12/01/16 Emerald Media - Gameday Edition

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Hindsight 2016 HEFRICH’S SEASON IN REVIEW PRESS CONFERENCE

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IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, BUT MOSTLY THE WORST OF TIMES as the 2016 season left the Ducks without a bowl game and a loss in the civil war. Some wins and great plays shown through the tough season though. Take a look at some of the highs and lows from this year.

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Royce Freeman runs down the field against OSU. Photograph by Adam Eberhardt

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GAMEDAY

Oregon Football head coach Mark Helfrich watches his players warm up before the game..

ROB MULLENS ANNOUNCES OREGON HAS FIRED HEAD COACH MARK HELFRICH BY: JARRID DENNEY @JARRID_DENNEY | PHOTOS : ADAM EBERHARDT Oregon has fired four-year head coach Mark Helfrich, the school announced in a press release Tuesday evening.

The announcement comes three days after the Ducks ended their worst season since 1991 with a 34-24 loss in the Civil War game against Oregon State on Saturday. It is the first time Oregon has fired a head coach in 40 years, when it fired Don Read after three seasons.

“We want to thank Mark for his eight years with the University of Oregon and appreciate his efforts on behalf of Oregon football,” Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens said in the release. “We wish Mark and his family the best.”

Mullens and Helfrich met Tuesday evening after Mullens returned from Dallas, Texas, where he was meeting with the College Football Playoff comittee.

“It is a great honor to have served as the head football coach at the University of Oregon,” Helfrich said in the release. “It is with respect and disappointment that we receive this decision.

Plain and simple — we didn’t win enough games this season.

“Thank you first to my wife, Megan, and our

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family, the fans, the campus community, the board, our donors and administration. To our coaches, staff and their families, it is impossible to communicate my gratitude for the environment we got to work in every single day.

“Finally, to the players — thank you, and I love you. The future is bright for this young, talented team, and we will be supporting them and their new leadership.”

Oregon will pay Helfrich $11.6 million to buy him out of the final three years of the five-year, $17.5 million contract he signed after leading the Ducks to the National Championship game in 2014.

Helfrich and Oregon ended the 2016 season with a 4-8 record, marking its first losing season since 2004. The Ducks won their first two nonconference games of the year before suffering five straight losses, including an abysmal home showing against Washington that ended in a 70-21 loss.

The Ducks’ offense showed flashes of brilliance at times this year, but it was ultimately their defense that left them in the bottom of the Pac-12 standings. Oregon finished 126th in the nation in total defense and surrendered 41.4 points per game. Brady Hoke’s arrival at defensive

coordinator was intended to revitalize 2015’s lackluster defense, but instead Oregon regressed statistically on that side of the ball.

Aside from on-field struggles, a long list of Duck players were involved in off-field incidents throughout the year, which may have contributed to the unsuccessful season.

Senior defensive end Torrodney Prevot, junior wideout Darren Carrington and junior linebacker Eddie Heard have all been investiaged by police for violent incidents this season.

On Nov. 13, Oregon defensive tackle Austin Maloata was arrested for DUII, reckless driving and possession of methamphetamine after he was involved in a traffic collision in Eugene following Oregon’s loss to Stanford. Maloata was dismissed from the team later that day.

Prior to Oregon’s win over Utah in Salt Lake, the Emerald released an investigation that revealed senior tight end Pharaoh Brown has been accused of three acts of violence since 2014, but has never been publicly disciplined by the team or University of Oregon. Brown did not suit up for Oregon’s final two games.

GAMEDAY

Q & A WITH

ROB MULLENS BY: KENNEY JACOBY & JONATHAN HAWTHORNE PHOTOS : ADAM EBERHARDT

Just about an hour and a half after Oregon’s athletic department announced Oregon would not retain Mark Helfrich as head football coach, athletic director Rob Mullens addressed a group of around 20 local and regional reporters at Matthew Knight Arena.

He answered questions about how he arrived at the decision and what he envisions in Oregon’s next coach.

“No one wanted Mark to be more successful at Oregon more than me, yet over the past several months I’ve grown concerned with the direction of the program. We were not competitive in a number of games, and we were on a poor trajectory.”

Here are highlights from his press conference: Beyond win-loss record, were there things you were concerned about that led to this change?

When you make a change like this after considerable thought, it’s never just one thing. You look at the totality of the program, so it’s about what happens on the field as well as off the field.

Why did you not reach out to Mark immediately after the Civil War to let him know where you stood before he went on the recruiting trail?

I wanted to get some distance away from the emotion of the result of the game.

The football team had a full Sunday going; they had a football team banquet, so my intent was to be able to get away from the emotion, to be able to reflect myself, let them get to their team banquet and close out the season and then have an opportunity to talk with Mark.

What are some of the criteria you’re looking for in your next head coach?

We’re going to look far and wide. It’s going to be a broad and diverse pool of candidates. We want somebody who will embrace the student-athlete experience, who understands the high expectations at University of Oregon, who understands our community and really, really wants to be here.

Will you be looking for a defensive-minded coach? Do you have an idea of the sort of coach you want?

Not from a football philosophical standpoint, no. ... We’re not going in with specific parameters on which side of the ball they’re experienced on.

What leads you to believe there’s someone out there better than Mark Helfrich?

I believe the University of Oregon is a great football program. I think it’s going to be attractive to a lot of candidates, and I’m confident in the administrative staff that we have, the facilities that we have, we compete in a great league — this is a highly desirable job. I’m confident that we’re going to have a lot of interest.

Will you give the new head coach full authority to retain whichever assistant coaches he wants?

It’s going to be the head coach’s decision on the staff that remains.

What changed with Mark since giving him that contract extension?

It’s never one thing. Everybody wants to try to pinpoint the one thing that changes. But clearly for the last couple years — particularly this year — we weren’t as competitive as we needed to be in a number of games. That’s not the only thing when you start to look at the totality of the program. There was a shift in culture, and culture has been the winning edge here and we need to get that edge back.

University of Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens speaks at a press conference to address the firing of Football head coach Mark Helfrich on Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016.

Where is this money going to come from to pay the bill for this? Obviously it’s going to be an estimated $15-16 million dollars. How are you going to find the money?

Obviously the sum is mitigated. We won’t know the exact amount that’s payable over a number of years. As we sit here today, we’re looking at a number of options.

One is a $6.5 licensing carry forward from university licensing … Obviously we’ll have a significant savings in the fact that we won’t be paying bowl bonuses this year.

We had budgeted for that. Over the last several weeks, we’ve frozen four administrative positions so we’ll be looking at resource allocation. We’ll see what other revenue opportunities exist to make this work.

What was coach Helfrich’s pitch to you to be retained as head football coach?

I don’t want to get into the specifics of our conversation today other than to say Mark is a classy guy. It was a difficult conversation but in the end it was very, very professional. I’m appreciative of the eight years he’s provided to the University of Oregon.

Do you anticipate the next coach coming outside the coaching tree, given how there’s been so much continuity in the past?

Obviously that coaching tree has a lot of branches. It doesn’t necessarily have to, but I anticipate that it won’t come from within the staff, if that’s what you’re asking. … There’s a lot of branches to the history of that staff. It could come from a branch.

With the NFL season still going on, and bowl games as well, do you anticipate that the coach who is hired will finish out the current job or come in right away?

Recruiting is important. Our goal is to find someone who can get here, put together a staff, and get on the recruiting trail and make sure that we don’t lose much.

The comment you made about changing culture — what does that mean?

One of the things that was a real edge for us was the attention to detail and adding up all the little things. We didn’t always line up with the best talent, but all the little things that added up produced a lot of the victories. That might have been some of the issue that resulted in the record this year.

So on the field, not off the field?

Well, both.

For more of the Q&A including how Mullens made the decision and whether season ticket holders factored into the decision process, go to Dailyemerald.com.

Follow @ODESports on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news on all things Oregon sports.

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GAMEDAY Graduate transfer quarterback Dakota Prukop made his first start at Oregon in a 53-28 win over UC Davis.

Photo Review of the 2 Wide receiver Dwayne Stanford reacts after watching Colorado intercept a pass in the end zone as Oregon lost to Colorado 41-38, their first loss at home of the season.

PHOTOS : ADAM EBERHARDT & KAYLEE DOMZALSKI

This is a selection of images taken by Emerald pho son began with some success but then tapered off an War. These images show the significant elements fro

Oregon State ended Oregon’s eight

Traditionally a passing team, Washington State ran the ball for 280 yards on Oregon to beat them 51-31.

The high anticipated return of Olympian and wide receiver Devon Allen resulted in him catching 4 passes for 141 yards during a 44-26 win over University of Virginia.

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Eugene native and freshman quarterback Justin Herbe 12 game losing streak to Oregon with a 70-21 blowout.

GAMEDAY

2016 Football Season

otographers during the 2016 football season. The seand ended in a loss to Oregon State in the 120th Civil om Oregon’s season.

USC running back Ronald Jones II ran for 4 touchdowns on Oregon in their 45-20 win at the LA Coliseum, pushing a bowl game further out of reach for Oregon.

Oregon got their first PAC-12 win of the season 54-35 over ASU which saw quarterback Justin Herbert throw for 489 yards, tying Bill Musgrave’s Oregon record for most yards thrown in a single game.

Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey ran the Oregon defense for 3 touchdowns and 135 yards during Stanford’s 52-27 win. game winning streak in the Civil War by beating them 34-24 in Corvallis.

ert made his Oregon start first start, but UW ended their

In an upset win against No.12 Utah, the game came down to a final controversial catch in the end zone and Oregon escaped with a 30-28 win.

Cal linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk picked off picked off quarterback Justin Herbert in double overtime to seal the loss for Oregon, 52-49.

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GAMEDAY

Oregon Ducks linebacker Troy Dye (35).

Oregon’s defense will aim to build around young core after a subpar season BY: HANNAH BONNIE @HBONNIE03 | PHOTOS : ADAM EBERHARDT After the first game this season, Oregon’s defense should have known they were in trouble.

It was a tune-up game against UC Davis, a Big Sky opponent which was coming off back-toback 2-9 seasons. It was supposed to be an easy win, and it was; despite a slow start, the Ducks pulled out a 53-28 victory.

But if Oregon’s defense could allow such a small school to combine for 392 total yards and four rushing touchdowns, then how could it hope to stop Pac-12 schools and their far more talented offenses?

At the time, Oregon was ranked No. 25 in the nation. Now, for the first time in 12 years, the Ducks won’t participate in a bowl game as they finished with a 4-8 record. The defense is ranked second to last in the Pac-12 in almost all possible defensive categories: Total defense, scoring defense, pass defense and rush defense.

After a weak performance by the defense in 2015, head coach Mark Helfrich hired defensive coordinator Brady Hoke, who decided to switch from the 3-4 to a 4-3 scheme.

Because of the added linemen, the new system was supposed to help Oregon’s rushing defense.

But, all season, various running backs made Oregon’s defense look incapable as they ran all over the Oregon front seven. In the Ducks’ loss to Oregon State, the Beavers ran for 310 yards and Ryan Nall accounted for 155 of them with four touchdowns. It was only his sixth career 100 yard game, and 105 of those yards were after contact.

“We’re a young team,” said freshman linebacker PA G E 8

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Troy Dye, who led the team in tackles this season with 91. “Young teams make mistakes.”

Oregon secondary coach John Neal also contributes the team’s lack of consistency to mistakes.

“It’s hard to even really blow up at the thing; it’s just, a guy makes a mistake,” Neal said before turning to a member of the media. “It would be like if you accidentally dropped your camera right there; what am I going to do yell at you?”

Because this year’s team was so young, the 4-3 scheme may be better executed next year when players have a full season of experience with the system under their belts.

“It’s a new system,” junior defensive lineman Mondeaux said. “Nothing is a quick fix. It’s gonna take some time for everyone to get it down.”

There have been moments this season where Oregon’s defense showed flashes of consistency, particularly in Oregon’s upset against Utah on Nov. 19. On 37 attempts, Utah rushed for 218 yards and two touchdowns, but Oregon’s defense held strong when it mattered most.

In that game, it was two underclassmen, Dye and redshirt sophomore Justin Hollins, who helped the team to victory. Each tallied a sack — Dye’s coming for a 10 yard loss— and nine tackles apiece.

“I think we just played together,” Dye said after the game. “Everyone trusted each other. That’s what it comes down to.”

Despite the poor season, Oregon hasn’t done anything in the past year to improve the Ducks’

future outlook. The easiest way to help the defense would be to recruit talented players; however, they have yet to pin down a fivestar recruit. The only four-stars from the class of 2017 to sign with Oregon are cornerbacks Deommodore Lenoir and Jaylon Reed, and defensive end Langi Tuifua.

Regardless of how well these players performed during high school, chances are they won’t make an immediate impact on the team.

If Oregon wants to look for new talent, it should look no further than the freshmen already on the team.

Gary Baker and Wayne Tei-Kirby have both stepped up for the Ducks this season, each playing in seven and nine conference games respectively. Baker tallied 14 tackles, while TeiKirby tallied 11 with two pass breakups.

“He’s surprisingly athletic and tough,” said Mondeaux about Baker. “He’s done a good job this year filling in a lot of different roles.”

Oregon could also look to Bryson Young, the former four-star recruit from Buchanan High School in Clovis, California. He was rated as the No. 3 defensive end in the state by Scout.com and garnered a 4-star rating from ESPN. Though he didn’t make much of an impact this season, he may next year with more playing time.

While they are likely a long ways away from returning to Pac-12 relevance on the defensive side of the ball, the Ducks have a star linebacker to build around in Dye and could make strides in the 4-3 scheme next season.

GAMEDAY

Oregon Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert (10).

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GAMEDAY

Oregon Ducks running back Tony Brooks-James (20) dives into the end zone to score a touchdown.

Oregon Ducks linebacker Jimmie Swain (18) tries to bring down Oregon State Beavers wide receiver Timmy Hernandez (18).

Oregon snaps eight-game Civil War winning streak with 34-24 loss to Oregon State BY: RYAN KOSTECKA @RYAN_KOSTECKA | PHOTOS : ADAM EBERHARDT CORVALLIS — Everyone in the stadium and watching on TV knew exactly what Oregon State was going to do with the ball.

The Oregon coaching staff and its defense knew what the Beavers were going to do.

Yet, play after play, the Ducks were unable to stop the run game in the final minutes of Saturday’s game.

“It’s frustrating because we knew exactly what they were going to do but we didn’t do anything to stop it,” freshman linebacker Troy Dye said. “We were in the right places but we couldn’t tackle at all — we missed so many tackles.”

The result was a dominant fourth quarter for Oregon State and the end of a winning streak for the Ducks. Behind running back Ryan Nall’s efforts, Oregon State came from behind to defeat Oregon 34-24, snapping the Ducks’ eight-game winning streak in the Civil War. “You have to give credit to Coach [Gary] Anderson and his staff. They did a very good job,” Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich said.

“They made the plays when they needed to.”

Running back Royce Freeman led the Ducks with 106 yards on 19 carries while Darren

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Carrington had three catches for 76 yards and a score.

Nall finished the game with 155 yards on 31 carries with four touchdowns while Oregon State quarterback Marcus McMaryion added 81 yards rushing and 101 yards passing.

The Ducks appeared to be in good shape midway through the third quarter. Oregon took a 24-14 lead after Aidan Schneider kicked a 46yard field goal.

From that point on, the weather began to take hold. Heavy rain prevented both the Ducks and the Beavers from efficient passing.

In return, the Beavers called on Nall. Oregon didn’t have an answer.

“Everyone knew they were going to give the ball to him but we couldn’t execute on how to stop him,” senior linebacker Johnny Ragin said.

“He keeps his legs moving so it was difficult to bring him down, but that’s no excuse.”

The Beavers scored the final 20 points, wearing down a depleted Oregon defensive line.

In the fourth quarter alone, Oregon State ran 20 plays — all of them rushes.

With 9:40 left, the Ducks, facing a 3rd-and-12 on the drive, handed off the ball to Freeman

instead of opting for a pass. Freeman was held to a gain of six yards and Oregon was forced to punt. The visitors didn’t get the ball back until there was 1:56 left in the game.

“They definitely played keep away and kept us off the field,” Freeman said. “It was a good strategy by them and it worked in their favor because we couldn’t turn that around.”

After entering halftime tied at 14, Oregon’s defense came out of the locker room and played with an edge.

Oregon forced the Beavers to punt on their first two possessions to take advantage of good field position. Justin Herbert — 16-of-28 for 160 yards and a touchdown — threw his only scoring pass of the game to Charles Nelson.

The Ducks would add Schneider’s field goal on the next drive but their scoring ended there.

Saturday was Oregon’s first loss in the Civil War series since 2007.

Dye said the coaches told the Ducks to “keep fighting” after the loss.

“Get ready for next season,” Dye said of the message. “You can’t really dwell on this loss, even though it hurts the most out of any loss this season. You just have to keep pushing.”

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