College football season is officially here, folks. <\/p>\n
The Week 0 slate of games begins in less than 24 hours. Throughout this season, I\u2019ll be writing a weekly column each Friday that touches on five items that caught my attention throughout the week. <\/p>\n
With Oregon\u2019s season opener just over a week away, it made sense to start with some bold predictions for how the year will unfold. The entire ScoopDuck staff will be making traditional season predictions in the coming days, so I\u2019ll hold off on those for now.<\/p>\n
For the time being, here are some niche, stat-centric predictions for the Ducks\u2019 2023 campaign. <\/p>\n
It won\u2019t need to. <\/p>\n
Last season, the Ducks ranked:<\/p>\n
71st in total defense (381.2 yards per game)75th in scoring defense (27.42 points per game)102nd in passing defense (256.4 passing yards per game)123rd in third-down defense (46.8% conversion rate)<\/p>\n
Even still, they found themselves in the College Football Playoff conversation late in the season because the offense was one of the best in the nation. <\/p>\n
Oregon doesn\u2019t need its defense to be perfect. But it does need it to be serviceable. Shoring up the third-down issues should go a long way toward accomplishing that. <\/p>\n
While I\u2019m not entirely sold on the Ducks\u2019 defense this year, I do think Tosh Lupoi\u2019s group has added enough quality players at key positions to take a significant step forward. <\/p>\n
As a true sophomore last season, Jeffrey Bassa racked up 62 total tackles \u2014 the second-most among all Oregon defenders. Only Bennett Williams (72) had more. <\/p>\n
Bassa added 18 pounds of muscle<\/a><\/strong> during the offseason and is now much better suited for his role in the Ducks\u2019 front seven than he was at this time a year ago. <\/p>\n I don\u2019t necessarily expect him to exceed the 100-tackle mark. During Dan Lanning\u2019s three-year stint as Georgia\u2019s defensive coordinator, no Bulldog player finished a season with more than 89 total tackles. As Lanning mentioned earlier this summer,<\/a><\/strong> \u201cThe day and age of having an old Mike linebacker that can go B-gap to B-gap or C-gap to C-gap, that\u2019s not a reality anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n But Bassa\u2019s physical transformation and his experience in Oregon\u2019s scheme should enable him to be a much more consistent tackler in 2023. <\/p>\n This is probably the boldest prediction on my list. <\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that Oregon is loaded with pass-catching talent. Troy Franklin, Terrance Ferguson, Gary Bryant Jr., Kris Hutson, Tez Johnson, and Traeshon Holden are all going to get plenty of targets. <\/p>\n But, after a breakout sophomore season, I think Troy Franklin will up his production in 2023 and become the first Oregon receiver since 2018 to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark. <\/p>\n As receivers coach Junior Adams explained this offseason, Franklin has been working to become a \u201cwalking bucket\u201d<\/a><\/strong> whenever opponents are in man coverage. <\/p>\n Look for him to exploit those instances on a more regular basis in 2023. <\/p>\n This one is simple. <\/p>\n Last season, Bo Nix passed for 3,593 yards in 13 games. He did so despite playing on a bad ankle late in the year, and despite opening the season against a Georgia defense that was one of the best in the nation.<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n The only team on Oregon\u2019s 2023 schedule that ranked among the nation\u2019s top 50 teams in passing yards allowed last season is Stanford (40th). <\/p>\n Nix has a better group of receivers than he did a year ago. As long as he stays healthy, he has a very good shot of becoming the second 4,000-yard passer in program history. <\/p>\n Only two Oregon players received preseason first-team all-conference honors:<\/a><\/strong> Bucky Irving and Brandon Dorlus. <\/p>\n I think sophomore left tackle Josh Conerly Jr. belongs on that list, too. <\/p>\n Conerly has flown a bit under the radar this fall, partially because there has been so much chatter regarding the position battles along Oregon\u2019s IOL. But I think he\u2019s going to have a fantastic year and will emerge as one of the top players in a conference that is loaded with offensive line talent. <\/p>\n The post Friday five: Bold predictions for Oregon\u2019s 2023 season<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" College football season is officially here, folks. The Week 0 slate of games begins in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Ducks will have a 1,000-yard receiver <\/h2>\n
Bo Nix will pass for over 4,000 yards <\/h2>\n
Josh Conerly Jr. will be a first-team all-conference selection<\/h2>\n