Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota was named the year’s first Davey O’Brien Quarterback of the Week on Tuesday.

Mariota, who finished as a semi-finalist for the Davey O’Brien award in 2012 and 2013, completed 17-of-28 passes for 318 yards and three touchdowns in Oregon’s 46-27 victory over No. 7 Michigan State.

Mariota previously won the weekly award, which is given to the quarterback with the best performance in the country, after leading the Ducks to a 45-24 road victory over the Washington Huskies last season.

Mariota beat out Michael Brewer (Virginia Tech), Everett Golson (Notre Dame), Taysom Hill (BYU), Maty Mauk (Missouri), Seth Russell (Baylor), Bo Wallace (Ole Miss) and Jake Waters (Kansas State) for this week’s honor.

Mariota and No. 2 Oregon will hit the field again next Saturday when the Ducks faceoff against Wyoming at 11 a.m. at Autzen Stadium.

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The University of Oregon men’s basketball team announced the hiring of three assistants to its staff on Monday night. Mike Mennenga, Robert McCullum and Allen Morill will add a vast amount of experience to Dana Altman’s bench.

“We feel really good about these individuals,” Altman told GoDucks.com. “The experience and basketball knowledge that they will add to our staff is outstanding, but also I think they will relate really well with the players and help us build our program.”

Altman lost his longtime assistant coach Brian Fish this offseason. Fish accepted the vacant head coaching position at Montana State.

Mennaga, who’ll replace Fish, comes to Oregon after serving as an assistant coach at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York. Mennega has almost 20 years of experience coaching basketball.

McCullum, a former head coach at Western Michigan and South Florida, will be the assistant director of operations for the Ducks. He’s also been an assistant at a variety of other schools.

A former Pac-12 player at Arizona State from 2003-2006, Morill will become an assistant conditioning coach for Oregon. After playing for the Sun Devils, Morill worked as the director of player development at North Texas before joining the Ducks’ staff.

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The storm was eminent. Oregon freshman running back Royce Freeman spent the duration of his Saturday waiting. Just waiting for dusk to fall so he could play in his first collegiate football game.

The calm before the highly anticipated opener against South Dakota was anything but. Instead, it was riddled with a battle against the spine-tingling nerves that accompany such a milestone in a young football player’s career. In response, Freeman escaped.

“I say a little prayer,” Freeman said after Oregon’s 62-13 season opening victory over South Dakota.

Through prayer, Freeman isolated his focus on the one thing he could control.

“I just try to relax and not try to do too much out of my element,” Freeman said. “I just try to run hard and run the way I know how to run the football.”

Against South Dakota, Freeman did just that. He finished with 10 carries for 75 yards and two touchdowns, validating the hype that had built around him throughout the offseason.

Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota noticed immediately that Freeman was a special prospect.

“He stepped onto campus with a confidence that you could tell right away that he believed in himself and that he could do whatever he needed to do,” Mariota said.

Early on in the offseason, in a 7-on-7 drill, Mariota threw an out route to Freeman who eluded a couple defenders on his way to the end zone. The small sample size triggered quite the impression in the Oregon quarterback.

“I was like wow,” Mariota said, “that was pretty special.”

The Oregon football team keeps its practices closed. Meaning, that what goes on behind closed doors, can’t be seen, but only talked about. For weeks, the idea that Freeman was destined to be the next great Oregon back, sooner than later, was instilled by those who could see behind the closed doors of the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex.

In a way, the storm that Freeman approached in his first college football game, was a test. Freeman passed it with flying colors by simplifying the complexity of the situation into something he could handle. Only a freshman, Freeman gave a glimpse of the impact that can and will be expected of him as the season goes forth.

“For a guy his size to be that elusive and to have the abilities that he has, it’s special for us and we’re very thankful for him,” Mariota said.

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Byron Marshall made the worst mental mistake of his football career on his first carry of the 2014 season.

With one receiving touchdown to his name, Marshall took the ball from his own 46-yard and outraced the entire South Dakota defense down the right sideline and seemingly entered the end zone for a touchdown. However, before he crossed the goal line, Marshall dropped the ball. It wasn’t a touchdown. Instead, it was a touchback and a turnover for the Oregon offense.

The turnover, against South Dakota, was anything but costly for the Ducks. Oregon ran over the visiting Coyotes 62-13 at Autzen Stadium. Marshall totaled 228 yards and two touchdowns in an impressive season debut. Despite the success he had throughout the game, his touchback blunder will be the play that he remembers the most.

“Out of all the good that happened tonight that’s really the only thing replaying through my mind,” Marshall said. “Stuff like that shouldn’t happen.”

Contrary to his normal tailback position last season, Marshall experienced a lot of success in the slot, or when he motioned out of the backfield. Marshall’s ability to pickup and excel in the receiving game is a testament to his versatility. Something his quarterback loves about him.

“He’s very versatile,” Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota said after the game. “He’s done a great job of being able to make the most of his opportunity where he had that.”

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Prior to the kickoff between Oregon and South Dakota, the Ducks received a verbal commitment from four-star athlete Malik Lovette. Lovette’s high school coach, Kurt Bruich, announced via his personal twitter account that his star player had committed to Oregon.

Congrats to @MalikLovette for verbally committing to the University of Oregon! He's going to be a great Duck! The kid can fly!

— Kurt Bruich (@CoachBruich) August 31, 2014

According to 247sports, Lovette is currently on an official visit at Oregon. He chose to commit to Oregon over Arizona State, Notre Dame and a plethora of other schools.

Lovette (5-foot-11, 180-pounds) is entering his senior season at Redlands East Valley High School. As a junior last season, Lovette totaled 445 rushing yards, 77o receiving yards and 15 touchdowns.

Lovette is ranked as the 134th best recruit in the class of 2015, according to 247sports.

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C.J. Snusz was frustrated with football. C.J., an eight-year-old Florida Gators fan from Buffalo, New York, had just watched Miami upset the Gators 21-16 and decided he was finished with the sport.

“He told me he hated football,” Chris Snusz, his father, recalled.

Chris urged his son to give football one more chance. The next scheduled game was Oregon against the Virginia Cavaliers and Chris promised his son an explosive showing from the Ducks. Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota delivered on the fifth play from scrimmage. Mariota took a quarterback draw up the middle 71-yards for a touchdown. Oregon went on to blow out the Cavaliers 59-10.

After the game, C.J. asked his dad, a part-time artist, to draw a picture of his new favorite player for his room. Once the drawing was finished, Chris decided to put it on Twitter, hoping that Mariota would see it. Oregon linebacker Derrick Malone was first to contact Chris about the drawing, asking if he could get one as well in the process.

“It kind of just snowballed from there,” Chris said.

Since then, Chris has completed drawings for countless Oregon football players.

Chris, a former 11-year minor league baseball player, understands the importance of serendipitous gifts while going through the daily grind of competing in sports.

“The athletes make a ton of money for the schools and these kids have to have something. They give their hearts and everything for the program they are at,” Chris said. “It’s kind of like a surprise factor.”

Oregon running back Byron Marshall received the same surprise factor when he checked his Twitter notifications one day and saw the beginnings of a drawing that Chris had started.

“I was just checking my notifications and it popped up,” Marshall said. “He’s been working on it for a couple weeks. He just kept sending it to me progression by progression. I thought it was really cool because I never asked for it.”

Since the trend of drawing Oregon players started, C.J. has become a certified Ducks fan. He’s the person that decides what players his dad will draw next. The process has become a bonding experience for the father and son. C.J. helps his dad with the drawing and sends a fan letter to every player.

Wide receiver B.J. Kelley received his drawing from Chris along with a lightning yellow No. 8 Oregon jersey. With C.J.’s birthday approaching, Chris thought it would be a great idea to see if the players would sign the jersey. On his birthday, C.J. received a surprise of his own with a jersey signed by numerous Oregon players.

“Seeing the way the players respond is C.J.’s biggest thrill.”

To this day Kelley keeps the drawing in his room. Gazing at the work of art is astonishing for Kelley.

“Man, it’s amazing to look at every day when I see it,” Kelley said. “I can’t believe he drew it.”

“I never expected to get something like that. It was a great gift and it’s nice to see someone who has natural talent display that.”

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As a redshirt last season, Oregon safety Tyree Robinson became accustomed to wearing a different jersey every week. His role: A scout team player used to benefit the starting offense by portraying the defense they would be facing that week.

In other words, Robinson was an afterthought. But he was never far from the mind of defensive backs coach John Neal.

In high school, Robinson was as much of a star on the basketball court as he was on the football field. With two sports on the the agenda, it was difficult for Robinson to focus on football. Now in college, Robinson is able to focus his skills and athleticism on football.

“He’s been a work in progress,” Neal said regarding Robinson.” The great thing about Tyree is he’s ‘A+’ coachable. He listens, he watches me. Whenever I look at him he’s staring right at me. He takes notes, he’s one of those guys.”

Having talent in Division I college football is just a prerequisite. Robinson thinks redshirting last season allowed him to adjust and realize what it takes to be a great college football player.

“You could be five-star and be all this and all that coming into college but if you’re not studying or getting it down, it’s going to be hard for you to make plays,” Robinson said. “I’m glad I redshirted and I know what I’m doing now. I’m just ready. I have my shot and I’m ready to make the best of it.”

Throughout last year, despite being a redshirt player, Robinson showed flashes of the transformation from raw talent to certified football player. Coaches couldn’t wait to see what he would do the following year.

“Next spring’s going to be huge for those two guys,” former defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti told GoDucks.com about Robinson and his twin brother Tyrell last year. “They’re really, really good athletes. I’d like to have about 30 of them.”

When spring came along, Robinson took full advantage of the opportunity.

“Coach Neal always came to the side and told me to ‘keep working you’re going to have your shot,’” Robinson said. “When spring came, I had my shot. I was running with the ones. You just can’t miss this situation. It doesn’t happen to just everybody.”

Growing up, Robinson would attend football games at Helix High School and wait outside the locker room of current NFL players Reggie Bush and Alex Smith. He’s seen what they’ve become and thinks, with the help of Neal, that he can be the next gem to come out of the southern corner of the golden state.

“I came in, I wanted to play receiver but I listened to coach Neal,” Robinson said. “He knows what’s going to be the best for me. He has the proof for it. He’s put a lot of players in the NFL and I just want to be that next great player that comes from coach Neal’s program. I trust him a lot.”

Mutually, Robinson’s coach thinks he has the ability to join the ranks of the elite people to pass under his tutelage on to the NFL.

“Tyree is a really special athlete right now and he’s zeroing in on being a great safety,” Neal said.

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Standing across the street from Georgia State University, Anthony Hickerson was hungry. His poems weren’t selling and he needed an uplifting sign. Then, an elderly woman approached him and the two engaged in conversation. She noticed his poems and referenced a scene from the 1995 film Before Sunrise.

In the scene, a homeless poet tells the two main characters that if they pick any word, he’ll write a poem about it. If they liked it, then they could pay him.

The elderly woman gave Hickerson the same challenge. She eventually paid him over $250 and set the rest of his poetry life in motion.

Today, Hickerson roams the streets of Eugene. He’s most frequently found, once again, outside a university. This time, at the University of Oregon.

The Emerald caught up with Hickerson to talk about his background and the power of poetry.

What’s your poetry background?

I started off writing poetry at 16 in high school. I moved down to Atlanta and started freestyling poetry and it’s just been going on since.

Has poetry always been a thing that you love to do?

Well it was a thing that I loved to do when I was writing and trying to get my feelings out in a way of not really being able to release it to anybody. Instead of holding it in, it was a way for me to say what I wanted to say and not really have to worry about anyone reading it, but in high school I started writing it down so other people could read it.

Would you say the experience with the lady in Atlanta is your motivation to do freestyle poetry?

Yeah. I didn’t really think I could freestyle poetry like that. I thought that I had to write it or read it. I didn’t know that my mind could actually make connections with worlds and come out with a whole form like that.

Is freestyling poetry still difficult for you?

When it first started off it was, because you are worried more about the connection or more about what people are going to think.

You mentioned that poetry is a way for you to alleviate pain in your life. What pain do you have?

Being physically abused and emotionally by my mom. I’ve been going through that for so many years. It builds up on you and eats away at you. It can be really damaging to other people and yourself if you don’t release it.

How do you feel when you freestyle a quality poem?

It feels good to know that, on the street level, people are enjoying it. They give me a couple of bucks to survive. Even if people don’t have money, I’ll do it for free. Especially if they seem to be a little stressed, a little worried and sometimes my poetry can help relieve the stress. You never know what type of stress a person is going through or what they’ll do in the next moment. It might actually help.

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Oregon running back Kenny Bassett has witnessed a phenomenon occur every year with his new freshmen teammates. Fresh out of high school, new players enter the program with confidence and a reluctance to hard work that blinds them from the culture in place.

“When people come in — all the freshmen — they don’t really get it: Practice is hard,” Bassett said. “When they first get here a lot of people don’t want to work. You just got to teach them our culture and then the culture becomes a force of habit.”

Fellow running back Byron Marshall thought he possessed the appropriate work ethic to fully use his capabilities in college football, until assistant coach Tom Osborne questioned the young running back.

“I thought I worked hard until he told me ‘you think you work hard, but you don’t,’” Marshall said. “It kind of made me mad because I thought I did.”

Osborne didn’t specify where, or how Marshall could improve. He told him to just to work harder in every facet of his daily life, whether it was in practice or in the classroom. Heading into his junior year, Marshall understands why his coach questioned his work ethic.

“I finally get it now,” Marshall said. “There is so much more I could’ve done in practice and I get that now. What you put into it is what you’re going to get out.”

Through preparation and a concerted effort on practice, Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich thinks Marshall can take his game to the next level this season.

“Consistency is his next step,” Helfrich said of Marshall, Oregon’s leading rusher (1038 yards, 14 touchdowns) from a year ago. “Part of that with Byron is conditioning, part of that is confidence, part of that is total scope knowledge of the system and just cutting it loose. But that only comes with great preparation. He’s another guy that can practice a little bit better and we’ve had many discussions”

The perfect practice formula is something Marshall has experienced. In order to piece a perfect practice together on a consistent basis, Marshall said he had to reflect and retrace his steps.

“Once you know ‘OK, that’s what I need to do’ you kind of retrace it back,” Marshall said. “That’s what you’re trying to get to every day and every second. Or, you’re stuck in the woods wondering if you are playing hard enough.”

Like Marshall, sophomore running back Thomas Tyner is being looked at as a guy that has the ability to take the next step and become a focal point of the Ducks’ offense. Eliminating hesitation and playing at full speed will be a priority for Tyner, but that’s something that will come with more experience in his second year.

“Thomas is one of those guys who dips his toes in the water and kind of goes ‘oh, OK, now I can cut it loose,’” Helfrich said. “He just needs to have a little bit more confidence in what he’s doing and part of that is experience. He’s a young guy and he just needs to see things a second, third or fourth time.”

When Tyner first arrived on campus last year, he was one of the quietest players on the roster. Learning to talk and learning to communicate is part of the adjustment process from high school to college.

“Everybody is quiet when they first get here because it’s so fast and no one really knows what to expect,” Bassett said. “Thomas is probably the quietest person I know. He’s changed, but when he first got here, he was really quiet.”

With the notoriety and lore of being a five-star recruit, Tyner was thrown into the fold immediately.

“Coming into fall camp they threw me right in there,” Tyner said. “I didn’t know the plays or how to run them.”

As the season progressed, Tyner found his voice. He started making noise with his breakaway speed and a home-run hitter’s mentality as a running back. Against in-state rival Oregon State, Tyner rushed for 140 yards and a touchdown.

Coming into this season, Tyner doesn’t have to speak for himself. He’s become one of the main elements of conversation in Eugene after being named to the Maxwell and the Doak Walker Award watch lists. Along with Tyner, Marshall was also featured on both of those watch lists.

With one football to go around, and a shared competitive nature between both Marshall and Tyner, it’s easy to wonder how the two running backs will co-exist. Instead of friction between the two, Marshall suggests that the competition pushes both of them to get better.

“We just like to feed off of each other’s energy,” Marshall said. “If Thomas goes in there, has a big play, gets tired and I have to go in, I’m excited. He just had a huge run, now, let me go get a huge run. It just bounces back and forth and we just try to feed off each other.”

Over the course of spring practices, Helfrich and running backs coach Gary Campbell searched to find ways to get players on the field as much as possible. Marshall and Tyner worked a lot more out of the backfield and in the slot as receivers.

“Both those guys have great hands. They run great routes,” Campbell said in spring. “They’re not up to par with some of the receivers because they haven’t done a lot of it, but they’re capable. We’ll definitely have those two guys catching the ball.”

The combination, rather than the competition between the two, is a benefit to the entire Oregon offense.

“It’s going to put a lot more pressure on the defense as far as matchups go,” Marshall said. “For us, it’s just going to make us a lot more versatile. We don’t have to come on and off the field and try and get used to the rhythm of the game. We can both be in there at the same time and play well.”

Bassett added: “When you have two guys who can do it all, what more do you need?”

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Oregon center Hroniss Grasu made the decision to return to college for a final year before he received his NFL Draft evaluation.

“Whatever that letter said, I made my decision before and I told myself whatever it said I’m going to go back no matter what,” Grasu said.

That feeling wasn’t universal among draft-eligible underclassmen last season in college football. Last year, a record 107 underclassmen were elected to leave college and make the jump to the NFL Draft. Of those 107 individuals, 45 went undrafted.

In response, the NFL decided to limit the number of underclassmen draft evaluations to five per school. Oregon, along with seven other Division I teams, exceeded the limit last year.

“I’m for anything that gets these guys better information,” Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said. “That whole process — the review process — has gotten better. It’ll never be perfect, but to get better information in their hands or in front of them as a part of that decision making process, is better.”

Limiting the number of draft evaluations available to underclassmen for each team can be a problem for team’s with enough talent and enough curious players, to exceed the five-person limit.

“I’m not sure where it’s supposed to help,” Oregon cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu said. “I feel like everyone should be able to get a draft report. It’s something that will help you realize what kind of decision you want to make.”

“Without getting the draft report, it’s pretty much just blind faith and you’re hoping to perform at the combine and at pro day,” Ekpre-Olomu said.

At the forefront of draft-eligible underclassmen for Oregon last season was quarterback Marcus Mariota. A potential No. 1 overall pick last season, he acknowledged that not getting a draft evaluation might make the decision to enter the draft tougher for players not mentioned in the first round discussion.

“If you’re not really allowed to know where you’re sitting at — especially if there is a guy between a third or a fourth round pick and he’s not too sure where he’s going to be at — it’ll make that decision probably a little tougher,” Mariota said.

Oregon outside linebacker Tony Washington, who received a draft evaluation last season, didn’t look at his grade as a pinpoint accurate depiction of where he would possibly be selected: Something instilled in him at Oregon.

“I know our coaches here do a great job telling us that the draft evaluations won’t lie to you,” Washington said. “If they tell you you’re a first round pick, they’re not saying you won’t get drafted in the second, or third round. They say you have the potential to be picked high, but you may have the potential to be drafted later on. It’s no guarantee.”

Still, even with the changes to the process, Washington doesn’t think it’ll make a major difference on the amount of underclassmen entering the NFL Draft.

“I don’t really think changing the rules on draft evaluations is going to change how many people come out,” Washington said. “If they’re ready to go, they’re going to go.”

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