In February 2015, the UO club rowing team successfully met its goal of collectively rowing one million meters—more than 600 miles—in one day, to raise funds for its trip to the national championships in Georgia.

This year, it is upping the ante.

The self-funded team plans to row 4.2 million meters—the distance from Eugene to Gainesville, Georgia, where the 2016 American Collegiate Rowing Association [ACRA] National Championships will be held—in its second annual Erg-A-Thon on Feb. 21, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Student Recreation Center.

(Courtesy UO Rowing)

Students, faculty and members of the Eugene/Springfield community are invited to join the team, learn about the sport and contribute meters to the goal. Prizes, such as gift cards from local restaurants and a Patagonia Oregon Rowing backpack, will be raffled off.

Participants who row more than 10,000 meters will receive a T-shirt personalized with the number of meters they rowed. Customized T-shirts and raffle tickets will also be available for purchase.

A donation booth will be set up for attendees who want to help the team raise funds for its trip to the national championships or give to Relief Nursery, a non-profit child abuse and neglect prevention agency. Any type of donation, including children’s clothes and canned food, will be welcomed.

Chipotle and Costco will supply food for the event.

Rower Emi Purice said the Erg-A-Thon is a way for the team to promote itself as well as help out in the community.

“We’re a huge group and we can create an impact,” Purice said. “We have the manpower; why not help out the community and do some good.”

The team of 65 members has made great strides in the past year to boost its stature in the realm of college rowing. For the first time ever, it was invited to partake in the Pac-12 Rowing Championships in Lake Natoma, California this coming May. Despite being a club team, it competed against big-budget Division-I schools, such as Michigan and Virginia, at the ACRA National Championships last year and finished third.

Purice said the “biggest stigma” about club sports is that they’re just for hanging out and having fun.

“Club is competitive. The only thing that separates club from D-I is funding,” Purice said. “As a club, we do compete against D-I teams and we do really well against them.”

UO club rowing currently does not intend to become a Division-I team. If it did, Purice said, its current coaching staff would likely be replaced and those interested in the sport would be unable to join.

Anyone who shows commitment and the ability to bond with teammates has the opportunity to join the program. Most who join have no rowing experience going into college. Purice said cuts happen naturally due to the rigid structure by which the team abides, which includes 6:00 a.m. practices and 20 hours of training per week.

“Rowing is not a sport where you can bring ego, because ego will not get you anywhere,” Purice said. “Once you’re in the boat, you pull for each other.”

UO club rowing recently received a $30,000 grant from ASUO that enabled the purchases of 11 new ergs, survival suits for coxswains, a new motorboat for coaches and new oars—items that were “unimaginable just three years ago,” head coach Marlene Kindorf said via email.

Rowing has also gained several sponsors, including KIND Bar, Run Gum, Umpqua Oats, Bob’s Red Mill and Nancy’s Yogurt, some of which will have booths set up at the Erg-A-Thon.

The new funds and equipment will help UO club rowing continue to grow into a perennial national contender.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby

The Oregon fanbase was eager for change at the conclusion of the 2015 football season — especially after the Ducks squandered a 31-0 halftime lead at the Alamo Bowl and fell to TCU in triple-overtime. Oregon’s defense struggled all season long, ranking 116th in total defense out of 127 FBS teams. Defensive coordinator Don Pellum was demoted to linebackers coach shortly thereafter.

New, Oregon defensive coordinator Brady Hoke brings a fresh perspective to the defense. In his first press conference under the new title on Thursday, Hoke said Oregon’s defense will be “aggressive and chaotic.”

“It seems like we’ve got a great group of kids. I don’t know if they’re football players yet — that’s to be determined — but everything from the administrative all down has been great.”

Hoke plans to run a 4-3 defense, which features four down linemen and three linebackers, as opposed to the 3-4 defense Oregon has run for years. Starting in a 4-3, he said, helps how the coaching staff will teach various packages.

Under the new system, some players will transition to what Hoke called a “rush-end,” which means the defensive end who lines up with the tight end will be expected to play the C-gap and stop the run, more so than rush the passer.

“We want to be able to make it easy on the guys,” Hoke said. “We’ve talked about being explosive defensively — part of that is putting guys into positions to make plays.”

He asked the coaching staff not to tell him about the current players on the roster, because he doesn’t want to go in with any preconceived notions. He hasn’t evaluated players yet, but he has met with everyone on defense except two players.

Hoke watched the tape from Oregon’s last three games — against TCU, Oregon State and USC — and acknowledged Oregon is losing some talented players up front, such as defensive end DeForest Buckner. He said he saw some guys “not play perfect and sometimes not play with the effort you know they can play with.”

But film wasn’t something he put too much weight on as the Michigan head coach, and he won’t use it to make determinations about which Oregon’s defensive players fit his new system.

“From a defensive standpoint of moving from one scheme to another, it’s really not fair, in some ways, to judge guys up front when they’re playing a two-gap and then going to a one-gap scheme.”

Hoke put together a 31-20 record in four seasons as the Michigan head coach, but his team’s performance declined from start to finish, which led to his termination in 2014. He went 11-2 in 2011, 8-5 in 2012, 7-6 in 2013 and 5-7 in 2014.

Hoke was out of coaching last year, instead working for SiriusXM Radio’s college football channel, which “kept [him] very engaged” in the sport. With SiriusXM, he made trips to several different schools, including Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia and Ole Mis, to watch them practice and adapt his own defensive strategies accordingly.

Hoke said he will coach a position this fall, although he doesn’t know which one yet. Still, he plans to walk around a lot at practice and work with different position groups.

A defensive-minded coach, Hoke is excited to be able to work exclusively with the defense for a change.

“I believe there is a way you play defense [with] a physicalness, and you have to have that every day — it doesn’t just happen on Saturdays,” Hoke said. “But if we’re playing with our hair is on fire, we’re going to be okay.”

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College football teams go to great lengths to draw elite high school athletes to their programs. On National Signing Day Feb. 3, the day that recruits sign binding agreements to play for a college, University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh raised the bar.

Harbaugh turned the day into a two-hour, sold-out show featuring appearances from Tom Brady, Derek Jeter, hip-hop group Migos and many other stars.

And it worked. The nation’s top recruit and top kicker, who had both been committed to Penn State, announced their commitments to Michigan toward the end of the extravaganza. 247Sports ranked Michigan’s 2016 recruiting class — a team’s new batch of players — No. 5 in the country, compared to Oregon’s No. 28.

University of Oregon athletic department spokesman Craig Pintens said other schools will emulate Michigan’s approach. But Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said during his Signing Day press conference that he won’t follow Harbaugh’s approach in future years.

That doesn’t mean Oregon isn’t pouring resources into recruiting. From 2009 to 2013, Oregon spent the sixth-most nationwide on football recruiting and the most of any Pac-12 school.

To stay competitive, it will have to keep spending.

Oregon Ducks head coach Mark Helfrich walks out of the Moshofsky center to greet fans. The No. 18 Oregon Ducks face the Oregon State Beavers in the Civil War at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Ore. on Nov. 27, 2015. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

“There are no spending limits, but the NCAA rules are very strict on recruiting, which curbs the amount spent on recruiting,” Pintens said via email.

The NCAA definition of recruiting expenses includes: “Transportation, lodging and meals for prospective student-athletes and institutional personnel.” The NCAA doesn’t allow schools to hire individuals “for the primary purpose of recruiting” or pay student-athletes’ expenses, except during official visits. Oregon spent $1,514,082 on recruiting — $708,675 on football — in 2015.

Due to these regulations, schools have to find different ways to attract the nation’s best athletes.

The facilities that Nike co-founder Phil Knight donated to the Oregon athletic department are designed to intrigue recruits, but don’t count toward the recruiting budget. Prospective and current Ducks frequently cite the $95 million Hatfield-Dowlin Complex and $42 million Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes as factors in their decisions to choose Oregon over other schools.

“As a recruit, to be able to step in there — I mean, if I had to do it all over again and I stepped in there, I’d tell coach [Chip] Kelly that I’d sign the paperwork then and there,” Marcus Mariota told 247Sports when the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex opened in 2013.

Knight’s latest facility gift is the 29,000-square-foot, $19.2 million Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center, on which construction began in January. The center, which will include 3-D motion capture technology and a neurocognitive center to help diagnose and treat concussions, may be a part of Knight’s effort to keep Oregon ahead of the recruiting curve. Equipped with an “athlete fitting room,” the center is also a way to showcase Nike products to recruits, UO director of equipment operations Aaron Wasson said.

Oregon’s facilities set the pace for other schools.

Clemson University in South Carolina, for example, recently announced plans for a $55 million football complex that includes a mini-golf course and laser tag arena.

And when the University of Alabama added a waterfall to its weight room in 2013, Ohio State University followed suit with a waterfall of its own a few months later.

“If you’re not going to be paying a player as an employee, this is what you do,” two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Gilbert Gaul wrote in Billion Dollar Ball: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football. “You just lavish on them all this other stuff.”

Athletic departments don’t always file recruiting-related expenses under their recruiting budgets.

The University of Tennessee spent almost $6.5 million on football recruiting from fiscal years 2009 to 2013 — nearly 40 percent more than any other major college program. But Tennessee vice chancellor and athletic director Dave Hart told USA TODAY Sports that Tennessee may not actually be spending more than other schools. Hart said Tennessee lists any recruiting-related expenses on its NCAA reporting forms, whereas other schools may put some of those expenses into other accounts.

The Oregon Ducks host Cal at Autzen Stadium on Nov. 7, 2015. (Cole Elsasser/Emerald)

Oregon, for example, lists the expense of “recruiting publications” under the non-recruiting category “Fundraising, Marketing and Promotions,” according to its 2015 NCAA Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report.

Some recruiting efforts avoid the books altogether. Former University of Louisville graduate assistant coach Andre McGee paid for strippers to dance and have sex with recruits at parties at a campus dorm from 2010 to 2014, ESPN reported. The allegations prompted Louisville to self-impose a one-year postseason-ban on its men’s basketball team, amid an ongoing NCAA investigation.

Spending does not guarantee wins or a top recruiting class. But because so many recruiting expenses aren’t reported as such, there is no definitive way to compare the amount each school spends or whether those expenses correlate with on-field success.

What is clear, though, is schools will keep finding ways to out-do one another in order to impress high school athletes. As schools with the most resources up the ante, Oregon’s price to stay in the competition only gets higher.

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Redshirt junior pitcher Cole Irvin said with certainty the Ducks will make it to the College World Series in 2016, something they haven’t done in the seven seasons since the baseball program’s reinstatement.

“We are going to Omaha this year,” Irvin said. “I want to make that statement clear.”

Since 2009, the Ducks have gone 225-147-1, made the NCAA Regional tournament five times and the Super Regional once in 2012, when they came within one game of a World Series berth.

But Irvin exuded confidence in regards to the upcoming 2016 season, mentioning “Omaha” about as many times as Peyton Manning yells it in a football game, during his interview with the media Wednesday.

“This year is unlike any other year that I’ve been here, and even the years before that,” Irvin said. “The weekend rotation is incredible, and the back of our bullpen is equally as sharp.”

Irvin called Oregon’s pitching staff this season the “best pitching staff in the country.”

The starting rotation will feature three tall, hard-throwing left-handers including himself, redshirt sophomore Matt Krook and sophomore David Peterson. Junior side-armer Cooper Stiles will likely pitch the eighth innings as the set-up man for junior Stephen Nogosek, who will take on the closer role.

Junior shortstop Mark Karaviotis and senior outfielder Phil Craig-St. Louis were thrilled by the idea of playing weekend series behind three starting pitchers who all have the potential to be Friday starters.

“I think those guys are really going to carry us where we need to go,” Karaviotis said.

It’s unclear yet who will be the Friday-night starter, but Krook appears to be the man to beat. He missed the entire 2015 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, but said he feels “great physically” and is “almost to 100 percent now.” He said he plans to pick up right where he left off as a freshman in 2014, when he struck out 60 batters in 45.1 innings with just 22 hits allowed and a 1.79 ERA.

“I’m planning on going 100 percent right out of the gate,” Krook said.

Irvin, who missed the entire 2014 season with the same ulnar collateral ligament injury as Krook, returned to action last season a shell of his freshman self. As a freshman in 2013, Irvin finished with a 12-3 record and 2.48 ERA after throwing 116.0 innings, the second-most in school history. In 2015, he went 2-5 with a 4.10 ERA in 16 starts.

Irvin took three months off over summer to regroup. He said his biggest problem last season was being too focused on his MLB Draft stock, which proved to be a distraction. His draft stock ended up falling — he was picked in the 32nd round of the 2015 MLB Draft compared to the 29th round of the 2012 MLB Draft, out of high school — and he declined to sign professionally.

“Today I’m a better ballplayer, I think,” Irvin said. “I can mentally get through pretty much anything now.”

Manager George Horton wasn’t quite as confident as Irvin was about getting to Omaha this season.

“Not to disagree with Cole, but I’ve taken that approach from where I used to coach, where we were making that trip pretty frequently, and tried to instill that into our culture here. And the guys have kind of bought into it; the only thing we haven’t done is walked the walk.”

“It’s great that Cole thinks that way, and hopefully that will show up when he’s in a real uniform, competing against other quality hitters and pitchers,” Horton said. “Saying ‘going to Omaha’ is one thing, but it’s a lot of work, and that’s what makes it so special.”

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Should Oregon baseball fail to advance to a Super Regional in 2016, its season would be considered a disappointment, and manager George Horton, who has yet to reach a College World Series in seven seasons at Oregon, could find himself coaching for his job in 2017.

Horton was a sexy hire when the Ducks appointed him to take over their resurrected program in 2007. As the head coach of Cal State Fullerton (CSUF) for 10 years, Horton accumulated a 490-212-1 record and made six College World Series appearances. He was named National Coach of the Year twice and won a national title in 2004.

Since joining Oregon, Horton has amassed a respectable 225-147-1 record and guided the team to Regional tournaments five times. His contract was renewed after the Ducks went 46-19 and hosted a Super Regional in 2012, but the Ducks have failed to qualify for a Super Regional since that landmark season. They finished the 2015 season 38-25 after sneaking into and quickly exiting the Regional tournament. In 2014 and 2015, they finished last among Pac-12 teams in hits, runs, walks, stolen bases and extra-base hits per game.

Horton’s current contract guarantees him $500,000 per year, with the possibility of roughly $300,000 more in possible incentives. But the contract expires in 2017, and with the program’s recent regression, Oregon will have to consider a switch at head coach if the Ducks again don’t reach their potential. Horton’s sense of urgency to make a deep postseason run is greater now than ever.

Oregon boasts one of the most formidable starting rotations in college baseball in 2016, a trio of tall, hard-throwing left-handers whose performance will likely correlate with the team’s success. Redshirt sophomore Matt Krook will make his long-anticipated return from the ulnar collateral ligament injury he suffered mid-start in 2014. Redshirt junior Cole Irvin will try to return to his freshman form after struggling in his return from Tommy John surgery last year, and sophomore David Peterson will try to build off his rookie campaign, in which he set the program record for strikeouts by a freshman with 81 in 82.0 innings.

Former pitching coach Dean Stiles, however, just left the Ducks to accept the same position at Florida International, even though his son Cooper Stiles is a pitcher for Oregon. The Ducks filled the vacancy with administrative assistant Mitch Karraker, a former Oregon catcher and the brother of senior pitcher Jack Karraker. A down year for this pitching staff would represent a colossal waste of talent.

Oregon’s biggest concern entering the 2016 season is its offensive firepower. It lost its two best hitters, Mitchell Tolman and Scott Heineman, to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Texas Rangers in the 2015 MLB Draft, as well as its biggest home-run threat, Shaun Chase, to graduation. Outfielders Phil Craig-St. Louis and Jakob Goldfarb will try to fill those voids, although neither hit above .300 or slugged above .385 last season—in fact, no returning player did. Freshmen standouts Matt Kroon and Travis Moniot could end up shouldering a large workload on offense.

Redshirt sophomore outfielder A.J. Balta and redshirt senior outfielder Steven Packard are expected to return to action after both missing the 2015 season due to injuries. Balta was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American after hitting .242 with three home runs, 12 doubles and 29 RBI in 2014. Packard played in 38 games in 2014, starting 11 at designated hitter and hitting .290, including .440 in the last 11 games he played.

Oregon was ranked 14th in a preseason poll by D1Baseball, behind Oregon State (5th), California (9th), UCLA (11th) and Southern California (12th). But the Ducks’ expectations are set much higher than fifth place in the Pac-12, as it could be a long time before their bullpen arms are better than they are now. Whether Horton can maximize the potential of his talented rotation and generate production from a lackluster group of hitters remains to be seen.

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Oregon cross country recruit Katie Rainsberger was named the 2015-16 Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year on Thursday morning. Rainsberger will join the Ducks on scholarship in the fall.

Rainsberger was pulled out of her class at Air Academy High School in Colorado and taken into the locker room, where her family, coaches, teammates and classmates helped surprise her with the award. She thought she was there to pose for a few headshot photos, but when Rainsberger saw the local news outlets there filming, she was at a loss for words.

“It took me a second to realize what was happening,” Rainsberger said. “Just to hold the trophy and see the names on it that have come before me — Peyton Manning and Derek Jeter — it was kind of awe-inspiring.”

Over the past 31 years, Gatorade has honored more than 14,000 high school athletes on the state level, and just 280 National Players of the Year. Other previous recipients of the prestigious award include Karl-Anthony Towns, Maya Moore, Jabari Parker, Kerri Walsh and Andrew Wiggins.

“It’s just a tremendous to be even mentioned in that company,” Rainsberger said.

Rainsberger raced to the national title at the Nike Cross Nationals Final this past season with a time of 16:56.8. She also won the NXN Southwest Regional championship in 17:07 and the Class 4A individual state championship with a course-record time of 17:39, leading the Kadets to a state title as a team.

Rainsberger is the state’s returning Gatorade Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year, but didn’t know she was in the running for the national title.

“There’s always hope, but I had no idea it would actually happen,” Rainsberger said. “You dream of these things happening but you don’t picture it happening to yourself.”

Rainsberger committed to Oregon during the early signing period last fall. She developed an immediate bond with assistant coach Maurica Powell during her official visit, and felt Oregon was the atmosphere in which she wanted to be.

“With college athletics, you have to have a really good relationship with your coach,” Rainsberger said. “Being able to connect with [Powell] was the solidifying factor.”

Rainsberger maintained a 4.49 GPA in the classroom while serving as the sports editor of her school newspaper and volunteering locally for the USATF, as well as charity road races. She looks forward to wearing “a big ‘O’ on [her] chest” and continuing Oregon’s long legacy of distance running next school year.

“With company like Jordan Hasay and Galen Rupp — they’re people that you look up to,” Rainsberger said. “Just to be able to represent Oregon — it’s all really exciting.”

Katie Rainsberger of Air Academy High School (Colorado Springs, CO) poses with her Gatorade National Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year award during an assembly at her school on Thursday, January 21, 2016. Photo Credit/Gatorade.

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– The Emerald examined the Ducks’ top prospects for the NFL Draft, as well as each one’s concerns, projected round value, and potential suitors. Defensive end DeForest Buckner tops the list, projected as a top-seven selection.

– 6-foot-5 Australia-native Jacinta Vandenberg has played a key role for Oregon women’s basketball, providing competition for Jillian Alleyne in practice while pulling in 5.5 rebounds and 6.6 points per game.

– “Ego,” the name of the Oregon men’s club ultimate frisbee team, lost a third of its players last year for various reasons, but brings a full roster into the 2016 season. The team has finished in the final four of the USA Ultimate D-1 College Championships each of the past five seasons.

– New Oregon defensive coordinator Brady Hoke described his interview process with the Oregonian. Mark Helfrich reportedly asked him a lot about X’s and O’s and how to defend the spread offense.

– Register-Guard columnist Austin Meek argues why the Pac-12 Network is not viewer-friendly. Viewers have trouble differentiating between its regional and national feeds.

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The Emerald examined the Oregon Ducks’ top five 2016 NFL Draft prospects, analyzing each one’s strengths and weaknesses, draft stock and possible landing spots. The draft begins on April 28 and runs through April 30.

DeForest Buckner (DE) – 6-foot-7, 300 pounds

The Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year will undoubtedly be the first Duck taken off the boards in the 2016 NFL Draft. Buckner excels at stuffing the run and often takes on two or three blockers at a time when pass-rushing. He could have gone into the draft last year, but elected instead to play another year for Oregon.

Buckner is a physical specimen capable of making an immediate impact, and he probably won’t be available for long. Jerry Azzinaro, Oregon’s former defensive line coach who recruited Buckner, is reportedly a likely candidate to join new 49ers coach Chip Kelly’s staff in San Francisco; it’d be hard to see them passing on Buckner if he is still available. Greg Valerio of Niners Nation said Buckner would be a “perfect fit” to reunite with Arik Armstead in San Francisco, but doesn’t expect him to fall to No. 7 overall.

“Scouts are very high on Buckner,” Valerio said.

Dolphins On Scout, a draft and recruiting news outlet from the ScoutMedia network, said Buckner is “way more developed at his position” and “not nearly as raw” as former Oregon defensive end Dion Jordan, who the Dolphins selected No. 3 overall in 2013.

Mel Kiper Jr. had the Dallas Cowboys selecting Buckner at No. 4 overall on his first 2016 mock draft.

Concerns: Some concern exists that Buckner is a raw prospect in need of a lot of work, that he lacks urgency and an “it” factor. Regardless, Buckner is widely considered a top-10 draft pick.

Projected round: 1st

Potential suitors: Chargers, Cowboys, Jaguars, 49ers, Dolphins, Buccaneers, Giants

Bralon Addison (WR) – 5-foot-10, 190 pounds

Addison, a former quarterback in high school, is an exceptional route-runner with tremendous hands and athleticism. He draws comparisons to former Oregon State receiver Brandin Cooks, who is now the New Orleans Saints’ leading target. He’s the type of speedy, versatile playmaker tailor-made for the NFL’s new wave of up-tempo offenses. Addison has also made a large impact on Oregon’s special teams throughout his career, returning 36 punts for 451 yards and three touchdowns.

Concerns: Addison tore his ACL and missed the 2014 season, but came back in 2015 and led the team in receiving with 63 catches for 804 yards and 10 touchdowns. He’s a bit undersized, but still talented enough to be a No. 2 or No. 3 receiver and a successful return man.

Projected round: 3rd – 4th

Potential suitors: Browns, Chargers, Ravens, 49ers, Bears, Rams, Redskins, Vikings, Bengals, Panthers, Patriots

Tyler Johnstone (LT) – 6-foot-6, 295 pounds

CBS Sports ranks Johnstone the No. 17 prospect at his position. He was named Freshman All-American and Pac-12 1st Team All-Conference in 2012 and has been on scouts’ radars ever since. He’s started 13 games each of his last three seasons and gained 30 to 40 pounds since he joined the Ducks five years ago. Now, he has both the athleticism and size to be an immediate starter in the NFL.

Johnstone is well-known for drive-blocking defenders and playing to the whistle on every snap. His position comes at a premium, and his strong work ethic and coachable personality could convince a team to take a chance on him sooner rather than later.

Concerns: Johnstone tore his ACL during the 2013 Alamo Bowl and missed the entire 2014 season after he tore the same ligament again the next offseason. But he came back in 2015, started every game and earned 2nd-Team All-America honors.

Projected round: 5th – 6th

Potential suitors: Titans, 49ers, Dolphins, Buccaneers, Giants, Bears, Saints, Eagles, Raiders, Lions, Colts, Bills, Jets, Redskins, Vikings, Eagles, Seahawks, Packers, Chiefs, Broncos, Cardinals, Panthers, Patriots

Byron Marshall (RB/WR) – 5-foot-10, 205 pounds

Marshall, the only active player with 1,000-yard rushing and 1,000-yard receiving seasons, has great quickness and speed, but been susceptible to injury in recent years. He suffered a leg injury on a kick-off against Utah, underwent surgery the following week and did not return to action for the remainder of his senior season.

After leading the team in rushing as a sophomore and receiving as a junior, Marshall had the option of seeking a medical redshirt for his senior year, but said it was “time to move on to the next chapter” in December. He said he thinks he will be healthy in time for Oregon’s pro day.

Concerns: Although Marshall possesses the athleticism to play multiple skill positions, he lacks the size he needs to receive a full NFL workload at wide receiver or running back. His recent injury will likely also hurt his stock.

Projected round: 7th – undrafted

Potential suitors: Titans, Browns, Chargers, Cowboys, Ravens, Giants, Bears, Colts, Rams, Redskins, Panthers, Patriots

Vernon Adams Jr. (QB) – 5-foot-11, 201 pounds

Adams quietly had one of the best seasons by a college quarterback of the past decade. A graduate transfer, his passer rating (179.1) and yards per attempt (10.2) ranked No. 1 in the country in his only Division-I season. The Ducks’ success in 2015 almost directly correlated with Adams’s presence on the field, most notably in the Valero Alamo Bowl, in which Oregon blew a 31-point lead after Adams left the game with a head injury before halftime.

Adams has a big arm with surprising accuracy and the ability to throw on the move. He has a knack for eluding pressure and making big plays. His improvisational skills draw comparison to those of Seattle Seahawks’ former third-round draft pick Russell Wilson.

Concerns: Adams is undersized and unproven with only one FBS season, in which he missed two full games and played injured in at least two others, under his belt.

Projected round: 7th to undrafted

Potential suitors: Browns, Chargers, Cowboys, 49ers, Bears, Saints, Eagles, Rams, Bills, Texans, Steelers

Other potential draftees: 

Alex Balducci (DT), Christian French (OLB), Joe Walker (ILB), Rodney Hardrick (ILB)

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Oregon will enter the 2016 season ranked No. 14 in the preseason poll D1Baseball released Tuesday. The Ducks also ranked No. 14 in the Collegiate Baseball poll released last month.

The Ducks finished the 2015 season with a 38-25 record and snuck into the NCAA Tournament with two wins over No. 2 UCLA to close the regular season. They went 1-2 in regionals play and were eliminated in the first round.

Oregon has yet to qualify for the College World Series under manager George Horton, who took over the program when it was resurrected in 2009. The team has appeared in every NCAA Tournament since 2010 but made just one Super Regional in 2012, when it was the host team and No. 5 seed nationally.

Oregon returns seven starting position players to its roster, in addition to a formidable starting rotation featuring left-handers Cole Irvin, David Peterson and Matt Krook. Krook missed last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

The Ducks will play 17 games against team ranked inside the top 25 of the poll, including 14 against teams ranked inside the top 12. Their first series with a ranked team comes March 11-13 against No. 15 Mississippi State.

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The 2016 Valero Alamo Bowl was a gut-wrenching tale of two polar-opposite halves. The Oregon Ducks had racked up 376 yards of offense and led the TCU Horned Frogs 31-0 at halftime. In the second half, they gave up 31 points, scored none and amassed just 19 yards on 18 offensive plays.

At the end of triple-overtime, the Ducks lost 47-41.

“A lot of guys got comfortable, and just put it in cruise control,” defensive back Charles Nelson said. “You just can’t do that in a game like this.”

The Ducks looked like a completely different team in the second half, in large part because quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. — whose presence on the field has been directly correlated with their success — was in street clothes on the sidelines. Adams, who sustained a brutal helmet-to-helmet hit just before the end of the second quarter, was escorted to the locker room and did not return to action.

Back-up quarterback Jeff Lockie replaced him, and couldn’t get a thing going offensively. The last time Lockie saw significant playing time was against Washington State on Oct. 10, when Adams was out with a broken finger and the Ducks blew a fourth quarter lead and fell 45-38, also in triple-overtime.

Lockie received numerous low snaps from center Doug Brenner, who replaced starting center Matt Hegarty after Hegarty also sustained a game-ending injury. The low-snaps weren’t the result of a miscommunication on his or Lockie’s part — they were “just low,” Brenner said.

Several of the snaps Lockie received hit the ground, including one that initially appeared to have resulted in a long touchdown to wide receiver Darren Carrington on a slant route. But as Lockie bent down to pick up the ball, his knee touched the ground, and the play was ruled dead, wiping the touchdown off the board.

Lockie also dropped a crucial snap on third down in the third overtime period — the ball was low, but it went through his hands and hit him in the stomach — and he took a sack. The next play he threw an incomplete pass that ended the game and sealed TCU’s miraculous comeback.

“It’s my responsibility to catch the ball,” Lockie said. “Sometimes that happens, and I just need to do a better job.”

Adams and Hegarty were both graduate transfers for the Ducks this season, and the utter incompetence of their back-ups is a frightening look ahead to next season. Oregon has another graduate transfer quarterback, Dakota Prukop from Montana State, committed to play his final year of eligibilty for Oregon in 2016, but the fact that depth was so thin this season is troubling.

“We need to improve our depth,” defensive coordinator Don Pellum said. “We need to be able to go longer and deeper.”

Despite Lockie’s blatant struggles, head coach Mark Helfrich didn’t consider a quarterback change in the second half.

“There weren’t a ton of options there available,” Helfrich said. “Certainly you want quality depth, and [the quarterback] position is absolutely at a premium.”

Including Prukop, the Ducks could potentially have many quarterbacks competing for the starting job next year. Lockie, walk-on Taylor Alie, former four-star recruit Morgan Mahalak and redshirt freshman Travis Jonsen are all expected to return to the roster. Additionally, high school recruits Terry Wilson, Justin Herbert and Tristen Wallace could enter the competition.

Oregon has not had much luck developing its recent quarterback recruits, however, so a broader competition does not necessarily imply future success. During the three and a half regular season games Adams sat out due to injury this year, the Ducks played downright poor football. They got trounced by Utah and stunned by Washington State at home, and barely threw the ball against Georgia State and Colorado — the games they won.

Helfrich said he has confidence in all his quarterbacks, but he may be the only one.

Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby