The Oregon Ducks practiced in their spring game uniforms and matched up green vs yellow on Thursday morning before they kickoff the annual spring game and it feels like they are fully ready to hit the ground running on Saturday at 1:00 pm PT.

Senior defensive lineman Casey Rogers was excited in his post-practice interview to strap on the pads and show the yellow team that “Saturday is not going to be fun for them.”

He explained that having the team separated into their spring game squads adds some eagerness to the last practice of spring camp where you’d usually expect guys to be laboring and banged up by the end, that is far from the truth for this team.

“You would think on the last day of spring ball that guys are beat up and sore,” Rogers said. “But that was definitely not the case today. It was really fun to get out there we were talking a lot of smack to each other.”

Rogers is a part of a defensive line room that his filled with veterans, among guys like Brandon Dorlus, Popo Aumavae and Keyon Ware-Hudson — all of whom weren’t participating in spring camp last year due to injuries.

Defensive line coach Tony Tuioti spoke after practice about how his group can “definitely” be the strength of this team and how the work that they are getting in now will be extremely valuable going down the line because it's work that they didn’t get at this time last year.

“You're talking about four guys that didn’t have any spring ball reps (last year). And they came in and played the season last year. As opposed to now they got all these reps ready to go,” Tuioti said.

Rogers specifically is a guy that has a ton more to show according to Tuioti.

“It’s a totally different Casey Rogers. I’ve been with him for a long time now. He’s sitting at 300 pounds now, last year he was playing at 290. So you got a bigger Casey Rogers [who’s] bigger, faster and stronger,” Tuioti said. “Just really excited about his growth. He’s a great team leader – just a great guy.”

Jordan Burch on the other hand is a name that we’ve heard players and staff alike rave about, and for good reason. The South Carolina transfer edge rusher has made waves this spring and what we keep hearing about him is how physically dominant he can be.

Tuioti continued to echo that message and explained the depth luxury that his group has.

“Just the sheer physical size, speed and power. A lot of offensive tackles aren’t used to seeing guys that big on the edge,” Tuioti said. “[Brandon] Dorlus can do that. Matayo [Uiagalele] is not a small guy either… then you got Mase [Funa] so we got guys on the dge that can rush and we’ve got some guys on the interior that can really push the pocket too.”

Defensive back Tysheem Johnson is a player, like other newcomers on the team, that is in a similar position as Rogers was in last year, and just as the others have said about making the decision to commit to Oregon was “a dream come true.”

Though Johnson was strictly playing safety at Ole Miss, he said that his versatility helped him quickly get adjusted to the position-less brand of football that the Oregon coaching staff has emphasized throughout spring camp.

“I’ve been playing free-field safety, boundary safety, Star. They’ve been moving me everywhere for the most part.” Johnson said.

There’s still two days until the spring game but as Johnson explained, you might not know it if you heard the talk going on between separated squads at practice.

“We were talking trash since we walked out of the tunnel this morning, so the game is gonna be exciting on Saturday,” Johnson said.