Wednesday Practice: Defense Preps As Oregon Looms
While Oregon’s defense has been a focus over the past few weeks, its the offense that got the focus at the conclusion of Wednesday’s practice as Head Coach Justin Wilcox and Defensive Coordinator Tim DeRuyter were on the banner.
“You’ve got a Heisman caliber quarterback playing at the top of his game,” Tim DeRuyter said of Oregon’s senior quarterback Justin Herbert. “I don’t think he’s made a mistake all year.”
The Ducks’ defense has been playing so well over the past few weeks — only giving up 15 total points over the past three games — that it’s been a bit too easy to forget about their 6-6, 237-pound quarterback that probably would’ve been the first QB drafted in last year’s NFL draft. But Herbert has already amassed over 1,200 passing yards, completing about three-quarters of his passes, with 14 touchdowns to zero interceptions for an eye-popping QB rating of 183.6.
“I see a very explosive offense with a veteran quarterback who knows where to go with the ball,” DeRuyter continued. “You know, experience everywhere.”
While Herbert was the focus for a lot of the media time, Oregon’s offensive line won the most colorful praise from Cal’s coaches. “They’re a bunch of dancing bears,” DeRuyter said of Oregon’s front line on the offense.
Like Baldwin said yesterday, the Bears have down a good job of moving on from Friday’s tough loss and have had a solid week of practice.
“Everybody is disappointed, but you have to flush it and move on,” Wilcox said. “So you take the lessons from the game and you go out and work on solutions during practice and then you have to move on to the next opponent.”
According to Wilcox, the team has done just that.
“We practiced hard this week,” Wilcox said, adding some that could be due to the frustration the Bears felt after Friday. “We get to decide how we respond to some adversity and a loss.”
Wilcox said that on an individual and collective level, the team has to focus on Oregon.
“These are the teams you want to play with. That’s why you’re here.”
Saturday’s starting quarterback Devon Modster was also in front of the banner but in classic Modster form, he was brief on his answers. But he says he’s been working on fixing Friday’s mistakes and is confident in his ability to turn things around in Eugene on Saturday.
Wilcox also said if they had to got to Modster’s backup, freshman Spencer Brasch, he’d be ready.
“I think if you watched practice from day one to now, a freshman quarterback is going to be significantly different,” Wilcox said of Brasch. “And I think he has shown that.”
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