Sometimes you can believe what you see and hear at Oregon spring practice

There's a lot of smoke and mirrors in the spring. But there are times when a standout performance actually means something.

You can’t always trust your senses in an Oregon spring.

Oh, you thought it was nice out? How about a little bit of snow/rain/hail/cyclone over the ensuing hours to make you regret throwing on your first pair of shorts of the season.

Often, the same can be said for spring practice. In nine (gulp) years around this program, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard Player X looks great, Player Y is thriving at their new position and can you believe the weight Player Z put on?

Gosh, he’s in the best shape of his life.

Then fall comes and the players at the end of the alphabet still find themselves at the bottom of the depth chart. And it’s not that I think coaches or players or us media fabricate stories of spring exploits, I just think the spring is generally a pretty optimistic time in the football calendar — trust me, if things go wrong, we all have plenty of time to dredge through the wreckage.

But every now and then you hear a coach say something, or see a moment in a scrimmage or in the spring game, and it sticks. The sun comes out and it just stays.

So while it would be plenty easy to write a piece about the times Player X didn’t become somebody, there’s no clouds out right now, I think it might stay that way the rest of the day and I’m writing about the players that did the same.

Bobby Moore and the spring of ‘71