Oregon held its sixth practice of fall camp - and first in full pads Tuesday. There was limited media availability prior to the practice. Following the practice, head coach Dan Lanning, defensive end Jordan Burch, and wide receiver Tez Johnson spke with media.
Lanning expressed satisfaction with the day's work, emphasizing the focus on competition and the team's developing toughness. He noted that while the team practiced in full pads, tackling was limited, with only a few live plays conducted.
HEAD COACH DAN LANNING:
On replacing Bucky Irving and his catching ability out of the backfield: "I think the good thing about this position is there's a lot of these guys that can catch the ball. I think more as we go through camp, we'll see how that is, but I wasn't us to be able to stick any running back in the game and see him catch the ball out of the backfield. I would tell you that our guys that are repping out there with the ones and twos are guys that can do that."
On Dante Moore and Austin Novosad: "Both of those guys have had really good days and then they've had days where they both can improve. Both of them are really starting to get comfortable with what the call is and anticipating what their answers are within each call."
On assistant coach Brian Michalowski: "He's one of my most trusted friends and guys that I get to work with. He's been with me in a lot of stops for good reason because he does a great job developing those guys. I think he has an immense amount of knowledge that he's able to share with his players and he gets the best out of them. You watch his position and they improve"
DE JORDAN BURCH:
On competition during camp: "I love it. I love when we have competition because the offense is talking and we're talking too. Any time we have sprints on the line or any little extra workout, we're all talking to each other and it pushes each player on the team. I love it."
On the young edge rushers: "They teach me a lot. People have different mindsets, different pass rush moves so I learn a lot from them. Just being around them, good group of guys always making jokes, it's just fun to be around."
On his leadership growth from last season to now: "I've been taking my time talking to Coach Tuioti, trying to get the playbook. Now I can play without thinking so much, I can make calls and put people in the right spot."
WR TEZ JOHNSON:
On how the secondary has challenged him in camp: "Every play has been tough. Last year, I could figure it out a little bit just based off of knowing where to go, but for some reason they got me thinking a lot. I don't know if it's a blitz or they're going to cover me or double team me. That back end this year is going to be really good this year so it's a challenge every day."
On his focus on improving: "Every day I just go out there and want to get better at one thing. I want to get better at everything, but there's not that much time in the world to get better at everything. Whether that's catching the ball, seeing it all the way through, running a good route. Sometimes you get lazy with your feet because you're so tired out there, you're dead. So being able to maintain that focus, that's basically what I want to get better at."
On practicing against Brandon Johnson: "He's fast. When you find a guy that can match your speed, it's going to be pretty tough. Not all your go-to routes are going to work so now you got to work on new things. BJ is really good, he's going to be really good for us."
