Duck Stuff: Morning Mud

Morning Mud

• All the talk has been about the battle for the QB spot between Costa and Thomas but the third string QB, Bryan Bennett is outplaying them in the first two days of camp according to Chris Courtney and Ken Goe.

True freshman quarterback Bryan Bennett  continues to make the most waves individually at the position. Bennett was once again very accurate and judicious with the ball today, displaying great field vision and consistency in and out of the pocket.

"Bryan's doing a really nice job," said Kelly, "He's really picked up things in terms of what we're doing for two days in.

Of course, the pads come on today and that changes everything. As defensive line coach Jerry Azzinaro so eloquently points out:

“All we’re doing right now is kind of playing in our underwear. Football is not played that way.”

• There have been a slew of watch list announcements the last couple of days, here is the breakdown.

Walter Camp Player of the Year: LaMichael James, Bednarik Award: Kenny Rowe, Maxwell Award: LaMichael James, Ted Hendricks Defensive End of the Year Award: Kenny Rowe. The Heisman Pundit named their top 10 impact list for true freshmen and Lache Seastrunk was on that list.

• Ken Goe does a nice job with an article on Kenny Rowe and another one on the defense in general.

On Kenny Rowe: Rowe is more than a defensive end. The Ducks alter the look of their defensive front periodically by having Rowe drop into coverage. His ability to play either as a ball-hawking linebacker or a sack specialist coming off the edge after the quarterback, allows Oregon to switch defenses without telegraphing the move with a substitution.


On the defense: The UO defense takes pride in being overlooked.

"We don't need newspaper articles every day," Paysinger said. "We don't need to be on ESPN or in the blogs or anything like that. We just want to go out there to play football."

But the attention might come their way this season anyway.

GO DUCKS!