Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich did not publicly address any of Pharaoh Brown’s three alleged acts of violence when they occurred, and he declined to do so now that they’ve been reported by the Emerald.
At his weekly press conference Sunday evening, the Emerald asked Helfrich whether he read the story on Brown and if he thought it was fair. Helfrich responded:
“I did not read it. I heard about it, and there’s not anything there to really comment on.”
The Emerald asked Helfrich whether the team disciplined Brown internally for any of the three incidents.
“As I just said, I don’t think there’s anything there to comment on,” Helfrich said. “I guess the only comment I would have is that Matt Wogan and Pharaoh Brown are extremely close teammates, and, according to Matt Wogan, extremely close. So the rest of it — nothing else to get into.”
According to an investigation by the Emerald, Brown has been accused of committing three violent acts since October 2014: He allegedly punched Oregon kicker Wogan in the head in the Ducks’ locker room in October 2014, giving Wogan a concussion; Brown was investigated by Eugene Police for strangulation following a physical altercation with his girlfriend in October 2015; and he allegedly instigated a physical fight with former linebacker Paris Bostick in the locker room in summer 2016.
It will likely be months before Brown addresses the media again. The Oregon football team institutes a policy it calls the “Zivin Rule,” which prohibits players who missed or left a game due to injury from addressing the media until after he has returned and played in another game. Brown did not play in or travel to the Utah game Saturday; he indicated on Instagram that a hamstring injury prevented him from making the trip.
If Brown does not play in Oregon’s season finale Saturday at Oregon State, he may not publicly address the media again until Oregon’s Pro Day — when players with NFL potential showcase their skills in front of professional scouts — which usually happens in March.
Helfrich at his press conference named Wogan Oregon’s player of the week for his performance against Utah. Wogan declined to elaborate on his altercation with Brown when the Emerald asked him about it on Nov. 3, citing a team rule that prohibits him from discussing injuries with reporters.
The Emerald requested comment from Brown and Helfrich twice during its investigation of Brown. In an email to football sports information director Dave Williford on Nov. 7, the Emerald requested private interviews with Brown and Helfrich to discuss multiple serious allegations against Brown. After two days, Williford responded that Brown and Helfrich “declined the opportunity to contribute to whatever story you’re working on.”
The Emerald made a final request for comment through Williford on Nov. 16 — the day before publishing the story — specifically outlining each physical altercation, when each incident occurred and the parties involved. Williford said, “Neither Brown or Helfrich are changing their minds.”
On Nov. 18, the day after publishing the story, the Emerald contacted Oregon athletic department spokesman Craig Pintens via text message to provide an opportunity to comment on the allegations of violence, now that they’d surfaced. Pintens responded, “No.”
Brown refrained from posting on Twitter or Instagram until two days after the story was published. He did not address the allegations on either platform.
With Helfrich’s declination to comment Sunday evening, it has become clear that the athletic department will not address the allegations against Brown.
Oregon senior tight end Pharaoh Brown has been accused of three acts of violence off the field since October 2014, an investigation by the Emerald has revealed.
Brown is one of the most well-known figures on the Ducks football team and University of Oregon campus. A redshirt senior and NFL prospect, Brown garners some of the loudest applause when his name is called on gamedays at Autzen Stadium.
During his time at Oregon, Brown has found himself at the center of controversy on multiple occasions:
Brown allegedly punched teammate Matt Wogan in the Ducks’ locker room in October 2014, rendering Wogan concussed. Eugene Police Department investigated Brown for strangulation in October 2015 following a physical fight with his girlfriend at his apartment. Most recently, Brown allegedly fought former teammate Paris Bostick in the locker room after a verbal dispute during a conditioning session in summer 2016.
Neither the University of Oregon nor the football team has taken public disciplinary action against Brown regarding the three incidents.
Both altercations involving teammates occurred while each was alone with Brown in the locker room. The Emerald spoke to several former and current players who said they heard about them through others on the team.
Pharaoh Brown before the Ducks’ game against Washington State in Pullman, Washington. (Kaylee Domzalski/Emerald)
Brown was neither arrested nor charged after the violent incident with his girlfriend. An ensuing investigation conducted by Lane County Assistant District Attorney Carolyn Rasche determined that Brown’s girlfriend was the primary aggressor in the altercation, but she was not arrested either.
During the course of its investigation of these incidences, the Emerald made an email request to Oregon football sports information director Dave Williford for private interviews with Brown and head coach Mark Helfrich to discuss the allegations against Brown. (The Oregon athletic department forbids reporters from contacting student athletes directly.) Williford provided the following response via email two days after the Emerald’s initial request:
“Following thoughtful consideration, Mark Helfrich and Pharaoh Brown have declined the opportunity to contribute to whatever story you’re working on.”
On Nov. 16, the Emerald made a final request via email for comment through Williford that specifically outlined the physical altercations involving Brown and his girlfriend, Wogan and Bostick and the approximate dates they occurred. Williford replied:
“Neither Brown or Helfrich are changing their minds.”
According to Arrest Nation, a website that tracks criminal activity in sports, people in college football have been arrested, legally cited or charged 176 times thus far in 2016. College football accounts for 45 percent of the total arrests, citations and charges against those in both professional and collegiate sports this year.
The Oregon football team has dealt with three violent incidents involving players in the past three months. Defensive lineman Torrodney Prevot is under criminal investigation and was suspended from the team indefinitely in August; a former Oregon athlete filed a complaint claiming Prevot physically assaulted her twice earlier this year. Wide receiver Darren Carrington was accused of pushing a man to the ground and breaking his arm in October. Defensive lineman Eddie Heard was arrested in November on harassment and assault charges after a woman told University of Oregon Police Department he touched her inappropriately, slapped her and punched her in the face. Heard pled not guilty to both charges and awaits a court date Dec. 8.
Brown, a two-sport athlete from Lyndhurst, Ohio — a small town near Cleveland — chose to play college football for Oregon over offers from more than a dozen other NCAA Division I schools, including Michigan, Michigan State and Oklahoma. Former Oregon undergraduate assistant Collin Hungate, who worked frequently with Brown and the tight ends, said Brown “has a huge heart” and competes at practice for himself, his family and his team. His teammates say he’s a quiet, hard worker who cares deeply about family.
Some teammates, including running back Royce Freeman, have called him a leader on the team. They say he doesn’t open up to anyone unless they’ve earned his trust. An advertising major, Brown co-hosts a podcast with his friend called “WinTheDay with Raoh and Zai” that invites various Oregon athletes on to talk sports, politics and music. He actively engages with fans on Twitter.
His first two seasons with Oregon football went rather quietly. Brown played in 21 games but caught just 12 passes and scored 2 touchdowns.
But Brown did not go entirely unnoticed in his first two years.
In a December 2013 video that has attracted more than 4.7 million views on YouTube, Brown was captured dumping a bucket of snow into the car of retired UO professor Sherwin Simmons during a snowball fight on UO campus. Although several other Oregon football players played roles in the snowball fight, Brown was the only player who was formally disciplined. Helfrich suspended Brown for Oregon’s matchup with University of Texas in the Valero Alamo Bowl.
Brown said the following in a statement after his suspension:
“I was one of the many UO students involved in the snowball fight on Friday and my actions escalated to an inappropriate level and for that, I sincerely apologize.”
The following season, Brown made a name for himself for his on-field performance. He earned First-Team Pac-12 All-Conference honors despite missing the season’s final five games — including the national championship against Ohio State — due to a gruesome right knee injury.
But the week prior to Oregon’s matchup with Cal on Oct. 24 — just over two weeks before his injury — Brown and kicker Matt Wogan had an altercation, former players said. Brown allegedly punched Wogan in the head inside the locker room. Wogan suffered a concussion and did not travel to Berkeley for the Cal game.
Wogan told the Emerald in an interview on Nov. 3 that he could not discuss the incident because it had to do with an injury, and a team rule prohibits him from discussing injuries with reporters.
“You can ask coach Helfrich or one of the coaches, but I can’t discuss that. It’s a team rule and I’m going to follow that rule,” Wogan said. “Not ‘no comment,’ but I can’t discuss that.”
Steve Muscarello, a kicker for University of North Carolina at Charlotte who has been close friends with Wogan since high school, said Wogan told him about his altercation with Brown about a week after it happened.
Wogan was Oregon’s field goal kicker at the time of the incident, so Aidan Schneider handled field goal duties in Wogan’s absence. Schneider successfully made all four field goals he attempted over the next three games.
Wogan kicked field goals again on Nov. 22 against Colorado and made all three attempts over the next two games, but Schneider won the job back for the Pac-12 Championship on Dec. 5. Schneider has been the field goal kicker ever since, while Wogan has only handled kickoff duties.
Oregon kicker Matt Wogan stretches out on the field during warmups before the Spring Game in April 2016. (Emerald Archives)
“Obviously you don’t ever want to lose a job, especially if it’s one that you love,” Wogan told the Emerald. “There were frustrations but it wasn’t against a coach, it wasn’t against Aidan — it was against some of the situations that played out.”
Brown was not suspended. He played each of the next three games, the last of which ended his season in the heat of Oregon’s run to the national championship game.
In the fourth quarter against Utah on Nov. 8, Brown tore two ligaments and stretched an artery in his right leg, which left him bleeding internally and facing the possibility of amputation.
Brown spent the next year and a half rehabilitating from his injury, which was so gruesome that ESPN chose not to replay the footage. Brown estimated receiving more than 1,000 pieces of fan mail from onlookers supporting his recovery effort, according to the Oregonian. He has been a fan favorite ever since his return to the field in Oregon’s spring game on April 30, 2016.
But even as he recovered from his injury, Brown continued to have issues off the field. Last October, two neighbors living in the unit beneath Brown at O-Town apartments heard a woman’s screams and loud banging noises coming from his apartment, according to the police report.
A late-night argument with his girlfriend of a year and a half had turned physical.
The Emerald chose not to identify Brown’s girlfriend in the interest of her privacy.
After hearing the noises, Brown’s neighbors, UO students Mina Schaaf and Brooke Dannen, repeatedly rang the doorbell to Brown’s apartment. Brown’s girlfriend answered the door, “crying and looking over her shoulder,” Schaaf told the Emerald in September.
The O-Town Apartments from 18th Avenue. Pharaoh Brown lived in the apartments at the time of the incident with his girlfriend. (Christopher Trotchie/Emerald)
The students brought Brown’s girlfriend into their apartment. She told them she had been in a physical fight with Brown, in which Brown had thrown her against the wall, climbed on top of her and strangled her. Schaaf told the Emerald that Brown’s girlfriend had red marks on her neck and chest and a handprint on her thigh.
According to Brown’s girlfriend’s interview with the Eugene police officers, the incident stemmed from an argument about whether Brown had gone to the bars with friends a week prior. Brown’s girlfriend told officers she had bitten and scratched Brown and torn off several of her acrylic fingernails in an attempt to retrieve her phone from Brown’s grasp. She said at one point during the altercation she recovered her phone and dialed 9-1-1 from the bathroom but immediately hung up.
Schaaf and Dannen urged Brown’s girlfriend to call the police. She refused but allowed the students to photograph the marks on her arms, leg, neck and face. Schaaf and Dannen ultimately called the police at 1:30 a.m., the EPD dispatch log shows.
From the moment police arrived, Brown’s girlfriend defended Brown. “He has a lot going for him, I don’t want him to get in trouble,” she told police. She told police officers that she and Brown were equally at fault.
Schaaf and Dannen told officers that Brown’s girlfriend admitted to them that Brown choked her during the dispute. They showed Officer Andrew Whipple the pictures they had taken of the red marks on Brown’s girlfriend’s body. Whipple described in his report that the marks “looked to be consistent with marks produced when someone is strangled.”
Pharaoh Brown’s girlfriend the night of the incident. Brown’s downstairs neighbors took photos of the red marks on her chest. Her face has been blurred for privacy. (Courtesy of Mina Schaaf)
When Whipple asked Brown’s girlfriend how she received the marks on her neck, she said Brown “pushed her in the neck but never choked her,” according to the report. She told police that Brown, whom officers estimated to be 6-foot-7 and 260 pounds, “is a very large and strong person and when he touched her it left a mark.”
According to the police report, officers had trouble contacting Brown — who later told them he had fallen asleep inside his apartment — until a UO athletic department representative called Brown’s phone at the request of an officer. Shortly thereafter, Brown called the officer from inside his apartment and confirmed he had been in a physical altercation with his girlfriend, “though insisted he had done nothing wrong,” the police report states. Police eventually entered Brown’s apartment and noticed scratches on his chin and hands and bite marks on his arm and shoulder.
According to Brown’s interview with police officers, at one point during the dispute his girlfriend climbed on his back and began biting his right shoulder while he was lying on his stomach in bed. He told officers he reacted by shifting his body weight, in turn causing his girlfriend to lose her balance and fall off the bed into a wooden dresser.
Officers ultimately decided not to arrest either party and neither Brown nor his girlfriend chose to press charges.
“I definitely felt like I was an equal part in what happened and maybe even more the reason why it escalated to that point,” Brown’s girlfriend told the Emerald during a phone interview on Nov. 7. “People are always quick to blame the guy, but sometimes the girl is out of line, too. I don’t think that one or the other should put hands on each other.”
Brown and his girlfriend — as well as Schaaf and Dannen — had been consuming alcohol the night of the incident. Brown’s girlfriend told the Emerald she believed it played a factor in her fight with Brown.
EPD prohibited the Emerald from discussing the case with an officer because it is a closed investigation and no charges were made.
UOPD Interim Sergeant Bo Macovis, a police officer in Oregon for 16 years, told the Emerald if police are able to prove in a domestic violence case that “more likely than not the crime occurred,” then a mandatory arrest is warranted in Oregon. UOPD operates under the same protocol as Eugene Police when dealing with incidents of domestic violence, Macovis said.
In order to identify “probable cause,” Macovis said the officer will depend on physical evidence such as bite marks, scratch marks and bruises. If both have injuries, Macovis said, the officer is required to identify who the aggressor is and arrest that party, even if neither party wants to press charges. Macovis said sometimes parties involved will downplay the severity of the dispute to avoid pressing charges, but if it’s clear the crime has happened, then the police will disregard the statements dismissing the dispute and make a mandatory arrest.
The case was forwarded to the Lane County District Attorney’s Office for further evaluation. The police report named Brown the suspect and his girlfriend the victim in an investigation of strangulation, a Class A misdemeanor.
Pharaoh Brown runs around the perimeter of Autzen Stadium while warming up before a game against Stanford in November 2014. (Emerald Archives)
The Emerald obtained a copy of the District Attorney’s Office’s case evaluation. Rasche, the attorney who evaluated the case a month after the incident occurred, identified Brown’s girlfriend as the primary aggressor and closed the case.
“Good investigation,” Rasche wrote. “Based on the statements of the parties, it appears that the identified victim [Brown’s girlfriend] was actually the primary physical aggressor. However, because she was likely attempting to get her property [cell phone], she may have been entitled to use physical force.”
Brown’s girlfriend told the Emerald that Brown is “the last person to hurt anybody.” She said both she and Brown saw therapists as a result of the incident and that the two are still together.
Brown became a regular starter for Oregon in 2016 after fully recovering from his injury. In nine games, Brown has caught 33 passes for 426 yards and scored 5 touchdowns.
Before the season began, however, Brown allegedly engaged in a physical fight with linebacker Paris Bostick in the locker room. Following a verbal altercation on the field during a conditioning session in late July or early August 2016, Bostick said Brown started throwing punches at him while he was entering the keypad information on his locker. Bostick fought back but felt he was caught off guard.
Bostick said he threatened to kill Brown after teammates broke up the fight because he felt he didn’t get a fair opportunity to fight. He was immediately suspended from the team and its facilities for threatening to kill a teammate, he said. Brown was not suspended.
At the beginning of fall camp just over a week later, Helfrich informed the media that Bostick left the team “to pursue his own interests.”
The Oregon football locker room inside the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex. (Emerald Archives)
Former cornerback Chris Seisay, who was on the team at the time but transferred to Portland State shortly after the altercation, heard about the incident through teammates.
“It was just kind of messed up how they treated [Bostick] in that situation, not even knowing what really happened,” Seisay said. “You got in a fight with Pharaoh? Okay, you’re off the team.”
Current cornerback Tyree Robinson said the fight between Brown and Bostick was the culmination of several incidents involving Bostick that led to his leaving the program.
“It wasn’t just that one incident that made that guy get dismissed,” Robinson said. “It was just constantly other things.”
Robinson said Brown is one of his best friends on the team and a player he respects.
“He’s no punk,” Robinson said. “Some guys are just smart asses on the team, and he’s not gonna take that. But that’s not his character anymore.”
Pharaoh Brown is tackled by a Stanford defender in Autzen Stadium. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)
Robinson said he saw a big change in Brown’s personality after he suffered his injury. He said before the injury he was just a young guy trying to experience as much as he could in college.
“I think once he got hurt or once he started making a lot of plays, he realized that he can do a lot with his game and really take it to the next level, and not just take it for granted,” Robinson said.
Robinson said that, until the incident with Bostick, Brown hadn’t been involved in a fight since the encounter with Wogan.
A former Oregon player and teammate of Brown’s — who wished to remain anonymous in this story so as not to be identified by his former teammates — said players who come to Oregon out of high school are the best of the best, and when they start to compete with players who are as good as or better than them, it becomes “a huge pride fest” as players try to prove their status on the team.
Scuffles, the former player said, often ensue, but rarely do they escalate to fist fights off the field the way they did with Brown, Bostick and Wogan.
“Pharaoh Brown — he’s a really good piece of the business, and you don’t want to lose that guy, regardless of whether he’s punching dudes in the head,” the former player said.
Brown remains an active player for the Ducks and has two games left in his college football career.
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Kenny Jacoby, Senior Sports Editor, kjacoby@dailyemerald.com
Jarrid Denney, Associate Sports Editor, jdenney@dailyemerald.com
Cooper Green, Editor in Chief, editor@dailyemerald.com
— Fans have grown accustomed to high stakes when Oregon plays Stanford each year, but that’s not the case this season. The Emerald‘s Jarrid Denney discussed how the teams find themselves in unfamiliar territory entering Saturday’s matchup at Autzen Stadium.
— The Oregonian‘s Andrew Greif wrote that Saturday’s game itself may not carry the same weight as in years past, but getting a win is as important as ever for head coach Mark Helfrich, who is trying to save his job.
— One of the highest rated recruits in Oregon football history is finished with the program midway into his sophomore season. Defensive lineman Canton Kaumatule has accepted a medical hardship, meaning he can no longer play for Oregon. He remains on scholarship and can try to get cleared to play elsewhere if he so chooses.
— Linebacker A.J. Hotchkins went from sleeping on the floor as a community college athlete to playing Division I football. He is one of several junior college transfers who endured what they call the “JuCo struggle” before joining the Ducks.
— CSN Northwest‘s Aaron Fentress analyzed the position battles for Oregon men’s basketball, which he wrote has a “Final Four feel” this season.
— Oregon volleyball is finding success in an unconventional way. The Ducks are undefeated on the road but have struggled at times in the comfort of their own arena. Other Pac-12 teams are experiencing a similar phenomenon; road teams are winning 72 percent of matches in the conference this season.
— There’s a new face at the head of the Oregon men’s lacrosse club. New head coach Markus McCaine, a graduate student and defensive coordinator last year, is conditioning the Ducks to be the “fastest team in the league.”
LOS ANGELES — Moments before throwing his hands in the air, grabbing his belongings and briskly exiting the LA Coliseum, a Ducks fan in the sixth row yelled, “Come on, Oregon! Just wake up!”
It was a little late for the Ducks to “wake up” down 25 points with less than six minutes to play in the fourth quarter. But the 45-20 loss to USC was a frustrating game for Oregon fans, coaches and players alike to watch. The Ducks (3-6, 1-5 Pac-12) fell behind 17-0 within 10 minutes after kickoff and never closed the deficit to fewer than double-digits.
Perhaps no one, however, left the game more frustrated than running back Royce Freeman and wide receiver Darren Carrington. Both sat on the sidelines during Oregon’s first two drives while running back Tony Brooks-James and wide receiver Jalen Brown took the field in their places.
Offensive coordinator Matt Lubick said Brooks-James started over Freeman because Brooks-James has “just been playing really well.” When asked whether Freeman wasn’t playing well or if he was injured — he missed time earlier this season due to injuries — Lubick said, “It’s hard to say.” Freeman insisted he was not injured.
Freeman, who entered the season in the Heisman conversation and with a legitimate chance to break the Oregon all-time rushing record, finished the night with just 10 rushes for 38 yards and 2 catches for 9 yards.
Brooks-James didn’t fare much better. He finished with 8 carries for 25 yards and 4 catches for 26 yards.
Freeman said it’s difficult for him not to be able to produce on offense the way he’s used to.
“I’m taking what I can, and trying to make the best of it,” he said. “You can’t say it’s not difficult, but you’ve just got to stay the course.”
Oregon Ducks running back Royce Freeman (21) breaks through the USC line into the open field. The Oregon Ducks play the University of Southern California Trojans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, Calif. on Nov. 5, 2016. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)
Head coach Mark Helfrich was asked after the game if there was a reason why Carrington also didn’t see the field during Oregon’s first two drives. Helfrich said simply, “No.”
Lubick provided a different response. He said it was “because [Carrington] got outplayed in the last game.” The decision to start Brown instead, he said, was “hard.”
“We’ve got three good guys,” Lubick said, alluding to Carrington, Brown and Charles Nelson. “After last week, we just thought Jalen Brown deserved a start — and Charles. And we wanted to start two tight ends.”
The two-tight-end set, Lubick said, enables Oregon to do more in both the pass and run games because the tight ends can both run receiver routes and block at the point of attack. It also allows them to rest their receivers.
Carrington, who considered forgoing his final two years of eligibility to declare for the NFL draft at the end of last season, caught just 1 pass for 7 yards.
Quarterback Justin Herbert targeted Carrington only four times. The first play Carrington saw the field, he broke free from a USC defensive back on a deep post route downfield. Herbert delivered him a perfect ball in stride that slipped through his fingers. Had he caught the pass, Carrington almost surely would have scored a 75-yard touchdown, which would have put Oregon down 10-7. Instead the Ducks punted and the Trojans scored on the ensuing drive to go up by 17.
“That hurts,” Lubick said. “When you’re playing a good team, you just can’t miss opportunities like that.”
On Oregon’s final drive in garbage time, quarterback Dakota Prukop entered the game and threw a jump-ball to Carrington in the end zone. Carrington out-leaped the defensive back and got his hands on the ball but couldn’t bring it down.
Carrington, who routinely denies post-game interview requests, did so again tonight.
Oregon Ducks wide receiver Darren Carrington II (7) watches as a ball is thrown towards him during the warm up. The Oregon Ducks play the University of Southern California Trojans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, Calif. on Nov. 5, 2016. (Adam Eberhardt/Emerald)
Both Carrington’s and Freeman’s production have declined since last season.
Carrington has totaled as many receptions (32) in nine games this year as he did through seven last year and has 155 fewer yards and 3 fewer touchdowns. A deep-threat receiver, his yards-per-catch average is down 34 percent, from 19.0 to 14.4. He hasn’t scored a touchdown since Sept. 24 against Colorado, and his only 100-yard game came in week one against UC Davis.
Freeman broke the 100-yard mark in 11 out of 13 games last year, but has done so only twice this season. In his past four games, he has averaged just 2.6 yards per carry and scored one touchdown. His yards-per-carry average on the season is 5.5 compared to 6.5 last year.
Freeman said the offense generally needs to “get back to basics and get back to what we do correctly.” Perhaps that means getting him and Carrington more involved.
UPDATE: 1:41 p.m. Thursday — Eddie Heard pleaded “not guilty” to misdemeanor charges of harassment and assault in the fourth degree during his arraignment at Lane County Circuit Court Thursday afternoon.
Heard is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 8.
***
UPDATE: 11:09 a.m. Thursday — According to UO Police’s summary of the case, Heard, 22, was arrested near UO campus following an incident at nearby Taylor’s Bar and Grill that occurred between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 30.
On Nov. 1 UOPD received a report from a woman not affiliated with UO who said Heard “repeatedly touched her inside the bar, despite her loud vocal protests.” The woman told UOPD that Heard slapped her and she pushed him before she left the bar. She said Heard approached her outside the bar and punched her in the face near 13th Avenue and Kincaid Street.
UOPD interviewed multiple witnesses, Heard and the victim, and arrested Heard just before 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
***
UPDATE: As of 6:34 a.m. Thursday, Heard has been suspended indefinitely from the Oregon football team. Here is the statement from head coach Mark Helfrich:
“Eddie Heard has been suspended indefinitely. We will take appropriate action as details develop.”
***
Heard was arrested by UO Police Wednesday at 6:14 p.m. for harassment and assault in the fourth degree. Both are misdemeanors.
(Lane County Jail)
Heard was held in jail overnight. Bail information was not immediately available.
UOPD could not immediately be reached for comment.
Heard, a redshirt junior defensive lineman, has played in eight games for the Ducks in 2016. He played in 11 of 13 games as a sophomore in 2015.
The Ducks broke their five-game losing streak with a 54-35 win over Arizona State Saturday at Autzen Stadium. By many accounts it was the most impressive game they’ve played all season: the Ducks outgained the Sun Devils by 266 yards, the defense forced three interceptions, and freshman quarterback Justin Herbert set a school record with 512 yards of offense.
So why didn’t Oregon students care to stay and watch?
The Oregon student section, which spans five sections of the 40-section stadium, was half-empty when the game started. Granted, the game had just started, but other sections managed to show up on time. This was the scene at the opening kickoff:
Sections 4 through 8 filled up by the end of the first quarter as students arrived late. But toward the end of the third quarter, the student population began to dwindle. By the end of the game, the student crowd wasn’t much denser than it was at kickoff.
Oregon tight end Johnny Mundt, who caught two passes for 70 yards and a touchdown, said the student section looked “a bit thin” when he peeked up at it during the game.
“I would really hope that our student body would come and fill up that student section,” Mundt said. “I mean, people are on wait-lists for those tickets and we’re not filling it up.
“We’re giving everything we’ve got, so I’d hope that they’d give everything they got, too.”
Oregon was winning 30-22 when masses of students started heading for the exits. I was curious why they chose this point in the game to leave, with the Ducks on the verge of their first win since Sept. 10. So I went down to the concourse level, stood at the top of the stairs above the South Gate and asked departing students why they were leaving. Here are some of their responses:
“I’m really, really high, and I want to lie down,” the first student said.
“It’s Halloween weekend,” said another.
“We’re tired from last night. We’re trying to nap and recover before going out to tonight. I just turned 21.”
“We’re tired. I have homework to do.”
Fans not wanting to stick around to watch their team lose is understandable. Take, for instance, Oregon’s last home game, in which it was losing 35-7 at halftime to Washington, whom it hadn’t lost to in 12 years. The Huskies went on to win 70-21, and only the first few rows of the student section were occupied by the game’s end.
Tonight, however, the game was close from start to finish. The Ducks only held a 5-point lead with with just over six minutes to play; it could have gone either way. It was a good game to watch — the students agreed on that — yet many fans were disinterested in seeing the ending.
“It’s actually a really good game this time; I just don’t feel like standing anymore,” a student said. “I might go watch it in our common area.”
“I’m just not into the game right now.”
“I’m gonna follow it on my phone. We’re probably going to win anyway.”
Running back Tony Brooks-James said he’s noticed fans leaving early in previous games this season.
One could easily chalk it up to the classic gripe on millennials: that they lack the attention span to sit — or stand — through anything for four hours straight. But it’s not just the students who are losing interest.
Oregon failed to sell out Autzen Stadium for the fourth time this season. It’s remarkable considering the sellout streak it had intact before the season began; the Ducks had sold out every home game since 1999 until their first game this season against UC Davis, in which they fell 183 people of the sellout mark of 54,000. Neither the Virginia nor Colorado game this season drew a sellout crowd. The rivalry game against Washington did, but Saturday’s contest with ASU came up short by 102 people.
Autzen was 99.8 percent full Saturday, but in past seasons, Oregon has consistently managed to fill 106 to 108 percent of seats — the extra tickets are “standing room only,” which give fans entry to the stadium but not an actual seat. Even in a down season last year, Oregon sold out an average of 106.7 percent of tickets. This year that figure is down five percent.
In 2012, journalist Jeff Polman wrote about why Los Angeles Dodgers fans, who are notorious for arriving in the third and fourth innings and departing in the sixth or seventh, leave games before they end. He didn’t buy the “to beat the traffic” argument. He concluded that fans are “disengaged with the game.”
Polman made sure to mention that it’s not as if Dodgers fans don’t have a good time at games; they just treat them as social events, in which the game itself “is merely the thing going on the background you look up to cheer and boo once in a while.”
Perhaps some Oregon students are less invested in games than regular fans because they don’t pay as much for tickets; a small portion of every student’s tuition dollars pays for the ASUO’s allotment of student tickets, which are then distributed on a first-come-first-served basis online. But those coveted tickets usually disappear within seconds after the claiming period starts.
Perhaps it has something to do with the Ducks being 3-5 overall and 1-4 in Pac-12 play.
Cornerback Tyree Robinson said it doesn’t bother him or his teammates when students leave games early. He said “students are different.”
“At the end of the day, we know who are real fans are. We have loyal Oregon fans; they tell us every day. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t define us.
The same year Nintendo released the N64 and Mark Helfrich earned his bachelor’s degree, the Ducks had their worst-ever defensive season under head coach Mike Bellotti. They allowed an average of 32.4 points per game, which ranked 89th out of 111 teams.
That was the last year the Ducks lost five-straight games — until now.
Oregon’s current season is on a similar trajectory as that of the 1996 Ducks, who won their first three games then lost their next five. They won their final three games to finish 6-5, providing some hope that the 2016 Ducks can turn their season around after a current five-game losing streak.
But that’s wishful thinking. None of Oregon’s remaining five games — at home against Arizona State and Stanford and on the road at USC, Utah and Oregon State — feel as winnable as they once did. The only two teams Oregon has managed to beat this year, UC Davis and Virginia, it paid a combined $900,000 to play; in college football, those paid victories are known as “guarantees.”
Even 20 years ago in Bellotti’s worst defensive season, the Ducks didn’t struggle defensively as much as they do now. As of Friday’s 52-49 double-overtime loss to Cal, Oregon (2-5, 0-4) now owns the worst defense in college football. The Bears racked up 636 yards of offense, which means the Ducks now yield an average of 538.6 yards per game to opponents; that’s dead last out of 128 FBS Division I teams. Only three teams since 2003 have fared worse.
“We’ve got to keep working on the simple things,” defensive coordinator Brady Hoke said after the Cal loss. “Technique, tackling — all those things.”
Hoke was one of several Ducks who took positives away from the second half of Friday’s game, in which Oregon held Cal to 11 points to force overtime. But freshman linebacker Troy Dye was less optimistic.
“Any loss sucks; it doesn’t matter. Five straight is horrible. We need to come out better as a defense and play four straight quarters instead of two,” Dye said. “I love the way we finished, but at the end of the day, we can’t expect to win when we gave up 52 points. It’s just that simple.”
The Ducks are as close to rock bottom as they’ve been in decades. What’s more is that fans have been saying that for a month since Oregon fell to Colorado at home, and things have only gotten worse.
That loss on Sept. 24 also marked the last game Oregon forced a turnover other than on downs. A defense that led the FBS in turnover margin (+1.5) just two seasons ago now has gone 196 minutes and 15 seconds since without forcing a fumble or interception, not including overtime. The Ducks have gained only six turnovers all season; only six other teams have gained fewer.
Defensive backs coach John Neal pointed to a lack of playmakers on the defense to explain the turnover drought, which has perplexed him as much as anyone else.
“I have thought about it, and if I have an answer, it’s that playmakers make plays,” Neal said. “Playmakers on defense are guys who strip balls, who see things. You know, why does Jairus Byrd get 17 interceptions here in his career and becomes an all-pro in the NFL? Because he’s an all-pro-type guy.”
“Don’t think that we haven’t been thinking about it. We try to work on it all the time. We spent two weeks doing strip drills and things like that, and we’re still going to keep doing it.”
Neal has coached defensive secondaries for 34 years, including the last 13 seasons at Oregon. He’s developed seven draft picks over the past eight seasons, including Byrd, who led the NFL with nine interceptions as a rookie in 2009. He knows playmakers, and right now Oregon doesn’t have them.
Head coach Mark Helfrich said applying more pressure on the quarterback will help induce turnovers. Oregon has forced just 10 quarterback hurries on the season, and no single player has accounted for more than two. It could also help explain why opposing quarterbacks have a 142.48 passing efficiency against the Ducks.
Hoke said after the Cal loss that he wanted to get more pressure on quarterback Davis Webb. His goal was to take the inside lanes away and force Webb to bounce to the outside but on several plays Webb eluded the pressure.
“We had a couple opportunities that we let him out of the pocket,” Hoke said. “We can’t do that when we’ve got him lined up.”
The Ducks have surrendered the most touchdowns of any team in the country (41) and the third-most points per game (43.3), largely because opposing offenses have had nearly no trouble scoring against them from inside the red zone. Opponents have come away with points on 37 of 41 trips inside the Ducks’ 20-yard line; Cal scored touchdowns all seven times it got to the red zone on Friday.
Coaches and players generally felt after the Cal loss that the team’s second-half effort was a step in the right direction, but it’s difficult to evaluate the progress of the defense when it has failed in so many areas.
Oregon this season has allowed opposing teams to convert on 48 percent of third-down and 53.8 percent of fourth-down opportunities. The Ducks have also conceded 212 first downs, the most in the country.
Given the huge number of snaps his defensive players were on the field, Neal said it was “remarkable” they improved as the game went on. They defended more than 60 plays in the first half alone, not counting special teams. Cornerback Tyree Robinson was on the field for 115 snaps over the course of the game.
“I knew it was over 100, but I didn’t know it was 115,” Robinson said, laughing. “We know it’s always going to be over 100 because we play the most; we’re going to be on the field the longest. Like I said, we’re doing the most.”
Neal felt encouraged by several of his players “because they don’t quit and they play at a high level,” citing Robinson and fellow defensive backs Brenden Schooler, Khalil Oliver and Ugo Amadi as the four standouts against Cal. Each of them wore GPS systems during the game, and Neal said those players’ readings were “off the charts.”
In all team sports, however, players’ individual efforts are only as good as the team’s results, and the Ducks have not gotten the results they desired.
Bellotti’s Ducks missed a bowl game in 1996, but went on to improve their record by one game in each of the next five seasons, leading up to an 11-1 season in 2001, capped by a Fiesta Bowl victory. The Ducks likely won’t make a bowl game this season, but when you’re at the bottom, the only direction you can go is up.
The same year Nintendo released the N64 and Mark Helfrich earned his bachelor’s degree, the Ducks had their worst-ever defensive season under head coach Mike Bellotti. They allowed an average of 32.4 points per game, which ranked 89th out of 111 teams.
That was the last year the Ducks lost five-straight games — until now.
Oregon’s current season is on a similar trajectory as that of the 1996 Ducks, who won their first three games then lost their next five. They won their final three games to finish 6-5, providing some hope that the 2016 Ducks can turn their season around after a current five-game losing streak.
But that’s wishful thinking. None of Oregon’s remaining five games — at home against Arizona State and Stanford and on the road at USC, Utah and Oregon State — feel as winnable as they once did. The only two teams Oregon has managed to beat this year, UC Davis and Virginia, it paid a combined $900,000 to play; in college football, those paid victories are known as “guarantees.”
Even 20 years ago in Bellotti’s worst defensive season, the Ducks didn’t struggle defensively as much as they do now. As of Friday’s 52-49 double-overtime loss to Cal, Oregon (2-5, 0-4) now owns the worst defense in college football. The Bears racked up 636 yards of offense, which means the Ducks now yield an average of 538.6 yards per game to opponents; that’s dead last out of 128 FBS Division I teams. Only three teams since 2003 have fared worse.
“We’ve got to keep working on the simple things,” defensive coordinator Brady Hoke said after the Cal loss. “Technique, tackling — all those things.”
Hoke was one of several Ducks who took positives away from the second half of Friday’s game, in which Oregon held Cal to 11 points to force overtime. But freshman linebacker Troy Dye was less optimistic.
“Any loss sucks; it doesn’t matter. Five straight is horrible. We need to come out better as a defense and play four straight quarters instead of two,” Dye said. “I love the way we finished, but at the end of the day, we can’t expect to win when we gave up 52 points. It’s just that simple.”
The Ducks are as close to rock bottom as they’ve been in decades. What’s more is that fans have been saying that for a month since Oregon fell to Colorado at home, and things have only gotten worse.
That loss on Sept. 24 also marked the last game Oregon forced a turnover other than on downs. A defense that led the FBS in turnover margin (+1.5) just two seasons ago now has gone 196 minutes and 15 seconds since without forcing a fumble or interception, not including overtime. The Ducks have gained only six turnovers all season; only six other teams have gained fewer.
Defensive backs coach John Neal pointed to a lack of playmakers on the defense to explain the turnover drought, which has perplexed him as much as anyone else.
“I have thought about it, and if I have an answer, it’s that playmakers make plays,” Neal said. “Playmakers on defense are guys who strip balls, who see things. You know, why does Jairus Byrd get 17 interceptions here in his career and becomes an all-pro in the NFL? Because he’s an all-pro-type guy.”
“Don’t think that we haven’t been thinking about it. We try to work on it all the time. We spent two weeks doing strip drills and things like that, and we’re still going to keep doing it.”
Neal has coached defensive secondaries for 34 years, including the last 13 seasons at Oregon. He’s developed seven draft picks over the past eight seasons, including Byrd, who led the NFL with nine interceptions as a rookie in 2009. He knows playmakers, and right now Oregon doesn’t have them.
Head coach Mark Helfrich said applying more pressure on the quarterback will help induce turnovers. Oregon has forced just 10 quarterback hurries on the season, and no single player has accounted for more than two. It could also help explain why opposing quarterbacks have a 142.48 passing efficiency against the Ducks.
Hoke said after the Cal loss that he wanted to get more pressure on quarterback Davis Webb. His goal was to take the inside lanes away and force Webb to bounce to the outside but on several plays Webb eluded the pressure.
“We had a couple opportunities that we let him out of the pocket,” Hoke said. “We can’t do that when we’ve got him lined up.”
The Ducks have surrendered the most touchdowns of any team in the country (41) and the third-most points per game (43.3), largely because opposing offenses have had nearly no trouble scoring against them from inside the red zone. Opponents have come away with points on 37 of 41 trips inside the Ducks’ 20-yard line; Cal scored touchdowns all seven times it got to the red zone on Friday.
Coaches and players generally felt after the Cal loss that the team’s second-half effort was a step in the right direction, but it’s difficult to evaluate the progress of the defense when it has failed in so many areas.
Oregon this season has allowed opposing teams to convert on 48 percent of third-down and 53.8 percent of fourth-down opportunities. The Ducks have also conceded 212 first downs, the most in the country.
Given the huge number of snaps his defensive players were on the field, Neal said it was “remarkable” they improved as the game went on. They defended more than 60 plays in the first half alone, not counting special teams. Cornerback Tyree Robinson was on the field for 115 snaps over the course of the game.
“I knew it was over 100, but I didn’t know it was 115,” Robinson said, laughing. “We know it’s always going to be over 100 because we play the most; we’re going to be on the field the longest. Like I said, we’re doing the most.”
Neal felt encouraged by several of his players “because they don’t quit and they play at a high level,” citing Robinson and fellow defensive backs Brenden Schooler, Khalil Oliver and Ugo Amadi as the four standouts against Cal. Each of them wore GPS systems during the game, and Neal said those players’ readings were “off the charts.”
In all team sports, however, players’ individual efforts are only as good as the team’s results, and the Ducks have not gotten the results they desired.
Bellotti’s Ducks missed a bowl game in 1996, but went on to improve their record by one game in each of the next five seasons, leading up to an 11-1 season in 2001, capped by a Fiesta Bowl victory. The Ducks likely won’t make a bowl game this season, but when you’re at the bottom, the only direction you can go is up.
With the Ducks (2-4) having lost four straight games, several current and former Oregon players have been weighing in on Oregon’s struggles on Twitter. Head coach Mark Helfrich addressed the chatter during his press conference on Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of teams in the country right now that were expected to be at a certain level but aren’t, and there’s different reasons for that,” Helfrich said. “We had our shots early to win a couple games that didn’t go our way, and now everything’s on the table as far as why that is.”
Here’s what some of the former players have had to say:
Former linebacker Derrick Malone and running back Kenjon Barner were sickened by the team’s performance:
Former wide receiver Bralon Addison and linebacker Spencer Paysinger supported a temporary ban on football players at Taylor’s Bar and Grill near campus.
@Taylors_Bar IF ANY FOOTBALL PLAYERS SHOW UP TONIGHT SEND THEM HOME !
Former offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz doesn’t think Helfrich should be fired, but drew comparisons between the current team and the 2006 team on which he played.
Same thing happened to the 2006 team. We thought it was going to be easy. Didn't play w/the same passion. Too many mistakes. (3)
The Ducks have fallen to 2-4 overall and 0-3 in Pac-12 play following a 70-21 rout on Saturday by Washington that snapped a 12-game win streak against the Huskies. Freshman quarterback Justin Herbert made his first career start to provide a “spark” in the place of fifth-year quarterback Dakota Prukop.
With both players and fans upset about Oregon’s disappointing season, head coach Mark Helfrich answered questions on Tuesday about the state of the program, Herbert and the upcoming bye week.
Other players have said there’s a group of players who don’t care anymore. Do you get a sense of that at all, and how do you handle that even if you don’t see it but players are talking about it?
Mark Helfrich: I think that’s just a byproduct of the situation last night — the frustration. Obviously those guys are competitive guys who are very frustrated. Any behavior by somebody else that doesn’t match theirs or isn’t totally with what we’re trying to do is going to be read through that lens. But certainly there are guys at this point in the season that aren’t necessarily doing everything that we want them to do… Those are things that we need to address in-house and take care of them in-house and talk about them in-house, and we will.
After watching the film, what did you think of Justin Herbert in his first career start?
MH: I thought he made some plays that were really good, he made some throws that were big-time plays that we had an opportunity to make…. Very impressed by his reaction to that first play under those circumstances. Again, I think he’s got a big future.
You and Matt Lubick said you put Herbert in for more of an offensive spark. Was there something Dakota Prukop wasn’t giving you that you wanted to get out of Herbert a little more so?
MH: There were some plays there to be made, opportunities to be made — it’s always a little bit of a gamble of how much you think you’re going to get a spark from your team and how much of a difference that’s gonna make. I thought he made some plays that weren’t there. There were big-time plays: the touchdown to Tony James was a great play; the touchdown to Taj Griffin was a busted protection; he had a drag route to Charles Nelson… I think he provided that spark last week, and now our execution has to pick up on special teams, on defense and throughout the offense, including him.
What are your priorities in practice this week?
MH: First and foremost, just get everybody on the same page. Improving our psychological health as well as our physical health is job one. Removing any doubt or lack of confidence in anything — and we’ve got plenty of that right now… building true confidence to play faster and play better.
How much does your practice week change during a bye week as opposed to a normal game week?
MH: We’ll go against ourselves the whole time, so it’ll be more of a spring ball type of scenario where it’s ones versus ones, twos versus twos, and threes versus threes. So we won’t split into scout teams yet until our game week prep.
