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DSA Roundtable: Newcomer MVP


The DSA Roundtable assembled once again to take a look at Oregon football’s upcoming season and some of the questions in the minds of fans. Expectations are high for 2018 and in order to achieve these goals, Coach Cristobal will need to fill some holes in the depth charts. Some prime candidates are the newcomers who arrived in time for spring.

Today we look to answer the question: Which of these spring camp newcomers (Travis Dye, Tyler Shough, D.J. Johnson, Steve Stephens, Verone McKinley, Haki Woods) will have the biggest 2018 impact and why?


Haki Woods is the consesus choice for Spring newcomer who will help most in 2018
Haki Woods is the consesus choice for Spring newcomer who will help most in 2018 (A.J. Jacobson)


Scott Reed:

I am going to go with Haki Woods on this one. The choice is made not because I don’t think that others will have an impact – or that Woods will have a longer term impact, but from everything I saw and what coaches have said, he looks more ready to play immediately. He has more experience as a student of the game. I expect Woods to contend to be the first defensive back off the bench and to be an impact player on defense and special teams. He could even push for a starting spot.

I was tempted to go with Verone McKinley, but it is difficult to project practicing and playing against a limited number of players and situations to competition at the Pac-12 level. I think McKinley will get plenty of playing time, but Woods just seems to have that extra ‘edge’ as an experienced junior college player.

Dale Newton:

At 6-3, 201 redshirt junior Haki Woods fills a specific need, the tall, physical corner who can match up against big receivers. The 2017 NJCAA All-American joined the Oregon roster to play now. With two to play two, there's no saving him. Many PAC-12 teams employ 4-wide receiver sets, making depth at DB an absolute necessity.

Woods has been in college for three years and has a mature body. He excels in film study and has experience, 45 tackles and 5 pass breakups for Pima Community College last year. He fills a need at a position that lacks depth. The other choices are talented players, but their route to the field is blocked by older, more experienced players.

Highly-touted D.J. Johnson looks unlikely to get his NCAA waiver. Dye 's likely to redshirt. If Shough plays extended minutes, something terrible happened. McKinley and Stephens will compete hard, but they're just not quite ready to beat out the veterans ahead of them.

A.J. Jacobson:

Watching the newcomers during spring drills was exciting. Travis Dye, Tyler Shough, D.J. Johnson, Steve Stephens, Verone McKinley and Haki Woods all looked like players who will have what it takes to be meaningful contributors to this team before their career is done.

Ideally all the freshmen will redshirt. None of them want to and some of them won’t, but generally I like to redshirt all freshmen unless they will be in the two deep. Of the four, Verone McKinley probably has the best chance of doing that.

D.J. Johnson looked very good this spring. He certainly passes the eyeball test. But in his case, we have to expect that he will have to sit this year after transferring.

This leaves Haki Woods who looked like a guy, with his length, that will help the defensive back group right away. He may not start but will play nickel or cornerback at the Pac-12 level this season.

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