Top Takeaways From Oregon's Spring Game

The offense defeated the defense 35-34 in the final seconds of the Ducks’ annual spring game on Saturday.

Oregon football is back in full swing. The team played their annual spring game Saturday, and there were a myriad of exciting storylines and players to watch.

Here are my top three takeaways from yesterday’s action.

The pass-catching unit is elite

It was a familiar sight for Oregon fans to see Johnny Johnson III, Devon Williams and Mycah Pittman catching passes, but what was really exciting to see was all of the young talented receivers and tight ends making explosive plays. Here’s who caught my eye:

Kris Hutson looked like a potential breakout star lined up out wide and as a returner. He caught three passes for 49 yards and a touchdown, and he also brought back two kickoffs for a combined 59 yards.

True freshmen Troy Franklin and Dont’e Thornton combined for 182 receiving yards on just seven combined catches (26 yards per catch combined). The two 2021 4-star signees were the most explosive receivers on the field.

The tight end unit for Oregon is as good as advertised, and no one looked better than early-enrollee Terrance Ferguson. He made difficult catches look easy and led all tight ends with four catches for 60 yards. Patrick Herbert, Moliki Matavao and Spencer Webb also looked impressive in their time on the field.

I hope to see Offensive Coordinator Joe Moorhead draw up a throwback screen pass for freshman offensive lineman Kingsley Suamataia in the regular season. He looked like Derrick Henry stiff-arming Jake Shipley to the turf on what was the most electric one-yard gain you will ever see.

The battle for the No. 2 quarterback spot is heating up

Anthony Brown is the starter, and Head Coach Mario Cristobal has made that clear several times, but the future is bright at the quarterback position. Jay Butterfield, Robby Ashford and Ty Thompson all showed glimpses of their potential.

Butterfield showed the best accuracy of any Duck quarterback on the field. On his first snap, he launched a deep ball right on the money to Franklin. He had excellent ball placement and timing. As of right now, I think he is the front-runner to be the No. 2 quarterback for Oregon.

Ashford scored the game-winning two-point conversion at the horn moments after throwing a long touchdown pass to Thornton. He is the most athletic quarterback on the Ducks roster, and he showed his intelligence on the two-point conversion - he wanted to throw to the left side of the end zone and quickly realized that the linebackers had sniffed it out before sprinting to the right corner of the end zone.

Thompson can absolutely let it rip. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone ends up on the injury list with a hand injury due to how hard he throws the football.

The defense is going to be scary 

New Defensive Coordinator Tim DeRuyter must feel like a kid in a candy store with all the talent he has.

Kayvon Thibodeaux looked even stronger, bowling through left tackle George Moore on several occasions in the first half.

Justin Flowe is a star in the making, recording 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack.

Sleepers: Dontae Manning and Jaden Navarrette were exciting to watch. Manning had an interception and made solid tackles in space, and Navarette led the team with two tackles for loss.

The defense only forced one turnover — which is difficult to judge given that the defense wasn’t tackling for most of the game — but recorded nine sacks and 12 tackles for loss.

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