Position battles have been the theme throughout Oregon football’s fall camp. Cornerback and wide receiver have been two positions that garnered attention in particular.

After Practice No. 8 on Wednesday, special teams coach Joe Lorig shed light on another, just as important, competition -- punter.

Lorig, offensive lineman Ajani Cornelius and linebacker Devon Jackson talked with media.

Here are five takeaways from those interviews ...

Special teams can go overlooked at times, but the best teams know that a field position battle can be the difference between wins and losses when the margins are at their finest. Lorig and the Ducks are using fall camp to determine who will give them the upper hand when games are decided by this metric.

The punting contenders include Luke Dunne, Ross James and Matthew Rigney. On Wednesday, Lorig explained his process for delineating between the three.

“Really, it’s about consistency,” Lorig said. “We chart everything that we do. It’s about seeing not a lot of catastrophic kicks, seeing the consistency. It doesn’t need to be a bomb every time.”

Lorig and head coach Dan Lanning check the charts following each practice. They track operation time, hang time, distance and the ball location. A good punt tends to hang for 4.5 seconds, travels about 40 yards and, if possible, lands between the numbers and the sidelines.

It’ll be those precise differences that separate each punter from one another.

On Wednesday, the freshman Dunne showed off his strength.

“Today, Luke Dunne hit 66 yards, 5.2 hang [time], in a competitive session,” Lorig said. “ We have three guys that are pretty good. It’ll be ongoing.”

Not only do the coaches check the charts, but they’ll put each punter in uncomfortable positions, with heavy rushes or odd plays calls and see which one responds best.