Prukop will have many of Adams’ favorite targets back this season including six of Oregon’s top receivers from last season led by junior Darren Carrington, who averaged 87 yards receiving per game past year.
Advertisement
Last season, OR was piloted by Eastern Washington transfer Vernon Adams, and now it’s Prukop’s turn after rolling up 3,822 yards of total offense and 39 touchdowns (28 passing) a season ago at Montana State.
OR loses three senior starters and adds three redshirt freshmen to the starting offensive line this season.
In past years, Saturday’s game was one in which the Ducks would put the team away by halftime, and then empty the bench in the second half. “It’s like you go from driving a auto that no one really talks about to driving a Ferrari”. The run extended into the third quarter, when Prukop ran in a touchdown from one yard out, following a 49-yard rush by Freeman on the previous play. Prukop completed 21-of-30 passes for 271 yards and three touchdowns, and also rushed for 36 yards and a TD.
UC Davis coach Ron Gould had faced Prukop before. “You saw the grit, you saw the determination, you saw the passion come out of these kids”.
“I thought operationally, we just didn’t get gapped out all the time and led to some of the big runs with the fly-sweep action and the power, there’s a lot of moving parts there that certainly other teams will do against us going forward, so we’ll get that ironed out”, Helfrich said. But they pulled it together by the end of the first quarter with Freeman’s six-yard scoring run. OR got the ball back at the UC Davis 29-yard line after defensive lineman Jalen Jelks intercepted Scott’s pass. Prukop threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Johnny Mundt as the Ducks stretched the lead to 19-7 following another two-point conversion from Nelson.
The Ducks pretty much cruised the rest of the way against the lower-division Aggies.
Speaking of new faces, there was something else that was new about Saturday’s game – it wasn’t a sellout.
With a crowd of 53,817, the Ducks fell just shy of the 54,000 capacity.
-RB Royce Freeman is a three-year starter who ranked second in the Pac-12 with 141.2 rushing yards per game last season when he broke the single-season school record with 1,836 rushing yards.
The Oregon Ducks might be the first ones to admit that having Vernon Adams run their offense last season was a bit awkward.
Prukop targeted receiver Charles Nelson the most Saturday, with nine passes resulting in four completions for 31 yards. Nelson finished with 288 all-purpose yards, including a 48-yard punt return and a 62-yard kickoff return. “We expected to score a lot more points in the first half than we did”.
“Last year that was being on the scout team and getting better there”.
But it wasn’t flawless. He struggled at the start, fumbling on his opening punt return.
Arizona State: The Sun Devils and their young quarterback finally found their rhythm late in the third quarter to give them a boost of confidence with the Red Raiders coming to town next week.
Advertisement
He waited for those pesky nerves to show up as he prepared for his first game at Autzen Stadium. I just took my eye off the ball for a second and fumbled it, ” he said. I should have run out of bounds. We appreciate that kind of a guy that can play that hard and make that many plays and kind of earns that right to play with confidence. “I ‘ll be looking to correct that next week”. Former Oregon defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti is also a UC Davis alum. It will be the ninth meeting between the two teams, but the first since 1953, with UC Davis holding a 6-1-1 series lead.
