Head coach Willie Taggart is changing the way the Oregon football program interacts with the media, and reporters seem happy about the changes.

On Wednesday, Taggart opened the Ducks’ first spring practice to the media. It’s a major diversion from policies of previous head coaches Mark Helfrich and Chip Kelly, who closed practices to prevent their plays, schemes and other strategies from being publicized.

Taggart allowed reporters, photographers and videographers to roam the sidelines for the first 30 minutes of Wednesday’s practice and will continue to do so for the rest of spring. Three practices will be completely open to media and the general public, from start to finish.

Taggart told the Emerald he plans to follow a similar regimen in the fall.

“I think it’s good for [reporters] to come over and get to talk about our football team and get the information out to our fanbase,” Taggart said. “[It] helps them do their job a little bit. It’s something I’ve always done at every place I’ve been.”

Reporters say the increased access will enable them to better understand the team as the season progresses, which will ultimately improve their reporting.

“You can kind of see guys along the way, not just the final product in some ways,” said Andrew Greif of The Oregonian. “It always helps to put your own eyes on things.”

Oregon’s practices were completely open for media and public viewing until 1997, when the school began limiting access by closing practices on Wednesdays. Dave Williford, the team’s sports information director for the past 30 years, said two Oregon coaches claimed that, while they were coaching for other schools, they built their scouting reports of the Ducks based on footage of the team that they had seen on TV broadcasts. So then-head coach Mike Bellotti took measures to limit access to practices.

In 2010, then-head coach Chip Kelly barred media from all practices, claiming it inhibited the team’s ability to prepare. Furthermore he required reporters to request interviews with coaches and players at least 24 hours in advance and refused to disclose players’ injuries to media. The restrictions particularly impacted TV and internet reporters, who relied heavily on getting “B-roll” footage at practices.

Taggart said, in his experience, he’s never run into problems with having media at practice. But Mario Cristobal, Oregon’s co-offensive coordinator, said the media’s presence at practice frequently became an issue when he coached at Alabama under Nick Saban, who is infamous for his spats with reporters.

The Register-Guard beat reporter Ryan Thorburn, who started covering Oregon football in 2013, said opening practices is “better than the alternatives.” He said the Denver Broncos, the NFL team on whom he previously reported, allowed reporters into practice but prohibited them from reporting anything they saw. If reporters broke any news from practice, coach Mike Shanahan banned them from attending future practices.

Thorburn said, come fall season, having open practice will allow him to see which players are practicing in particular position groups, which will give him a better sense of the which players are on the first team and second team.

Erik Skopil, a reporter for Duck Territory, said when practices were closed, he tended to see the same stories being reported by different outlets, because reporters could only rely on group interviews post-practice to get their information, instead of first-hand accounts. He said videos from practice will enable him to diversify his coverage and foster interest in the website.

Greif said it is “appropriate” for reporters to write about what happens at practice — fans certainly have an appetite for the information. He said his coverage may shift more toward what happens during practice, as opposed to what is said in interviews before and after — at least at first.

“There’s kind of a mystery about Oregon practices and what exactly they even do there, especially with the new staff — how they’ll run practices,” Greif said. “I think at first it’ll maybe be a little more, for practices reports, ‘Here’s what I saw.’ As we go on I’m not sure the novelty will still continue.”

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Connor Johnson, a former longsnapper on the Oregon football team, said it’s a “bummer” how many athletes have to make decisions they don’t want to make due to conflicts with sports.

Almost all the time, he said — whether it’s being unable to enroll in certain majors or take classes that conflict with their practice schedules — athletes are asked to put sports above their education.

“It would be really nice to have the academic people looking out for the athletes so that they’re actually getting a decent education and what they were promised out of high school,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he would be in favor of some faculty oversight when it comes to how the athletic department spends its $120 million budget. Because all the athletic department’s decisions, he said, boil down to money.

There used to be a Senate committee tasked with overseeing the athletic budget, but it was abolished in November 2016. It was called the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee (IAC), and it became so ineffective that then-UO President Michael Gottfredson stopped requiring athletic department representatives to show up to meetings.

Several former IAC members described the meetings as “contentious” and “antagonistic.” A few particular faculty members, they said, behaved “inappropriately” and “unprofessionally” when athletic department representatives did not provide sufficient answers to their questions. Meetings sometimes escalated to shouting matches, after which people would leave upset, sometimes in tears.

Now, a new committee, the Intercollegiate Athletics Advisory Committee (IAAC), has taken the IAC’s place. It met for the first time on March 1, and University of Oregon President Michael Schill opened the meeting with a firm message to committee members:

Athletic department finances will not be a topic of discussion.

Tough questions and vague answers

The IAAC’s charge — its stated duty — is to advise the president on athletic department policies and practices that affect the academic performance and welfare of student-athletes. It’s a much narrower version of the the IAC’s charge, which included advising the president and athletic director on the athletic department’s budget. The old IAC charge also required the athletic department to consult the IAC before making decisions that could impact the landscape of athletics or the university at-large.

Faculty Athletics Representative Tim Gleason said the IAC’s charge was “drastically wider and broader than is generally the case” in committees at other Pac-12 and NCAA schools.

“It had all kinds of things in it,” Gleason said. “The charge spoke as if the athletic department reported to the IAC, which it didn’t and doesn’t.” The athletic department reports to the president, not the faculty.

Biology professor Nathan Tublitz, who helped write the IAC charge, argues that any decision made at a university, including by the athletic department, impacts academics and thus should require faculty input. But he said the athletic department for years has made decisions that ran contrary to UO’s academic values, such as moving some sporting events from weekends to school days to cash in on television contracts.

Tublitz said the new committee’s charge is watered down such that IAAC members can’t ask questions about a range of important issues, reducing the faculty’s role in shared governance.

“It’s been muzzled and restricted to a very, very limited set of topics,” Tublitz said. “Unless I’m mistaken, this is still an academic institution that has a sports team, not a sports team that happens to have a small academic sidelight.”

Before Tublitz became IAC chair in 2011, Kurt Krueger, a former classified staff IAC member, said IAC meetings often consisted of presentations from the athletic department about the positive things it was doing for student athletes. Krueger recalled hearing about tutoring services at the Jaqua Center, the O Heroes volunteer program, athlete scholarships and graduate rates. He said the committee gained insight but didn’t actually accomplish much.

That all changed when Tublitz became chair. He, economics professor Bill Harbaugh and a couple other faculty members began digging into athletic department finances and policies and asking “tougher and tougher questions.” They inquired about for-credit classes designed for student athletes but taught by athletic department personnel, bonds to pay for the new basketball arena and university subsidized student-athlete support services at the Jaqua Academic Center, including engraved Macbooks for each athlete and individual tutors for each of their classes.

The root of each of their questions, Tublitz said, was the more fundamental question, “Why are you making a decision that is contrary to our values?” Krueger said the athletic department representatives provided “vague, not very solid answers.” Tublitz and Harbaugh said the athletic department provided minimal answers or none at all.

“The athletic department was extremely hard to deal with and extremely reluctant to release information,” Harbaugh said. “The committee had been dominated for years by people who were quite fond of the athletic department, until Nathan Tublitz and I and a few others started asking hard questions.”

“Ninety-five percent of the time the athletic department just listened and said, ‘Thank you very much, goodbye.’ You could just see their eyes glaze over,” Tublitz said. “There’s no even semblance of listening. And that’s what pisses people off.”

UO Athletic Director Rob Mullens said the athletic department members “were certainly trying” to answer their questions.

“We were doing the best that we could, that’s for sure,” Mullens said. “We were providing the information that fit with the charge of the committee.”

Unprofessionalism and inappropriate behavior

Many former IAC members said the way Harbaugh and Tublitz — but particularly Harbaugh — approached those discussions was not conducive to productive conversation. Human physiology professor Andy Karduna recalled shouting matches between certain faculty and athletic department representatives. Business professor Lynn Kahle said people often left meetings very upset and sometimes in tears.

Mullens said he became “concerned” about how his staff was being treated at meetings. Athletic department staffers told him they sometimes felt like they were being “targeted,” a message Mullens relayed to Gottfredson at their regular meetings.

“There probably were some times when it crossed the line to being unprofessional,” Mullens said. “Some of those meetings I was the target, but that comes with the position.”

Math professor Dev Sinha said Harbaugh and Tublitz’ behavior was characterized by “sophomoric rudeness,” “scoffing and guffawing,” and “a very basic lack of human decency.” He said they sometimes brought factually inaccurate information to discussions and used the committee as a vehicle to generate outrage. The unprofessionalism, he said, was “all one-sided.”

“You know when somebody thinks that you’re less than human. That’s sort of the basic dynamic,” Sinha said. “You know when somebody has no professional or even human respect for you, and that’s still the attitude some of these folks have.”

Harbaugh responded to Sinha’s comments saying:

“Duck athletics makes millions for the coaches and athletic department staff, but only if they can keep their unpaid athletes academically eligible. Given how much money and how much of the university’s reputation is at stake, the IAC — and now the IAAC — has to ask uncomfortable questions of the athletic department. So I’m not surprised that they and their boosters reacted with personal attacks on me, Nathan Tublitz, and some of the other faculty on the IAC.”

A parallel committee

The IAC meetings became unproductive to the point that in March 2014, the IAC chair at the time, Rob Illig, wrote in the IAC’s annual report to the Senate president that the committee was “broken.” He recommended withdrawing the administration’s and athletic department’s involvement, and said the main structural problem was that the IAC was trying to accomplish “two competing goals.”

“It is attempting to be a ‘watchdog’ committee, aimed at ensuring that the athletics department acts in the best interest of the UO community and does not become the tail that wags the dog. At the same time, it is attempting to be an advisory committee, seeking to influence the faculty athletics representative and athletic department as they make important and potentially controversial decisions,” Illig wrote.

“Because it is trying to do both, the IAC is accomplishing neither.”

In response to Illig’s report, President Gottfredson told athletic department representatives they no longer had to attend IAC meetings. Gottfredson then decided to establish a new group, the President’s Advisory Group on Intercollegiate Athletics (PAGIA), that would run parallel to the IAC until the IAC could fix its structural problems.

The PAGIA was ineffective for different reasons. Because the president called the meetings, it only convened four or fives times in two and a half years, even though its charge required it to meet twice per academic quarter. Former PAGIA members can’t remember the exact number of meetings, but they agree it wasn’t often. Kahle say they met on an “as-needed basis.”

The PAGIA also excluded the Senate from the decision-making process. The president appointed his own faculty members, its meetings were held in private and its minutes were not made public.

Meanwhile, the IAC continued to meet regularly and athletic department representatives mostly refused to come. Karduna, who chaired the IAC during the 2015-16 school year, spent the whole year working to create a new committee with a revised charge that would serve as a compromise between the IAC and PAGIA.

A fresh start

In November 2016, Karduna brought his proposal for the IAAC to the Senate. The new committee’s charge would only focus on academic performance and welfare issues related to student-athletes, and the senate would get to select half the faculty members. The senate ended up passing it 30-6.

Harbaugh proposed a motion to keep the IAC around in a “watchdog” capacity, but the Senate voted it down narrowly, 20-18, thus ending the long-standing and troubled committee.

Now there is no senate committee providing faculty oversight on athletic department decisions. Harbaugh said it’s “ridiculous” that faculty shouldn’t have a say over the athletic department’s funding when the athletic department spends $120 million a year and the university’s entire education, research and general fund budget is only around $550 million.

“The athletic department wants us to have no influence over any of those decisions, and that’s not good for the university,” Harbaugh said. “It’s good for the people collecting money for the athletic department, but not the for the university as a whole.”

Karduna, who helped write the charge for and now chairs the IAAC, said although not all constituents are happy with the charge, at least it enables the faculty to have productive conversations about issues they can actually impact. He’s not against a faculty committee that examines athletic department finances, but said such a committee should not be under the same umbrella as one that deals with student-athlete academic performance and welfare. Sinha, Kahle and Gleason agreed.

When asked whether he thinks faculty should have a role in athletic department decisions, Rob Mullens did not answer the question.

“That’s not for me to decide,” Mullens said. “My job is to run the athletic department.”

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Oregon’s new football coach is still upset over a Jan. 16 news report about an early season workout that sent three of his players to the hospital. The report resulted in the suspension of strength and conditioning coach Irele Oderinde for one month without pay.

Head coach Willie Taggart, whom Oregon hired to replace Mark Helfrich in December, said he is no longer speaking to The Oregonian reporter who broke the story, claiming that the reporter’s characterization of the workouts as “grueling” and “akin to military basic training” were inaccurate, unfair and directly contradicted what Taggart told the reporter before the story was written.

The Oregonian’s Andrew Greif – Courtesy: OregonLive.com

“When you’re not fair and honest, then to me that’s personal,” Taggart said. “When you do something that’s negative and it’s going to be personal, then I won’t have shit to do with you.”

Andrew Greif, whose story broke the news about the players’ hospitalization, defended the piece, noting that multiple sources characterized the workouts as grueling and militaristic. He said UO spokespeople did not question those characterizations when he asked them to confirm the nature of the workouts.

“Though the description of the workouts is understandably subjective, ultimately what has never been in doubt is that three UO players were hospitalized after the first week of offseason workouts and received treatment for several days,” Greif said in an email to the Emerald.

When asked if he will continue to field questions from Greif, Taggart said, “No.”

Meanwhile, a faculty athletics representative who investigated said the story was fair and that coaches made mistakes in the first workout, but that the characterization of the workouts was misinterpreted by the public.

The Emerald spoke at length with Taggart in an interview Monday; Greif answered on Wednesday questions via email.

He said, he said

Taggart and Greif spoke on the phone about the workout before Greif’s story ran in The Oregonian. Taggart told the Emerald he “felt good” after explaining to Greif what had happened at the workout — the players were allowed to tap out, but some overworked themselves and finished the workout to show they’re not “quitters”  — and was surprised by what he read in the published piece.

“‘You’ve got to be shitting me,’ was kind of my reaction,” Taggart said. “I explained exactly what happened and he didn’t report it.”

Taggart said he told Greif on the phone that the workouts were not “grueling” or “military-style,” words he felt made the program seem “malicious.” But Greif said Taggart did not say that to him on the phone.

“If the coach had said that, I would have reported it,” Greif said.

Greif and Taggart spoke again shortly after the story ran, and Taggart expressed his disapproval of the way the story was written. The next day, Greif discussed the story on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” a television show that examines controversial off-the-field issues in the sports world. Taggart took that as “having some other agenda.”

“The story is out there, and then the next day you go on the ‘Outside the Lines’ and just not only stabbed me but turned the damn knife,” Taggart said. “He wanted his five or 10 minutes of fame and he got it.”

The two have spoken only once since, when Greif asked Taggart a few questions about recruiting in a group interview setting at Oregon’s signing day event in Portland. Taggart said he recently ignored a text from Greif asking to talk things over.

.@CoachTaggart meets with Portland area media to talk #NSD17 pic.twitter.com/TDEXsx3JCA

— Oregon Football (@oregonfootball) February 2, 2017

Taggart said he thinks it would be “fair and honest” for Greif to print an apology or correction, though he said “it’s not going to change anything.” He said the story — which garnered national attention from ESPN, The Washington Post and others — “wouldn’t have been big if [Greif] didn’t write it the way he did.”

Greif, who has broken numerous stories including the alleged rape of a female student by three Oregon basketball players in 2014, said The Oregonian does not plan to run an apology or correction.

“We reported the story fairly and accurately without any agenda of any kind,” he said.

FAR investigation

Oregon’s Faculty Athletics Representative, Tim Gleason (UO School of Journalism and Communication)

Tim Gleason, a journalism professor, conducted an investigation of the workout incident at the request of UO President Michael Schill in his capacity as UO’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR). The NCAA requires its member institutions to appoint a FAR from the faculty or administration to provide “oversight of the academic integrity of the athletics program” and serve “as an advocate for student-athlete well-being.”

Gleason interviewed coaches, trainers, players, athletic director Rob Mullens and Andrew Murray, the director of performance and sports science.

On Feb. 1, Gleason reported his findings to the UO Senate:

“Staff and student-athletes did not find the nature of the structured workouts to be outside the norms of traditional football strength and conditioning workouts, however the intensity was greater than usual,” he said. “Many players took issue with the press reports’ use of terms such as ‘military-style’ to describe the workouts, saying that the reports were overblown and sensational.”

Gleason said several factors contributed to the hospitalization of the three players: The players had gone six weeks without a formal workout after missing out on a bowl game; they were likely dehydrated, as their workout began at 6 a.m; and the hospitalized players were all heavy offensive linemen, so the body-weight exercises — such as push-ups and planks — took more a toll on them than on lighter players.

Gleason added that the workout was a “teambuilding exercise” such that if one player erred during an exercise, the whole group had to repeat it over again. The group with the three later-hospitalized players erred multiple times and had to restart each time. He said the three players were allowed to tap out, but overexerted themselves in order to impress the new coaching staff.

“I don’t think anybody fully calculated that dynamic of first impression,” Gleason said in an interview with the Emerald. “You take 100-and-some highly competitive football players, put them in this setting, and they’re not going to drop out. There should have been more awareness of that.”

Gleason told the Emerald he did not think Greif’s report was unfair. Rather, he felt the “military-style” characterization was “unfortunate” because people latched onto that term and viewed the workout as “some kind of weeding-out, boot-camp-like effort.”

“It’s not an unfair characterization; it’s just that the way it gets interpreted is regrettable,” Gleason said. “In the shorthand of journalism, it resulted in an impression that may not have been completely accurate.”

Gleason made clear that mistakes were made by athletic department personnel. The workout, he said, was not in conformance with NCAA best practices for first practices after a long layoff. But the public’s perception of the story, he said, came off in a way that implied the intent to harm the players, which he said could not have been further from the truth.

“Taggart and his coaching staff very seriously believe that their job is to take care of student-athletes, so when something like this happens, it kind of hits them in their core set of beliefs,” Gleason said. “So when they read a story that reads to them as saying ‘We don’t care,’ that’s a very, very hurtful story because they do care.”

Note: Greif is a former sports editor for the Emerald and Gleason is a former member of the Emerald board of directors. Neither one is affiliated with the Emerald anymore.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Greif asked Taggart “a question” at the signing day event in Portland, but he asked multiple questions. It also stated that Taggart said it would be “fair and honest” for The Oregonian to print an apology or correction, when in fact he only asked Greif to print an apology or correction.

Gus Morris and Jack Butler contributed reporting to this story.

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— Oregon football head coach Willie Taggart filled out his coaching staff with the hiring of former UCLA and 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Johnson as his wide receivers coach, according to Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman. Johnson, father of touted class of 2019 quarterback prospect Michael Johnson Jr., replaces Jimmie Dougherty, who left his position at Oregon to become passing game coordinator at UCLA.

— Sheldon High 6-foot-5 wide receiver Patrick Herbert, brother of Ducks freshman quarterback Justin Herbert, has been offered by the Ducks to play football alongside his brother, he tweeted Monday.

— Oregon men’s basketball’s win over Colorado Friday was especially memorable for the Ducks’ departing seniors. Chris Boucher and Dylan Ennis shined, and fans even chanted Charlie Noebel’s name.

— The Miami Dolphins waived former Oregon cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu on Thursday, but the ex-Duck star’s comeback is already underway. When he comes back from injury, he said, he’ll be even better than his projected first-round status before his ACL year two years ago. Andrew Greif of The Oregonian has the story.

— Don Essig, best known for the line “It never rains in Autzen Stadium,” was called upon 50 years ago to announce basketball games at Oregon and never looked back. The Register-Guard’s Austin Meek has the story on the voice of the Ducks.

— Ducks golfer Kelsey Ulep overcame a nasty groin injury and credited her recent success to her new outlook on life. The Emerald’s Gus Morris has the story.

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Oregon’s new football strength and conditioning coach Irele Oderinde has been suspended following the hospitalization of three players three days into off-season conditioning workouts, the UO Athletic Department announced Tuesday.

Oderinde, whose official hire was announced Jan. 11, is suspended without pay for one month.

Irele Oderinde (from GoUSFBulls.com)

According to the press release, Oderinde will no longer report to Willie Taggart, the new head football coach. Instead he will report to Andrew Murray, the director of performance and sports science. Additionally, workouts moving forward have been modified.

“The university holds the health, safety and well-being of all of our students in high regard,” said UO Athletic Director Rob Mullens. “We are confident that these athletes will soon return to full health, and we will continue to support them and their families in their recoveries.”

On Jan. 14, three days into off-season conditioning workouts, one player “complained of muscle soreness and displayed other symptoms of potential exercise-related injury,” according to the press release. The medical staff examined the player and informed the coaching staff of its diagnosis. Two other players were identified with similar symptoms.

According to the Oregonian, offensive linemen Doug Brenner and Sam Poutasi and tight end Cam McCormick remained at PeaceHelth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend in Springfield and were in fair condition following the grueling workouts.

The Oregonian wrote that some players described the workouts as “akin to military basic training,” including up to an hour of continuous push-ups and up-downs. Poutasi’s mother, Oloka, told The Oregonian that her son had been diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a syndrome in which “leakage into the blood stream of muscle contents” breaks down muscle tissue, according to the NCAA medical handbook. It can lead to kidney damage.

“I have visited with the three young men involved in the incidents in the past few days and I have been in constant contact with their families, offering my sincere apologies,” Taggart said. “As the head football coach, I hold myself responsible for all of our football-related activities and the safety of our students must come first. I have addressed the issue with our strength and conditioning staff, and I fully support the actions taken today by the university. I want to thank our medical staff and doctors for caring for all of our young men, and I want to apologize to the university, our students, alumni and fans.”

Oregon Ducks offensive lineman Doug Brenner (57) high-fives a fan as he walks to the locker room before the game. The No. 7 Oregon Ducks open the season in a face-off with Eastern Washington at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon on September 5, 2015. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)

The football team began its off-season conditioning program Jan. 12 after being away from football-related activities for six weeks. Oderinde led the workouts, which were supervised by the training staff.

Some players expressed on social media that the intensity of the workouts had been exaggerated in media reports. Offensive lineman Shane Lemieux tweeted: “Coach O[derinde] is getting us right. I don’t think anyone INSIDE this program would disagree.”

The athletic department said as part of a statement Monday: “While we cannot comment on the health of our individual students, we have implemented modifications as we transition back into full training to prevent further occurrences.”

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Three Oregon football players who had off-the-field issues are “no longer with the team,” UO athletics spokesman Craig Pintens confirmed Monday afternoon. Redshirt junior defensive lineman Eddie Heard, freshman wide receiver Tristen Wallace and freshman linebacker Darrian Franklin are done playing for the Ducks.

Pintens would not confirm whether new head coach Willie Taggart made the decision to suspend the players, although investigations of the players by UO and local police remain ongoing. All three players were suspended from the team by former head coach Mark Helfrich.

Heard was suspended indefinitely the day after he was arrested by UO Police on Nov. 1, 2016, on charges of harassment and assault in the fourth degree. The arrest came after UOPD received a report from a woman not affiliated with UO who said Heard repeatedly touched and slapped her inside Taylor’s Bar and Grill on Oct. 30, then punched her in the face after she left the bar.

Heard plead not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court for a pre-trial hearing on Jan. 12. He played in eight games for the Ducks in 2016.

Wallace and Franklin were suspended indefinitely from the team in October 2016 and are currently under being investigated by UOPD for a criminal offense and by UO for a student conduct code violation. The Oregonian’s Andrew Greif reported that both players had been barred from campus for allegations of sexual assault, and the Lane County district attorney’s office is also investigating after receiving reports from both UOPD and EPD.

UOPD spokesman Kelly McIver confirmed the criminal investigations of Wallace and Franklin are both ongoing. Neither player played in a game for the Ducks in 2016.

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Defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt will receive $1.15 million per year for four years and wide receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty will receive $275,000 per year for two years as part of their new contracts with the University of Oregon, public records show.

According to salary data from USA TODAY, Leavitt’s new contract will make him the highest-paid assistant coach in the Pac-12 and the ninth-highest-paid assistant coach in the country.

Defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt (GoDucks.com)

As part of their contracts, both coaches will receive six home season football tickets, two tickets to every other home varsity sporting event and access to a courtesy car at the expense of the University. The University will pay for Leavitt’s spouse and a guest of Dougherty to travel to one away regular season game per year and for Leavitt’s and Dougherty’s dependent children to travel to postseason bowl games, should Oregon qualify. Both coaches are eligible to accrue 260 hours of paid vacation per calendar year.

Both Leavitt and Dougherty are eligible to receive up to $125,000 in performance incentives, as follows:

• $10,000 if Oregon wins the Pac-12 North Division
• $15,000 if Oregon wins the Pac-12 Championship Game
• $15,000 if Oregon competes in any bowl game
• $15,000 if Oregon competes in a New Years Six (Orange, Cotton, Peach, Fiesta, Rose, Sugar) bowl game
• $10,000 if Oregon competes in a College Football Playoff semi-final game
• $25,000 if Oregon wins a College Football Playoff semi-final game
• $35,000 if Oregon wins the College Football Playoff National Championship gameBoth coaches will also receive $5,000 per year if Oregon’s Academic Progress rate is 985 or greater.

The University has the right to terminate both coaches’ contracts at any time for any or no reason. Should the University terminate Leavitt’s contract without cause, it will pay him 100 percent of his guaranteed salary at the time of termination, multiplied by the number of years remaining in his agreement. The University will pay Dougherty 50 percent of his guaranteed salary, multiplied by years remaining, should it terminate his contract without cause.

Leavitt’s guaranteed salary is significantly higher than that of former defensive coordinator Brady Hoke, whose guaranteed salary was $400,000 per year. Hoke’s guaranteed salary would have increased to $700,000 in 2017 had he retained his position.

Dougherty will be Oregon’s first official wide receivers coach since the 2015 season, when Matt Lubick held the position. Lubick was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2016 and received a guaranteed salary of $600,000.

Wide receivers coach Jimmie Dougherty (GoDucks.com)

The University awarded new head coach Willie Taggart a 5-year, $16-million contract on Dec. 9.

Leavitt and Dougherty are the only coaches who have been officially named to Taggart’s coaching staff so far. Leavitt was officially named defensive coordinator on Dec. 16, and Dougherty was officially named wide receivers coach on Dec. 23.

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UPDATE: 4:30 p.m. — Athletic department spokesman Craig Pintens confirmed both Tristen Wallace and Darrian Franklin were suspended by former UO coach Mark Helfrich in October and remain suspended.

Oregon wide receiver Tristen Wallace is under criminal investigation by the University of Oregon Police Department and is being investigated by UO for a student conduct code violation, the Emerald has learned.

The Oregonian’s Andrew Greif later reported that Wallace — along with freshman linebacker Darrian Franklin — have been barred from campus in connection with a sexual assault allegation.

Tristen Wallace (Oregon Athletic Department: GoDucks.com)

The Emerald on Wednesday requested through UO to learn the outcome of a disciplinary proceeding regarding a violent crime allegedly committed by Wallace. UO spokeswoman Emily Halnon confirmed that the UO’s student conduct code investigation of Wallace is ongoing and was not at liberty to provide additional information.

Wallace has been under criminal investigation by UOPD since at least Nov. 23, when UOPD spokesman Kelly McIver first confirmed to the Emerald that the case involving Wallace was open and active. McIver confirmed on Dec. 21 that the case remains open and active; he was unable to provide further details because UOPD’s investigation of Wallace is also ongoing.

Wallace, a 6-foot-4, 235-pound freshman from DeSoto, Texas, did not see playing time during the 2016 season despite being one of the highest-ranked recruits of Oregon’s 2016 recruiting class. 247Sports rated Wallace as the No. 4 athlete in the country out of high school, while ESPN rated him as the nation’s No. 7 dual-threat quarterback.

It is unclear whether the UOPD and UO investigations of Wallace played a factor in his sitting out the 2016 season. When asked on Sept. 1 whether Wallace would play during the 2016 season, then-head coach Mark Helfrich said, “probably.” But when asked again on Sept. 18 after Wallace had not yet played, Helfrich said, “We’ll see.”

Wallace was mentioned frequently in GoDucks.com’s daily football practice reports during August and September, but not in any one of the 33 practice reports since Oct. 4, when GoDucks.com’s Rob Moseley reported that the coaching staff “would like to get [Wallace] a redshirt if possible.”

Wallace had committed to play for Ohio State in March 2015, but flipped his commitment to Oregon in December 2015. He also flipped positions from quarterback to wide receiver.

Like Wallace, Franklin did not play during the 2016 season. Franklin graduated from high school early to enroll at Oregon and participate in spring practices.

Darrian Franklin (Oregon Athletic Department: GoDucks.com)

UO Athletic Department spokesmen were not immediately reachable for comment by text message or phone call.

Multiple other Oregon football players were investigated by local police this season. Eugene Police investigated wide receiver Darren Carrington for allegedly pushing a man and breaking his arm. Linebacker Torrodney Prevot is under criminal investigation by UOPD; he was suspended two years from UO after violating the student conduct code pertaining to domestic violence and gender-based harassment.

Austin Maloata was dismissed by the Ducks in November following an arrest for DUII, reckless driving and unlawful possession of methamphetamine. Eddie Heard was suspended indefinitely by Helfrich in early November after he was arrested on misdemeanor charges of harassment and assault.

Ryan Kostecka contributed to this report.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @kennyjacoby

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The University of Oregon issued its latest response to the lawsuits filed by three former Oregon basketball players on Friday, Dec. 2, court documents show.

Plaintiffs Brandon Austin, Dominic Artis and Damyean Dotson had filed lawsuits against UO claiming their due process rights under the 14th Amendment were violated when they were dismissed from the university following accusations of sexual assault against a female student in May 2014.

The UO on Friday motioned to dismiss the plaintiffs’ third amended complaint, arguing that the plaintiffs’ motion “does not set forth sufficient grounds for reconsideration.”

After a judge dismissed the players’ lawsuits in September, their attorneys redrafted the pleadings to argue that a court case filed in 1976 set relevant precedent to establish a property interest in the plaintiffs’ athletic scholarships and undergraduate education. The case, Stretten vs. Wadsworth Veterans Hospital, 537 F2d 361 (9th Cir 1976), found that a medical resident’s four-year employment contract conferred a property interest for the duration of the contract, and thus could not be terminated early without due process of law.

But the UO’s response argues that Stretton does not clearly establish a constitutional interest in athletic scholarships or undergraduate education because it is not a case about college athletics or university education.

“Plaintiffs cite no case law or statute — and none exist in our jurisdiction — that equates an athletic scholarship to an employment contract, or that holds that an athletic scholarship confers a constitutionally protected property interest,” the UO’s response states.

The plaintiffs had pointed to a clause in their athletic scholarships which stated that financial assistance “may be changed or terminated only in accordance with legislation of the NCAA.” But the UO argues that the the period of the plaintiffs’ scholarships was one academic year, and renewal was not guaranteed; therefore, the contracts were not terminated early.

The UO’s response also states that the plaintiffs’ third amended complaint “fails to remedy the shortcomings of the Second Amended Complaint,” which the court had dismissed because “nothing in the complaint or incorporated documents suggests that the actions of the University were motivated by gender bias or that the University deprived Plaintiffs of a due process right.”

Neither Austin’s attorneys nor Artis and Dotson’s attorneys could immediately be reached for comment.

Austin’s lawsuit, which was filed in October 2014, seeks $7.5 million from the defendants, which include the University of Oregon, former president Michael Gottfredson, former vice president of student life and interim dean of students Robin Holmes and two other individuals. Artis and Dotson’s lawsuit, filed in March 2015, seeks $10 million each from the defendants.

The UO settled with the alleged victim of sexual assault in August 2015 for $800,000 and a full scholarship after she accused the UO of violating her Title IX rights. The UO settled for $425,000 in July 2016 with two former UO counseling center employees, who claimed the UO had obtained a copy of the alleged victim’s therapy records during her sessions at the counseling center.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby

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Just about an hour and a half after Oregon’s athletic department announced Oregon would not retain Mark Helfrich as head football coach, athletic director Rob Mullens addressed a group of around 20 local and regional reporters at Matthew Knight Arena.

He answered questions about how he arrived at the decision and what he envisions in Oregon’s next coach.

“No one wanted Mark to be more successful at Oregon more than me, yet over the past several months I’ve grown concerned with the direction of the program. We were not competitive in a number of games, and we were on a poor trajectory.”

Here are highlights from his press conference:

Beyond win-loss record, were there things you were concerned about that led to this change?

When you make a change like this after considerable thought, it’s never just one thing. You look at the totality of the program, so it’s about what happens on the field as well as off the field.

Why did you not reach out to Mark immediately after the Civil War to let him know where you stood before he went on the recruiting trail?

I wanted to get some distance away from the emotion of the result of the game. The football team had a full Sunday going; they had a football team banquet, so my intent was to be able to get away from the emotion, to be able to reflect myself, let them get to their team banquet and close out the season and then have an opportunity to talk with Mark.

When did you make this decision?

The decision was made today.

What are some of the criteria you’re looking for in your next head coach?

We’re going to look far and wide. It’s going to be a broad and diverse pool of candidates. We want somebody who will embrace the student-athlete experience, who understands the high expectations at University of Oregon, who understands our community, and really, really wants to be here.

Will you be looking for a defensive-minded coach? Do you have an idea of the sort of coach you want?

Not from a football philosophical standpoint, no… We’re not going in with specific parameters on which side of the ball they’re experienced on.

What leads you to believe there’s someone out there better than Mark Helfrich?

I believe the University of Oregon is a great football program. I think it’s going to be attractive to a lot of candidates, and I’m confident in the administrative staff that we have, the facilities that we have, we compete in a great league — this is a highly desirable job. I’m confident that we’re going to have a lot of interest.

Will you give the new head coach full authority to retain whichever assistant coaches he wants?

It’s going to be the head coach’s decision on the staff that remains.

What changed with Mark since giving him that contract extension?

It’s never one thing. Everybody wants to try to pinpoint the one thing that changes. But clearly for the last couple years — particularly this year — we weren’t as competitive as we needed to be in a number of games. That’s not the only thing when you start to look at the totality of the program. There was a shift in culture, and culture has been the winning edge here and we need to get that edge back.

Where is this money going to come from to pay the bill for this? Obviously it’s going to be an estimated $15-16 million dollars. How are you going to find the money?

Obviously the sum is mitigated. We won’t know the exact amount that’s payable over a number of years. As we sit here today, we’re looking at a number of options. One is a $6.5 licensing carry forward from university licensing … Obviously we’ll have a significant savings in the fact that we won’t be paying bowl bonuses this year. We had budgeted for that. Over the last several weeks, we’ve frozen four administrative positions so we’ll be looking at resource allocation. We’ll see what other revenue opportunities exist to make this work.

What was coach Helfrich’s pitch to you to be retained as head football coach?

I don’t want to get into the specifics of our conversation today other than to say Mark is a classy guy. It was a difficult conversation but in the end it was very, very professional. I’m appreciative of the eight years he’s provided to the University of Oregon.

Why did you decline interview requests in recent months?

When I addressed it in the middle of the year, I didn’t want to do a weekly update on where we were. At that time I said I’d wait until the end of the year. I wanted to be patient and assess — even took a couple extra days to step back and reflect. What happens in the season is that you get these emotional roller coasters. … I wanted to be able to allow the full season to happen — sit down, reflect and be thorough and thoughtful and make a decision.

Where did the conversation occur?

My office.

Was your mind made up before you talked with Mark?

Yes.

Did you attend the banquet on Sunday morning?

I did not.

Do you typically?

I have in the past.

Do you anticipate the next coach coming outside the coaching tree, given how there’s been so much continuity in the past?

Obviously that coaching tree has a lot of branches. It doesn’t necessarily have to, but I anticipate that it won’t come from within the staff, if that’s what you’re asking. … There’s a lot of branches to the history of that staff. It could come from a branch.

With the NFL season still going on, and bowl games as well, do you anticipate that the coach who is hired will finish out the current job or come in right away?

Recruiting is important. Our goal is to find someone who can get here, put together a staff, and get on the recruiting trail and make sure that we don’t lose much.

There were a lot of reports of potential losses of season ticket holders and revenue that would be lost if you retained Helfrich. How much of that was part of your decision?

This wasn’t an exercise in a financial formula. Obviously we had to consider what the buyouts would be — and that was part of it. But the factor of future season tickets did not weigh in on this decision.

The comment you made about changing culture — what does that mean?

One of the things that was a real edge for us was the attention to detail and adding up all the little things. We didn’t always line up with the best talent, but all the little things that added up produced a lot of the victories. That might have been some of the issue that resulted in the record this year.

So on the field, not off the field?

Well, both.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby

Follow Jonathan Hawthorne on Twitter @Jon_Hawthorne

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