Football Practice Report: Oct. 20
10/20/16 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
This probably wasn't the senior season Jeff Lockie once envisioned, but the former UO starter is giving his all with the scout team this fall.
Venue: Moshofsky Center
Format: Fast Friday
A lesser man might have transferred, or given up the game completely. A lesser man might pout and just go through the motions at practice.
Jeff Lockie is not that kind of guy. A year removed from starting three games for the Oregon football team, Lockie is spending the 2016 season as a scout-team quarterback for the Ducks. It's not the senior year he envisioned upon signing with the UO football program in 2012, but he's making the most of it while studying for his master's and preparing for a bright future after college.
An understudy to his close friend Marcus Mariota from 2012-14, Lockie was Oregon's first-string quarterback in 2015 until the arrival of transfer Vernon Adams Jr. Lockie started wins over Georgia State and Colorado while Adams was hurt last season, and a loss to Washington State. In the Alamo Bowl, Adams was hurt again, and while Lockie drove the Ducks to a late-first-half field goal for a 31-0 halftime lead, the wheels came off the UO offense in the second half, and TCU won in overtime.
Coming into 2016, the Ducks added another senior transfer, Dakota Prukop, as well as freshmen Justin Herbert and Terry Wilson Jr. Another freshman, Travis Jonsen, was coming off a redshirt year. In the spring, it was clear the Ducks would put the job in the hands of one of the newcomers. That didn't leave many reps for Lockie.
"You take a step back and you evaluate," said Lockie, a Bay Area native who is on the travel squad for Friday's game at California (7:30 p.m., ESPN). "But I wanted to be here this whole time. There's a reason I stuck it out this long. It's because I love this program and love the coaching staff and this team. When they asked me to help in a different role, I was there to help in a different role – whatever the team needed."
That's meant playing everything from receiver to running back to returner in practices the last few months. The last couple weeks, fellow former backup QB Taylor Alie has played primarily receiver, leaving Lockie and Jonsen as the scout-team quarterbacks. Lockie has fully embraced the role, mimicking nuances such as Washington quarterback Jake Browning's exaggerated hand clap prior to the snap.
"I'm just trying to help out as much as I can," Lockie said. "If they want me to give them a good look on defense, I'll come in every day and try to bring energy, and give them the very best look so they're prepared on Saturday."
Monday through Friday, Lockie is preparing himself for a lucrative career off the field. While sharing time as the Ducks' starter last fall, he finished his undergraduate degree in business administration, with a 3.82 GPA. He immediately enrolled in Oregon's MBA program; that's a two-year program, but Lockie is on track to finish it in one, after the upcoming winter term.
He's not certain of his career path after college. "If I stay in the football world, it would probably be in the front office somewhere," Lockie said. "Or maybe venture out and see what the apparel space is like."
Whatever he picks, the future seems bright. It presumably won't be on the football field, but that hasn't kept Lockie from giving his best for the Ducks one last season this fall.
Developmental squad scrimmage period: On five drives from midfield, the defense kept the offense out of the end zone on all but one. Jihree Stewart intercepted a tipped pass on the opening possession. Facing third-and-long on the next drive, Wilson rolled to his right and fired a cannon shot downfield about 45 yards, but linebacker Ivan Faulhaber was there to break it up. Another turnover followed, with Michael Manns coming on a corner blitz and jumping on a muffed QB-center exchange. Wilson finally got the offense rolling on the fourth possession, but it ended inside the red zone on a Bryson Young sack. …
Then, the offense turned the tide. Wilson zipped a pass over the middle to Ryan Bay for 16 yards, kept the ball on a QB run for 14 yards, and two plays later threw another 16-yard pass to Bay for the first touchdown of the period. With just a couple minutes left in the period, the ball was moved up to the 20-yard line to start each possession. Wilson threw a 20-yard scoring pass to Chayce Maday on the next play, and Maday added an 18-yard TD reception two plays later.
