Everything Dan Lanning said after Oregon's Saturday scrimmage

The Oregon football team scrimmaged Saturday as it crossed the midway point of spring practice, and coach Dan Lanning talked with reporters after the closed practice.

Of course, he was typically tight-lipped about what transpired, declining to even reveal the identity of the kicker who booted a 50-yard field goal for the Ducks.

He mentioned few names period, aside from redshirt freshman QB Austin Novosad and freshman QB Luke Moga.

"Some positives first scrimmage. Always going to be some highs and lows. The offense was able to move the ball early, defense kind of buckled down in the second half of the scrimmage," Lanning said. "We saw some positives from all of our quarterbacks. I thought some of our young guys really stood out -- Luke Moga, Austin Novosad did a really good job, had some really positives there, saw some guys be able to make some plays across the field for us. Overall, good operation, plenty for us to go attack and clean up."

Watch the full interview here and scroll down for a complete transcript of Lanning's comments ...

Full Dan Lanning transcript:

"Some positives first scrimmage. Always going to be some highs and lows. The offense was able to move the ball early, defense kind of buckled down in the second half of the scrimmage. We saw some positives from all of our quarterbacks. I thought some of our young guys really stood out -- Luke Moga, Austin Novosad did a really good job, had some really positives there, saw some guys be able to make some plays across the field for us. Overall, good operation, plenty for us to go attack and clean up."

What did you go into today looking to see?

"Improvement. I've got to go watch the film to see where we're at, but I thought our guys played with some good energy. But improvement, it's really simple."

Any big plays in the passing game given the conditions?

"There were a couple, a couple crossing routes we were able to hit, some successful plays there."

How did the weather impact things?

"Certainly made things harder. We did a decent job protecting the ball, but it certainly made things harder later in the scrimmage to be able to throw the ball effectively. That's where your run game has to show up. That's why you want to be a balanced team."

Do you prefer to have these conditions to prepare the team for the unexpected?

"Yeah, we prefer to be able to play in the conditions that are presented. We get a lot of different elements and today was a good element to be able to change it up."

How do you feel Poncho LaLoulu has done snapping so far this spring?

"I think he's been effective. I think he's been effective. It's something he wants to continue to attack and continue to improve on, but I think he's done a good job. Today we were pretty good on our snaps."

What were some of the good things you saw from Dante Moore and Dillon Gabriel today at QB?

"I'd say the speed of play shows up even more and more on scrimmage days because it's just a little bit faster pace, and I thought both of those guys handled it well. Both those guys were able to move around with their feet a little bit and utilize their feet, which was a positive to see from them. I thought overall we made positive decisions. There were some times we put the ball in jeopardy, we gotta protect, but in general, all of our quarterbacks I thought were able to execute. We've probably gotta establish, like I said, the run a little bit better in the second half of the scrimmage."

Anything that stood out from the defense?

"I'd say in the first half of the scrimmage they got their butts whooped sometimes, we had some sustained drives we were able to create some success and have some early scores. It was a really balanced scrimmage from my point of view, but in the second half that weather probably plays a little bit of a factor in that. But overall there were some guys that stuck out and were able to have some success?"

Was Tysheem able to play today?

"Yeah, Tysheem did a great job today in the scrimmage from what I was able to see."

How was tackling?

"I think that's the other piece. You're so used to thudding in practice, but we go live in some of these periods today and early on that that showed up. We've got to be able to tackle better, so that's why it's important you be able to recreate that."

What's the most important thing you can learn in this first scrimmage?

"I don't know if there's a most important because all of it matters, right? Everything matters. All the details matter. So we have to do a great job assessing, figuring out what our players are great at and figuring out what their strengths are and where we need to improve."

Any young players stand out today?

"Yeah, several of them. I wouldn't name anyone in particular. Again, I've got to go watch the film to give a great assessment. I might think somebody played well right now and I didn't get to watch every single snap of that person."

Urban Meyer said you guys have green, yellow and white groups out of fear you're going to lose guys to the portal ...

"I think it's a lot more than that. There's certainly a piece of us being able to manage our guys, but I think that allows you to develop your roster. You have the ability to put freshmen right beside a senior and see what he looks like, right? You get a chance to change the rotations because guess what, in season what's going to happen? Rotation's going to change. That might be something that was part of his observation, but there's a lot of other pieces that go into that for us and how we do that."

How were the specialists?

"We had some good kicks. We were able to make a long field goal today, a 50-yarder today. Some good, some bad, but I was able to see some positives there."

Can you share who made the 50?

"No."

How do you think that three-way competition at kicker is going?

"Yeah, I think we're still competing, right? We're still competing. We're not to Game 1 yet. We're going to wait until we get to that point."

What have you seen from Matt Bedford?

"Matt has great energy and enthusiasm. That really carries over to the field. he plays the game with some physicality, and I think Matt knows, 'Hey, I want to keep improving, I want to keep getting better.' But his demeanor that he walks into this building every day, I think that's a real positive for this team."

How is Devon Jackson coming along?

"He's done a good job of communicating this spring. That's something where we challenged him, to become a better communicator. I think that's really showing up, and he's always been a player that's really fast. Our key is be fast in the right direction. Continue to increase his physicality, and I think a lot of that is showing up this spring from Devon."

On Brian Michalowski's impact on the LBs in his new role?

"Yeah, I mean, I've known Brian for a long time. We worked together at Arizona State, Memphis, Georgia, so I've kind of always known what he's capable of and what he brings to the table. He's a really good position coach, does a good job with the details. I think his players have a much better feel of the game because of what he's able to bring. I think a lot of those same traits have shown up for our guys."

What's the optimal role for Jordan Burch in terms of in a rotation or every-down guy?=

"If you're good enough, you're old enough. Yeah, we certainly want to have a lot of players who can contribute. We have to figure out how many players we have that can play above the line, right? If we have above the line guys that can play above the line we're going to find ways to use them. I think Jordan will have a bigger role on this team, no doubt, with our expectations of what that looks like for him."

Who's taken the biggest jump from last year to this year?

"That's kind of hard to say. I think a lot of guys have made steady improvement. We go back, when we have a scrimmage day we go back and look at Marcus Mariota playing in a scrimmage, we look at Penei Sewell playing in a scrimmage, right? We look at Christian Gonzalez playing in a scrimmage. We kind of show them, this is them making plays in practice and those carry over to the games, right? So I think it's early for us to say, hey, this guy's made a huge step. This is part of that process."