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OREGON’S NEW DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR was hired to change the direction of Oregon’s defense, which was one of the worst in the country last season. Over his 30-plus years in football, success has followed him from Tampa, Florida, to San Francisco. But who is this Pepsi-chugging, energetic 60-year old and why is he the perfect person for this Oregon rebuild? S TAT E O F T H E Q U A R T E R B A C K C O M P E T I T I O N
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Defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt Photograph by Adam Eberhardt T H U R S D AY, A P R I L 2 7 , 2 0 1 6
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GAMEDAY Oregon Ducks offensive lineman Shane Lemieux (68) blocks Calvin Throckmorton (54) during a drill.
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Oregon’s offensive line fighting to get back with a vengeance BY: Shawn Medow @ShawnMedow | PHOTO: Aaron Nelson With four redshirt freshmen starting, Oregon’s offensive line last year was inexperienced to say the least. The unit took its knocks, allowing 24 sacks in conference play alone, and things only got worse after a seasonending injury to then-junior Tyrell Crosby. Oregon’s youthful offensive line was forced to step up on its own. “It sucked having to watch it all,” Crosby said. “But even though I was on the sideline, I was trying to give my help as much as I can to all the young guys.” New head coach Willie Taggart added co-offensive coordinator Mario Cristobal, who is a specialist with the offensive line, to fix the problem. “They understand that if we are going to be successful, it’s going to have to start in the trenches and it’s got to finish in the trenches,” Cristobal said. “Overall, we’re progressing, but we still have miles to go. But we will get there.” Crosby is back practicing with the offensive line in the spring and said he wants to become more of a vocal leader on the field. He turned down an opportunity to declare for the NFL Draft, deciding instead to return to Eugene and play for Taggart’s team. “There were a lot of factors that played into it,” Crosby said. “He let me make that decision on my own and then after I told him, he was
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just excited.” Now that the offensive line has some experience playing together and an experienced coach in Cristobal, Oregon’s offensive line is coming together under the former Alabama assistant coach. He says he’s been impressed by every lineman he’s worked with so far. “Now, who is going to be the first five? We’ll figure that out day-by-day,” he said. Players had to adjust to a moving depth chart — meaning it’s constantly in flux — and said they had to prove themselves every practice. Players say the increased competitiveness in practice has positive effects on the team and that they are taking to the new coach. “He’s really fiery. He’ll make me motivated to make a sandwich,” redshirt sophomore Shane Lemieux said. “He’ll text me just random stuff like, ‘We’ve got to be the toughest unit in college football.’” Last season’s struggles are not forgotten. The 4-8 record was deemed a failure, and that sits in the minds of the players, especially for the offensive line, which took much of the blame. “I think we’ve come in every single day with a chip on our shoulder, knowing that we have the toughest guys on the team and we can show it on the field,” Lemieux said.
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Oregon Head Coach Willie Taggart speaks to reporters before the start of practice.
The Oregon Ducks practice at the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex in Eugene, Ore. on Tuesday April 25, 2017.
Willie Taggart looked to connect with his seniors this spring BY: Shawn Medow @ShawnMedow | PHOTO: Adam Eberhardt and Phillip Quinn Before Willie Taggart bought a home and welcomed his family to Eugene, he made connections with Oregon’s 23 seniors. Taggart, who’s working to take the Ducks back to glory after last year’s 4-8 season, said the experienced Ducks will allow him to reset the tone. Plus, Taggart realizes he failed to connect with seniors at his previous stop — USF. “You hear people talk about it all the time,” Taggart, Oregon’s first-year coach, said. “That just doesn’t happen just because we literally want to have some senior leadership.” For Oregon’s seniors, change has just been part of the collegiate equation. Seniors have played under two head coaches in Mark Helfrich and Taggart. Some were recruited by Chip Kelly — not Helfrich. Oregon’s defensive players have seen three different coordinators — Don Pellum, Brady Hoke and now Jim Leavitt. “It feels different but in a good way,” senior offensive lineman Tyrell Crosby. “We’re all excited about it.” Taggart has ushered in a new era of football
with his unique flare. He routinely engages with players and fans on Twitter — a departure from the previous coaching staff. “The energy that they bring to practice and the confidence that they instill in us — they’re just letting us play,” senior wide receiver Darren Carrington said. “Right now we’re just learning a bunch of new stuff, but it’s good to see their excitement in us and their faith in us and hopefully we can just come out this year and put on a show.” Taggart realizes a connection with the roster’s elder statesmen is part of building leadership. “I didn’t do [that] enough at my last two stops — spending time with those seniors and guys who have been here a while and been recruited by other coaches,” Taggart said. “... I think that’s important for me to make sure I know every kid but especially the seniors because they only got one time with me.” For defensive lineman Jalen Jelks, the arrival of a new coaching staff brought a renewed sense of passion.
“People are coming out here and ready to play,” Jelks said. “One improvement I’ve noticed is coming out and being able to listen to your coach. And have somebody that wants to teach you something that you’ve never learned before and has enthusiasm about coaching you.” Taggart has spent time with the seniors to get to know them better, saying he wants to help develop important leadership qualities in the seniors that will benefit the entire team. “It’s kind of new to all of us,” Crosby said about Taggart’s team-bonding efforts. “It’s different from what we’ve been doing in the past but it really helped us all grow as a team.” Oregon’s most experienced players have helped the Ducks to a College Football Playoff appearance. The Ducks missed out on a bowl game for the first time since XX in 2016. But Taggart still sees the building blocks for improvement. “I think we have some awesome kids here — I shouldn’t call them kids — young men here that, like I say, really want to win and really want to do it the right way,” Taggart said.
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FEATURE
Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt directs players during a drill.
OREGON’S DEFENSIVE DOCTOR BY: Gus Morris @JustGusMorris | PHOTO: Adam Eberhardt and Phillip Quinn
Doug Brenner jokingly calls him a psycho. Troy Dye compares him to the Energizer Bunny. Juwaan Williams says his team’s new defensive coordinator is always loud. That is, when he’s had his daily dose of Pepsi, usually no less than three cans a day. But he only runs on original Pepsi — never Diet, Cherry or Vanilla. During Jim Leavitt’s days at Colorado, because his wife didn’t allow Pepsi in the house, he often stopped at 7-11 to snag a couple bottles of his favorite drink. “I don’t know if I could go to a Coke school,” Leavitt said. The 60-year-old Leavitt, Oregon’s new defensive coordinator, is a one-ofa-kind coach who, during the offseason, became the Pac-12’s highest-paid assistant. Over his 39-year career, football has thrown the kitchen sink at him. He’s coached all over the country, from Iowa to Florida, Colorado and California. He’s built a program from scratch, been fired twice, coached a Super Bowl team, sent players to the NFL and developed some of the best defenses in the history of college football. Now, he’s been tasked with one of the most daunting jobs in the conference — rebuilding Oregon’s shattered defense, which even UO President Michael Schill joked about during the offseason: “Go find a great defensive coordinator,” Schill said during a press conference in December. Schill had the statistics to back up his joke. The Ducks were the nation’s thirdworst defense in 2016. But for Leavitt, this lowly scenario is nothing new. “If we play good defense here, we’ll tell a great story,” Leavitt said. “If we don’t then I won’t be here for long … and that’s the way it should be.” A fast start Leavitt’s college football career began at Missouri, where he played four years under coach Al Onofrio and anchored the Tigers’ secondary as a safety. After graduating in 1977, he spent two years as a graduate assistant at Missouri before heading to the state of Iowa where he bounced between smaller programs before landing another graduate assistant job at the University of Iowa. Leavitt spent each summer from 1980 to 1988 living out of his car at a KOA campground near campus to save his $300 stipend from Iowa and put it
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towards his doctorate in psychology. He was working on the research for his dissertation when Snyder, when then-head coach of Iowa, called him and asked him to come coach with him at Kansas State. When Jim Leavitt arrived at Kansas State with soon-to-be Hall of Fame coach Bill Snyder in 1995, the program was in freefall. The Wildcats hadn’t won a game in 27 consecutives tries (0-26-1), had totalled three wins the prior four seasons and had one of the worst defenses in the country. “They were bad,” said Leavitt, who eventually became the codefensive coordinator. Then, Leavitt and Snyder worked their magic. In five years time, Kansas State became the second-best scoring defense in the country. The Wildcats won their first bowl game in school history, finishing No. 6 overall in the AP Poll. After helping raise Kansas State from the ashes, Leavitt received offers to coach elsewhere left and right, including one from the NFL, but only one opportunity stood out to him: South Florida. The school offered him its first head football coaching job. Leavitt was sold. So, on Dec. 30, 1995, a day after Kansas State’s Holiday Bowl win, Leavitt boarded a flight home and, at the same time, into uncharted territory. ‘Start football’ Leavitt spent 14 years at South Florida refining his craft for building programs. In this case, he started with nothing. There were no facilities, no locker rooms, no uniforms, no goalposts and no helmets. The school’s inaugural football venture was lacking everything — except Leavitt. His first meeting with school administrators took place in a deserted trailer — which would later become his office — that the New York Yankees had left from spring training months earlier. Leavitt said he will never forget what athletic director Paul Griffin said to him that day. “Paul looks at me and says, ‘Start football,’ ” Leavitt said. It took him exactly 10 years and 10 days to get the Bulls from their first game to a top-25 team. In 2007, the Bulls peaked at No. 2 in the country.
Jim Leavitt yells during practice as he tries to rebuild Oregon’s defense. Oregon defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt passes the ball to linebacker La’mar Winston Jr. (32).
From 2005 to 2009, Leavitt’s final year at USF, the Bulls had a top-30 defense for four of those years and appeared in five bowl games, winning three of the them. Leavitt recruited current NFL players Jason Pierre-Paul, Nate Allen and George Selvie. Yet, for all he did at South Florida, his unexpected departure in 2010 marred his success on the field. A player accused Leavitt of striking a player at halftime of a midseason game. USF fired Leavitt after administrators concluded that he interfered with their investigation of the incident by telling players to change their stories of the incident. To this day, Leavitt insists he did nothing wrong — and thinks USF fired him so it wouldn’t have to pay the remainder of his $12.6 million contract. Leavitt said he also thinks part of the motivation was because he hadn’t yet brought a national championship to South Florida. “I know the story,” Leavitt said. “I know I didn’t do anything wrong.” After his termination, Leavitt filed a wrongful termination suit against the school and spent a year away from football fighting his case. USF settled to the tune of $2.75 million dollars. Leavitt wanted to be clear that he wasn’t after a big payout but wanted to get the amount of money high enough to prove to people that “they were might be another side to his story.” USF President Judy Genshaft, through a secretary, declined to comment. Life after USF In Leavitt’s eyes, the sudden departure actually proved to be beneficial. Leavitt became the linebackers coach with the San Francisco 49ers in 2010 and helped install the stifling defense that led them to three NFC Championship games and one Super Bowl over his tenure. “He’s actually been one of the great position coaches I’ve ever had in my tenure in the NFL,” said linebacker NaVorro Bowman, who has spent seven years in the league. And when the 49ers parted ways with Jim Harbaugh in 2014, Leavitt and the rest of the staff departed as well. Leavitt then took the defensive coordinator job at Colorado. In two seasons,
Leavitt transformed the Buffs’ defense from the 112th nationally to 24th. “The energy and passion he brought to the defense really changed the culture we had,” Rick Gamboa, a sophomore linebacker at Colorado said. “We had a lot of talent, but he was definitely the missing piece for us.” Once again, other schools came calling. While Leavitt didn’t name specific suitors, he said schools from the SEC, Big Ten and Pac-12 schools offered him jobs. But when freshly-hired Willie Taggart called, Leavitt knew it was the right fit. “I had a previous relationship with him,” Leavitt said of Taggart. “But also, I loved Oregon. … I wanted to go somewhere you could push for championships.” Taggart said Leavitt’s credentials fit the bill. “I think we all saw what he was able to do at Colorado,” Taggart said. “When you watch them, it’s not like they had the most talented guys. But they played hard and they made plays by playing hard and they believed in each other. And that’s what you want as a defense coordinator.” A New Task in Eugene Since his arrival on campus, Leavitt has already made a loud first impression. “Coach Leavitt is a psycho,” Oregon offensive lineman Doug Brenner said with a smile. “And we love it. He’s drinking Pepsi and screaming at 6 a.m. and doing laps on the field. It’s great.” At practice, he’s sometimes more active than his players. He never stops moving or talking. He challenges his players to counter his energy. “You got to match it,” Oregon linebacker Troy Dye said. “It’s hard to do because he’s always on go-mode.” His players say his passion for Pepsi is the only thing that rivals his passion for football, even dating back to the NFL. “Anytime he got a Pepsi, you’re definitely going to get the full Jim Leavitt,” Bowman said. Leavitt, who will earn $1.15 million a year, understood the project he inherited in Eugene. Coaching turnover — three defensive coordinators in the last three years — has left things out of sorts. He knows the rebuilding will take time. “Nothing is easy,” he said. And it may take a few hundred cans of Pepsi as well.
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GAMEDAY Oregon Ducks quarterbacks Taylor Allie (12), Terry Wilson Jr. (14) and Justin Herbert (10) throw to receivers across the field.
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NEW COACHES BRING CHANGES: WILL THERE BE A NEW QUARTERBACK? BY: Jack Butler @Butler917 | PHOTO: Aaron Nelson The first time Willie Taggart spoke to the Oregon football team, he stressed that every position would be an open competition. A new coach brings a clean slate for every player at every position, including quarterback. Last season, Justin Herbert became the bright spot on what was an otherwise dark and dismal 4-8 season. Now his starting spot is no longer guaranteed; Travis Jonsen and Braxton Burmeister aren’t going to surrender it easily. Although most in the media believe that Herbert will end up with the starting job, Jonsen, a redshirt sophomore, feels like it is truly an open competition. A fresh start may be exactly what he needs. He was in a similar position last season while battling Dakota Prukop in the spring. By most accounts, Jonsen played well in last season’s spring game. The narrative throughout fall camp was that it was a battle between Prukop and Jonsen, but when the depth chart was released before the opening game, Jonsen was listed fourth. With plenty of signal callers in the mix, Oregon quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo just wants everybody to compete, no matter their history. “[Arroyo] says, ‘Hey, go take someones spot,’ so I think that’s everyone’s mindset,” Jonsen said “He really emphasizes the film room,
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which I really like. ... You are what you put on your film.” Throughout spring drills, Herbert and Jonsen have typically split the reps. Herbert is usually the first quarterback running the miniscrimmage, but Jonsen gets first-team reps as well. For Herbert, the competition is “great for everyone.” Herbert is citing his growth from a half-season worth of experience. Specifically, he wants to work on his footwork. “Not bouncing up and down every time I drop back,” Herbert said. “I used to step too far back with my right foot. It caused some issues, so Coach Arroyo and I have been working on that.” The starting job is most likely down to Herbert and Jonsen, but freshman Burmeister is the wild card. He comes from La Jolla, California, and his combination of passing and running ability makes him unique. “[Burmeister] has been a student of the game already,” Arroyo added. “You want to be hungry, so I am excited about his eagerness to be out there.” Fans and media will see the quarterbacks work in the new offense for the final time before fall camp this Saturday during the spring game. Although it feels like Herbert’s to lose, Jonsen or Burmeister could also provide Oregon fans with a glimpse of their future quarterback. T H U R S D AY, A P R I L 2 7 , 2 0 1 6
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