Oregon Football Spring Preview: Safety

Chris Hampton is navigating departures with some key additions from the transfer portal and high school ranks.

Today I'm continuing my spring position preview with a look at the safeties. Yesterday I examined the cornerbacks, which is headlined by Washington transfer Jabbar Muhammad.

The safety group might be the biggest question mark on Oregon's defense heading into spring practice, but it's not for a lack of talent. 2023 was a tough year for the Oregon safeties, as they were without veteran Bryan Addison for a majority of the season. He's now at UCLA.

Evan Williams was solid overall, but had to play a lot of games with a heavy club, which limited him in some capacity. Steve Stephens IV exhausted his eligibility and will now take his shot at the NFL.

Overall, one of the biggest challenges this group faced was pass coverage, which was no small task when you were contending with the caliber of wide receivers the Pac-12 had in its final year.

Let's take a look at the names to know for Oregon at safety.

Kobe Savage

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2023 stats: 57 total tackles, 3 interceptions

Savage is the talk of the Ducks safety room heading into 2024. He transferred to Oregon after spending the last two seasons at Kansas State,  where he earned All-Big-12 honors in 2023. 

He's got tons of experience after starting every game he played as a Wildcat. He also has a great work ethic after spending time at the junior college level in his native state of Texas as well. 

Savage is an active roamer in the secondary and should raise the floor of the group significantly.

Tysheem Johnson

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2023 stats: 70 total tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 7 pass breakups, 2 interceptions

Johnson is the other veteran at safety that should line up alongside Savage as Oregon's pair of starting safeties. The Ole Miss transfer showed some great flashes in 2023, highlighted by his two-interception performance against Utah.

He also excelled as a pass rusher, blitzing off the edge in certain situations. Johnson is always active and around the ball, as he was third on Oregon's defense in total tackles last season.

Khamari Terrell

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2023 stats (9 games): 7 total tackles, 1 pass breakup 

After Savage and Johnson this group gets difficult to project, and it's mainly because we haven't seen a lot from the rest of the room.

Terrell however, is someone who's seen the field a decent amount since he arrived at Oregon in 2022. He played in 10 of 13 games as a true freshman, with his speed being part of what made him special coming out of high school in Texas. 

Terrell missed some time last season but will hopefully be in store to make a leap for Chris Hampton in year three. 

Tyler Turner

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2023 stats (4 games): 1 pass breakup

Turner is one of two safeties the Ducks signed in the 2023 class and I'm mentioning him here because he saw the field just a bit more than Kodi DeCambra. The former Baylor commit is looking to take on a bigger role this year after redshirting as a true freshman.

As a senior at Brennan High School in San Antonio he was a tackling machine, recording over 120 total tackles and turning in some good production with a pair of interceptions and pass breakups.

Best of the Rest

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True freshman Aaron Flowers headlines the best of the best for me. He was one of the best defensive backs in Texas last season and helped lead Forney on a deep playoff run. The Adidas All-American has a great feel for the game and could be the first safety that Oregon has seen play as a true freshman since Jevon Holland.

Aside from Flowers, redshirt freshmen Kodi DeCambra and Collin Gill are also worth a mention. DeCambra spent his high school years at national powerhouse Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas and could be ready to make a jump and enter the rotation. Gill was a very versatile defensive back that came to Eugene at 6'0" and north of 200 pounds and may have settled in a safety after playing all over the secondary in high school.

2024 signee Kingston Lopa is an interesting player to watch as the Sacramento native is 6'5" and could develop in a path similar to Bryan Addison, who was another lengthy defensive back that had success in Oregon's defense.

I'll be continuing my look at each of Oregon's defensive position groups so make sure keep checking back on Ducks Digest.

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