A'lique Terry Talks About the Progress of his Group Through Spring

Oregon’s offensive line is going to look much different this year. And A’lique Terry might have his hands full this Spring. The Ducks only brought in a single transfer at the position which means they believe in the players already on their roster.

Coach Terry talked about his group following practice on Thursday and how some of the pieces are coming together this Spring.

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On Current Tackles:

“It’s about time for those guys to – it’s their chance now. We’ve had a great group of tackles the last few years that we’ve taken in these classes with the Fox Crader, with Zaire Addison, with the Zach Stascausky.
We had a ton of guys. Like, we eval really well. So, the last two years they were a little young. So we’re like, let’s take some portal guys who are one-year guys so that gives them still another nine to 12 months of development. Now we’re starting to pay dividends. There’s a lot of trust in these guys.

Obviously, Fox got an opportunity last year versus USC. And when these guys show up for the opportunities, they make the most of it. So it’s just true confidence in these guys. The last few off-seasons working with Wilson Love and getting bigger, faster, stronger, working with the law firm, obviously getting better in their skillset. But now there’s a true confidence, not only from the coaching staff, but their teammates as well, that they can get the job done.”

On Spring Competition:

“It’s been competitive as ever. And we literally just said that right now when we just left off the field right now. And it was cool because Dave is watching and he’s like, man, Trent’s getting better. And I’m like, all right, now I hope everybody pays attention to that, right? He’s an older guy, he’s going on his fifth year. One, he’s appreciative of a guy who’s playing almost the same position as him, appreciating the work that he’s starting to build up and starting to have. But then also there’s an appreciation for that, even though he’s competing with that guy, he still loves the fact that he’s getting better every single day. There’s a culture amongst our room that’s really elite. And I love it because it allows everybody to play at the highest level. And it brings out a competitive energy every single day.

Cause we say there’s five open spots, right? You would think in your mind, Poncho is the starting center, obviously, cause he’s an elite player, but there’s young centers behind Poncho that’s attacking and working every day to hopefully be in that position as well. So, you know, good and well, we’ll play the best five as humanly possible. So all these guys are putting their best foot forward for that.”

On Michael Bennett Addition:

“It was great to get Mikey because Mikey one is going to have some position flexibility, right, some position versatility. But if you turn on this film at right tackle at Yale, you can see a consistent, violent player. There were some things you see like when you watched the Ajani Cornelius, when you watched Harkey, when you watched Pregnon, there’s things and there’s certain traits that you’re like, oh, I know we can build on that. We can build on that. Mikey was a right tackle at Yale, played smart football, consistent football, but he played with a ton of technique, a ton of technique, and I think that was something that was real, like clear on his film. Cause a lot of guys, especially other places, may play with different technique and fundamentals and that kind of stuff.

It looked like he was playing in our system just with a different Jersey on. So as a coach, you know, a lot of the things that we communicate and talk about could translate well, let alone, like I’m always thinking about position flex. I know if we needed to move him at a different position, he’d have some of that same value, but as a tackle man, he’s been playing really consistent ball for us. He’s been a bright spot for us this spring too, as well.”

On Fox Crader Gaining Game Experience:

“I say it jokingly all the time, the best teacher in the world is the game. Right, there’s a lot of things we say as coaches of, hey, make sure you focus on this. Make sure you focus on that. And then when it happens in the game, they’re like, oh, okay. That’s what we were talking about the whole time. So he’s always been prepping at an extreme level. Fox probably is top three smartest guys in our room, hands down, from everybody’s position. So I think it just forced him to even hone in even more on the detail. He writes down every play. If you see his notebook, he’s got one of the most sterile notebooks I’ve ever seen. He’s real. He loves this. He really does so I think that opportunity for him to go out there and make the most of it and have some success, I think he realized his process was working and only allowed him to double down in his process. So it’s been really good to see how he’s attacked this off season.”

On Gernorris Wilson:

“G-Baby’s been attacking, attacking, and attacking rehab like a madman. I think he’s itching right now. We call him G-Baby, sorry about that. Like, I love to see the focus and intent he has, because usually when guys are battling injury, they start to float away a little bit. He’s been locked in. He’s been in the back helping out young Zaire. He’s been locked in next to Poncho, communicating, talking those things. Cause I know he wants to continue at a level he left off at. Like for his first career start to be at Iowa, to be at an away game, to be able to attack going against some of those better big 10 rushers and to have a solid first outing. I know he’s, he wants to build on that confidence. So I know he’s itching right now, but he’s been doing a phenomenal job with the rehab. Phenomenal job and making sure he’s getting with Chief. Making sure he’s getting with our training staff and just doing extra so he can put himself in position that when he’s back out there, he can keep the ball rolling like how he was when he was out there versus Iowa.”