EUGENE - Forty-eight returning lettermen and 14 starters from a year ago led the list of 103 players on hand as the University of Oregon held its first of 29 practices leading up to its Sept. 1 season opener vs. the University of Houston in Autzen Stadium.

Coming off last season’s 7-6 record, the Ducks will conduct split-squad practices through Thursday, with the bulk of the veterans slated to workout at 12:15 p.m., followed by the newcomers and the rest of the reserves at 4:30 p.m. They will hold their first day of workouts in full pads on Friday, followed by the first day of two-a-day drills on Saturday and an off-day on Sunday.

Oregon will then begin alternating daily-double practices with single workouts on Monday, Aug. 13, while again not practicing on Sundays.

Although the Ducks have suffered through a few disappointing seasons in the past under 13th-year head coach Mike Bellotti, he admitted that there might be a little more pressure to quickly turn last year’s frustrations around than in previous years during Monday’s Football Media Day introductions.

“We’re excited, as always, to start the 2007 season,” Bellotti opened. “Maybe we have a little bit more to prove this year than in years past. We’re excited about that and the prospect of staying hungry and playing with a purpose – with sort of a chip on our shoulder.

“We failed to accomplish our goals last year – especially at the end of the season – and that weighs on you fairly heavily. It also was fuel for the fire in the off-season in terms of what we wanted to do.

“I thought we had a great recruiting year and a great off-season in terms of conditioning and commitment by our athletes, and that’s very, very important. Having said that, it will be judged by the way we play.”

Heading the seven returning starters on offense from a year ago will senior quarterback Dennis Dixon, who spent the summer playing baseball in the Atlanta Braves minor league organization, and junior running back Jonathan Stewart. The Lacy, Wash., physical specimen once again led the Pacific-10 Conference in kickoff returns for a second year in a row (28.1 avg.), while finishing fifth in the league in rushing (75.5 avg.). Stewart also finished 17th in the country in all-purpose running (136.2 avg.).

Despite a desire for a greater production from its running game, Oregon still led the league in rushing (182.2 avg.) for the first time since 1955.

“I think Jonathan’s carries, hopefully, per game will increase.” Bellotti stated while adding that junior Jeremiah Johnson would also be given his share of carries both as a single back as well as playing in the same backfield as Stewart. “The fact they can both play at the same time will happen more frequently this year. Certainly I would like to keep them both healthy. I’m not worried about pure stats. I liked the balance, I liked the amount of touches people got. One of the keys to this offense is the distribution of the football and that comes back to game planning and the decision making by the quarterback, which is very, very key.”

Also returning on offense are starting linemen Geoff Schwartz, Josh Tschirgi and Max Unger, as well as wide receivers Brian Paysinger and Jaison Williams. Senior Cameron Colvin also returns after starting 12 games in 2005.

Defensively, the Ducks welcome back seven starters from last season – defensive end Nick Reed, tackle David Faaeteete, linebacker A.J. Tuitele, rover Patrick Chung and cornerbacks Jairus Byrd and Walter Thurmond III.

Senior defensive end Victor Filipe also is back after missing all of last year with an elbow injury. Filipe opened five games in 2005.

“If you look at this football team this year, there are four areas of emphasis. The first is possession of the football on offense and that is everybody’s responsibility,” Bellotti emphasized. “It also is tied to decision making by the quarterback. All those things are correctable. The other thing is that we have to play better on special teams and I think bringing back Tom Osborne (special teams coordinator/tight end coach) will help that.

“Defensively, we need to create more takeaways but that starts with being a good run defense. We have the same group back in the defensive line but they’re healthy this year. That’s really huge. We have four or five key players – starters and/or backups – we expected to play who did not play either a significant part of the season or the entire season. I do assume that we will be better.”

A trio of recruits from the February signing period – wide receiver Rishard Matthews as well as defensive linemen Simi Fili and Myles Wade – were not admitted to school while a pair of freshmen newcomers – cornerback William Wallace and safety Jeffrey Maehl – also missed the initial day of workouts. Wallace was delayed while attending to a personal matter while Maehl was completing NCAA requirements.

Joining the squad was a late scholarship addition in cornerback Javes (JAV-is) Lewis. The 6-1, 185-lb. freshman from Tustin (CA) High School led the Century League in rushing, accumulating 1,480 yards on the ground (134.5 avg.), and in scoring with 162 points in 2006. He will begin his collegiate career at Oregon at cornerback.