EUGENE, Ore. — Oregon defensive back Tysheem Johnson and his teammates have been gearing up for their Saturday matchup against Wisconsin with an unconventional tool—boxing gloves. The gloves are part of Coach Dan Lanning’s effort to curb penalties, especially holding calls.
“It’s definitely challenging to catch interceptions and stuff like that,” Johnson said, reflecting on the adaptation. “But it helps us not to grab people or not get any type of penalties whatsoever. So they’re good for us.”
As the Ducks prepare for the tough road test in Madison, Johnson also took a moment to evaluate his own penalties this season. When asked what he’d do differently, he didn’t hesitate. “Just play the ball smarter, not use my hands at all, try to play perfect technique. That’s what I would say.”
Johnson shrugged off a close call from a recent game, where a flag thrown on what he thought was an uncatchable ball cost him a penalty. “Yeah, that was a ref,” he said with a sigh. “I just got to live with it.”
Johnson credits Lanning’s motivational tactics as a significant factor in the team’s success this season, citing the coach’s unique weekly themes that resonate with the players.
“I love it, honestly. He brings a new theme to us every week, and it gets us juiced,” Johnson said with a smile. “He’s bringing the energy. Every theme he brung to us, we took full advantage of it and brung that on the field, and, shit, we won after that. So I would say I love all the time he comes with the meanings or the themes of the week. I love it.”
This coaching style, Johnson noted, is unlike anything he’s experienced before. “This is my first time ever having like such a hands-on coach and really diving into all the little details, whether it’s the fight song that we got to be prepared for or the crowd, just whatever. He’s a great coach.”
As the team heads into its matchup with Wisconsin, Johnson shared the secondary’s focus: “You know, every week we just go out there, try to be the best, try to show that we the top unit in the country, play penalty-free, and go get some more interceptions.”
Facing a seasoned quarterback, Oregon’s defense is ready. “Uh, he’s a good pocket passer in the pocket,” Johnson said of Wisconsin’s signal-caller. “He’s kind of accurate. That’s where he had most of his success. So, uh, we got to do a good job of playing good coverage on these receivers to make it hard for him.”
On a lighter note, Johnson described teammate Matayo Uiagalelei as a vital presence on and off the field. “Matayo, kind of a jokester. Matayo’s a dog, though. He’s definitely a funny guy, but when you get in that field, he’s a different beast, different animal.”
When asked to elaborate, Johnson laughed. “Uh, like, if you just see him, he might see me and say, ‘Gosh, hey,’ like, he might scream my name just on something funny, like, just to make me laugh or something. But that’s not what I mean by that. That’s because I kind of keep things loose.”
He continued, “Yeah, loose is a loose guy, not uptight. Just energy. He a dog. We know he’s going to be, if he ain’t making a sack, he’s going to make a play somehow, some way. And I love that for him, and I just hope he keeps doing that.”
When it comes to on-field coverage, Johnson appreciates Matayo’s impact. “For sure. Make us not have to cover as long at all,” he noted.
As anticipation builds for Saturday’s game, Johnson summed up his teammate’s reputation with a sense of pride. “Head-hunter, head-hunter,” he said. “I was waiting for that, though, because we already knew that he could hit, he could play, but we was waiting for everybody else to see it. So it made me excited. It turned me up.”
With Coach Lanning’s motivational strategies and the team’s defensive cohesion, Oregon’s preparation appears thorough as they aim to stymie Wisconsin’s offense and come away with a victory on the road.
