just kind of saw it as an opportunity to get better. And it definitely was. I miss those moments for sure, I can tell you that much.

I-5: You’re entering your fourth season now back with Oregon. What was it like first being back and what’s it like now that this is your fourth year on the job?

Ka'ai: It's been crazy. You know, if you told me when I was 22 years old after that Alamo bowl game we lost to TCU, if you told me, Hey, you’ll be back here in 10 years — or whatever it was when I got back, seven years — coaching, I would have been like, you’re crazy. At the time, I didn't really see a career in coaching. My dad was a high school defensive coordinator for about 35 years, but I never really saw myself stepping into a coaching role. I kind of just fell into it.

It's been pretty cool to be back, I mean, to get to see the guys I played with come back, like Kenjon Barner has been out there most of spring ball. Marcus is in town. It's really cool to reconnect with my teammates that come in and out of town and see guys that I haven't seen in years. It means a little bit more, to me, just because this is home. I’ve lived in Eugene for 10 years now between playing and coaching, so it's become a second home for me.

I-5: I didn’t even think of how your last game was that TCU game. What was it like ending your career like that?

Ka'ai: That was the last game I ever put pads on. The last time I ever put on shoulder pads and a helmet was that game.

You know, my career here as a player didn’t go the way that I would have thought. Coming in as a defensive lineman out of high school, making the transition to tight end, and then playing there for four years — I played a lot early and then they recruited really good players and some injuries piled up for me. I think everyone in that tight end room played in the NFL — Pharaoh Brown, Evan Baylis, Johnny Mundt — so my career didn’t go the way that I thought, and then I got into this coaching deal.

I don’t really have any animosity towards that game, like, Aw shucks, the last time I ever put on my cleats, shoulder pads and helmet was after a game where we were up 31 points at half and lost.

But it’s been cool to come back and try to write another story for myself.

Losing that national championship game in ‘14, we were so close. Playing in all those games, the Rose Bowls and stuff, and coming back here with Coach Lanning and having the successes that we’ve had in the last three years, it’s just been cool to continue to write that chapter.

I-5: I imagine between the position change, injuries and that Alamo Bowl game, you have been through a fair amount of adversity that’ll help you relate to players today?

Ka'ai: For sure, I was blessed growing up to come from a really good family with two parents in a stable household. I never really had struggle or the general vision of what a struggle is growing up. But for me, my adversity came through the game. It was coming here. The position change. I didn’t really do everything right as a player when I was here in regards to — I did well in school and was a good teammate and stuff, but I could have taken better care of my body. I could have probably spent a little more time in the classroom in regards to football. And I’d be lying if I said when I was done playing there wasn’t some animosity toward the game itself. It was like, man, I was decently rated out of high school, I had all these dreams and aspirations and things just didn’t go my way. And I just kind of sat there. Every athlete goes through that when they’re done playing, when there’s no more and you’re just going, Well, what am I going to do? Where am I at?

You just kind of have this lost feeling.

Getting back into coaching, that journey has created some more adversity. Working for Todd Graham in Hawaii — not an easy guy to work for. He’s an old-school grinder and that definitely taught me what this profession can be like. So having been in the same shoes as the guys in the building, having gone through some stuff in football, having gone through the same issues that our guys have outside of ball in their personal lives, academics and stuff like that, and doing it at the same school that I’m able to coach now, yeah, it definitely does make it easier at times to relate to guys.

I-5: You first got into coaching in the Hawaii high school ranks. What was that like?

Ka'ai: I think it was 2017 when I moved back to Hawaii, and at the time my parents were like, “Hey, dude, you got two options: You go back to school again or you get a job.” And I’m like 22, and there were some things that I wanted to do school-wise, so I went and got an MBA at Chaminade. And while I was doing this, I was working out at Kamehameha, whose head coach at the time was Abu Ma’afala, who actually worked with Will Stein while Will was at Louisville back in the day.

It’s crazy how that kind of ties back here.

But Abu kept bugging me like, “Hey dude, you want to coach? You want to coach? You want to coach?” And I eventually broke and said, Fine, I’ll do this for a spring. And then once spring was done, I was like, Oh, this isn’t so bad. So that rolled into the summer, which rolled into the next season — my first season as a coach — and I thought it was pretty fun and challenging. It’s a different perspective on the game.

And from there, I went to Farrington for two years, which was crazy. Farrington is inner city and it’s a tough neighborhood. It’s kind of near where I grew up in Kalihi, and my dad was DC there for 35 years. I kind of grew up as a ball boy there.

I taught classes. I taught entry-level math one year and then I taught 10th-grade World History another year. I was head track coach, too. So I’m spending all day at school with these kids. I’m getting to work early and getting my lesson plans ready. On my break period, I’m practice planning and planning my track workouts. It really makes you appreciate what you have when you’re able to be in a place like this at Oregon.

I remember my dad telling me when I first got into coaching that nobody cares what you know if the kids don’t trust you. You need to gain their trust. You need to gain their respect. And the only way to do that is getting to know them. He told me you need to spend time with these kids and really take an interest in their lives and where they come from and what they’re going through.

And when you get them to respect you, then you can get them to trust you. And then, you can coach them more.

So I think getting my toes wet at the high school level was a great opportunity and I wouldn’t have traded it for the world.

I-5: How does a defensive lineman who turned into a tight end in college end up being an assistant quarterbacks coach at Oregon?

Ka'ai: I was recruited as a defensive lineman. Then, I ended up playing tight end for four years.

When I got into coaching, my first year at Kamehameha was in 2017. I coached tight ends. I had just finished playing, so that felt pretty comfortable. Then the next year, Farrington was like, “Hey, will you be the junior varsity head coach?”

And I’m like, Oh, damn. I gotta learn all this stuff, right?

So now I’m calling plays there as a 23-year-old OC, thinking I know everything—just finished playing for Chip Kelly and Mark Helfrich when we had one of the most explosive offenses in college football at the time. I thought I knew everything, and found that I did not know close to as much as I thought I knew. Then in 2019, I’m working with the varsity team as the offensive coordinator. Still kind of dealing with the same thing—thinking I know everything but realizing I’ve got a lot to learn.

Then I get a call from Hawaii and Todd Graham had just gotten hired, and he’s like, “Hey, want to interview for a GA spot? Someone gave me your name.”

I’m like, Yeah, sure. I’ll do it.

So I interview, and he says, “Well, I’ve got a GA spot on defense. Do you want it?”

And I’m like, Well, damn. No, not really. But I said, Yep, I’ll take it.

And so I go there in 2020 as a defensive line GA. And the thing with Hawaii is they didn’t have as big of a staff as we do here, so within four months, I’m pretty much Todd’s personal GA—working with the entire defense. I remember very distinctly my first night as a GA, he’s like, “Hey, I need five slides on cover three.”

And I’m sitting there like, Bro, I can’t do this. It took me literally three or four hours. I remember thinking, I can never progress in this profession. There’s no way I can do this stuff.

I did that for a year. Then in 2021, Todd says, “Hey, I’m going to move you to be the O-line GA.”

So now I’m A’Lique Terry’s O-line GA at Hawaii in ‘21.

Then A’Lique comes to Oregon, and Trent Figg—who was on staff here in 2022 and went to college with Coach Lanning—he also comes to Oregon. We were all together at Hawaii, and I get the opportunity to come out here and interview and Dan’s like, “Hey, I don’t know what the position’s going to be—probably running backs, as an analyst. You want it?”

I’m like, Sure, I’ll take it.

So I come out here. I’d never worked with running backs before, but I coached them for a year.

Then after the 2022 season, Dan says, “Hey, we’re moving you to receivers.”

I said, Sure, I’ll do it.

So I moved to receivers in ‘23 and worked with Junior Adams for a year.

Then ‘24 rolls around, Will’s like, “Hey, I’m going to move you to the quarterback room.”

I said, Sure, I’ll do it.

So in 2024, I spent the whole season with the quarterbacks.

And now we are here in ‘25.

I-5: Is that shifting around unique? Or does that just happen in the GA world?

Ka'ai: I wouldn’t say it’s normal. Most guys get on a track with one position and kind of stay there. They might hop from receivers to tight ends, or O-line to tight ends—something like that. But most coaches don’t really bounce around between a bunch of different positions.

For me, though—and this is kind of a funny story—I remember being this 22 or 23-year-old high school coach and I would look up these big-name guys in college. I’d be on their Wikipedia pages, and I’d see stuff and be like, Damn, this guy coached tight ends, O-line, receivers and even spent a year on defense?

And I remember thinking, Man, how do I get to that point?

Because I always thought there was real power in knowledge. If you work with all these different positions, you start to learn how everything fits together. You’re picking up different techniques, different fundamentals. It helps the whole scheme make more sense.

So I’d be sitting there like, How the hell do I become one of those guys?

And honestly, it’s just been by the luck of God and being open to opportunity. I never said no to an opportunity. I didn’t want to be a defensive GA at Hawaii—but that ended up being one of the best things for me. Getting to work on that side of the ball and seeing how they do things — I just never said no to an opportunity because I always had it in the back of my mind that the more position groups I can work with, the better my knowledge is going to be and the better my understanding of the game is going to be.

I-5: Were making these steps intimidating for you?

Ka'ai: Yes, most definitely. And not to generalize, but people from Hawaii—we’re pretty quiet and reserved people for the most part. We respect authority, we don’t speak unless we’re told to, that kind of thing.

So, when I first started coaching in high school, it wasn’t too bad. I was comfortable. I was back home in Hawaii, coaching high school ball. Everyone knew me—I had just finished playing.

So that wasn’t a bad transition there.

But when I went to Hawaii, that was a different story. I mean, if you look up Todd Graham, the guy’s got over 100 career wins and a couple of conference championships. This guy had won a bunch of games. And I had never coached in college before. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know anybody on staff at the moment. I just kind of walked into it. And I remember thinking, Am I supposed to be here? Am I good enough to be here?

But over time, you realize—football is football. It doesn’t matter if you’re coaching Pop Warner, youth football, high school, college, or the NFL. Football is football. And I’ve met great coaches at every one of those levels.

Still, yeah, I was definitely intimidated when I first popped in at Hawaii.

Coming back here, being able to come back to Oregon, that was a familiarity thing. Eased that transition a bit. But now I’m in year nine or ten of coaching, and the more experience I’ve gotten, the more comfortable I’ve become. Working with all those different positions has helped me be comfortable doing things I’m uncomfortable doing. Every year for a bit was just relearning.

When I was the O-line GA, I knew none of that stuff at first. But I worked my butt off to learn the O-line technique and fundamentals. Same thing with running backs—I didn’t know anything when I started, but by the end of the year, I was comfortable. Same with receivers. Same with my first year working with quarterbacks.

I think just taking those opportunities and having the mindset of, I’m going to work as hard as I can to be the best coach I can be—that’s what helped me.

Now, sure, you still get butterflies at times. But that intimidation? It’s mostly gone.

I-5: What’s your favorite thing about working with quarterbacks?

Ka'ai: Oh man, I think it’s the cognitive aspect.

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Dillon Thieneman was more than happy to walk in the shoes of his older brothers.

Granted, “walk” isn’t really the correct word to use about a football player who hit the ground running.

The youngest of three siblings, Oregon’s newest safety was once a Purdue legacy. Both of his older brothers, Jake and Brennan, were safeties for the Boilermakers last decade. They were raised in Indiana, walked on at Purdue and were proud to see their younger brother — the most talented of the bunch — continue the tradition when he signed with the Boilermakers as a three-star talent out of Westfield High School in 2023.

“I knew he was going to come in and ball out,” Brennan Thieneman told PurdueSports.com. “I had no doubt about that. But at an All-American level? I don’t know if I had expectations there. I’d say that that did exceed my already high expectations.”

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Maddox Molony lives and breathes baseball in the Willamette Valley.

He’s a top player on the country’s No. 10 team. He plays for the same program his grandfather once did — and in the same city where his dad played college ball.

Molony's mom was a standout softball player at South Medford. His younger brother, Connor, will join the Oregon baseball program this fall. Molony has vivid memories of a childhood spent at Civic Stadium watching the Ems—and then later falling for the Ducks after the program was resurrected in 2009.

“J.J. Altobelli, Ryon Healy, Scott Heineman — I remember all of those names,” Molony said, recounting his knack for reciting the starting lineups like a PA announcer.

Few appreciate what baseball means to the area more than the Molonys. And while Maddox is the star of one of the best tickets in town — the 19-5 Ducks are outscoring their opponents 214-96 heading into this weekend’s series against Ohio State — the family admits they feel a sense of melancholy as one constant of their baseball existence is coming to a close.

See, Maddox is a legitimate pro prospect now. According to Baseball America, the power-hitting shortstop, whose 10 home runs in 2024 set a program record for freshmen, is the No. 13 prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft. Now hitting .356 with 6 homers and a 1.084 OPS as a sophomore, Molony looks like a likely first-rounder next year.

And no, that’s not the problem at all for the Molonys.

They’ve always been a baseball-first family. Grandpa Ronald played catcher for the Ducks in the 60s. Maddox’s parents Ryan and Michelle fell in love at the ballpark when Ryan played for Lane Community College. And Maddox has always been ahead of the curve on the field, bypassing tee ball and succeeding at older youth levels.

He won a state championship in 2023 at Thurston. He wants to win a College World Series with Oregon.

The pros would be the next step.

But there’s the Ems thing.

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