Less than a week of fall camp remains for the Oregon Ducks. In a couple days, Oregon will hold its final scrimmage before the season begins, which will allow the Ducks one more opportunity to evaluate both sides of the ball. Defensive coordinator Don Pellum spoke to a group of reporters on Tuesday about what he wants to see from his defense in this last scrimmage and also touched on several position battles that are “really close.”
During this last week of fall camp, what is your game plan to head into the season ready to go?
Right now for us, we need to get through the next day day of final install and clean up, then a scrimmage in a couple days. Then all our sights will be set on Eastern Washington… Get to the scrimmage and see who’s going to shine. There’s a lot guys competing that it’s really close between. We’ll have a chance to make some final evaluations.
What are you hoping to see out of the defense for the last scrimmage of fall camp?
The last scrimmage we’re expecting to see execution. The first scrimmage, we wanted to see who was going to fly around and hit people. Now that we’ve had another week or so to fine-tune things, we’re expecting to sharp execution, leverage and tackling. It should be crisp and clean.
There’s a pretty competitive battle going on between Tui Talia, Henry (Mondeaux) and all the others for that (d-line) spot. How’s that competition going?
The defensive line competition has been tremendous. Still have a couple more days to go, we have a scrimmage in the next couple days. But it’s good, it’s a different team.
You’ve said before that this defense may be ahead of where last year’s defense was at this point in fall camp. How do you think that will translate when the season starts?
It’s tough to say. Our hope and vision is that we continue this pace so that in the first game, some of the things maybe we weren’t prepared for a year ago, we can make quick adjustments.
You’ve also said that you value a defense by how it disrupts other teams. (Erick) Dargan and Ifo (Ekpre-Olumu) are gone. Who are the guys this year that will be disruptors?
We keep tabs on guys that are disruptors. (Disrupting) for us is tackles for loss, batted balls, sacks, interceptions. It’s all those things that can get the offense out of rhythm. Today’s offenses, they run every play and they have every formation, so you have to bag them up or take the ball away.
Our defensive line has been really impressive, the secondary has been really impressive. We’ve gotten pretty good production overall from the defense.
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