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Dan Lanning looking for young leaders to emerge during spring practice
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- Dan Lanning looking for young leaders to emerge during spring practice
In 2024, the Oregon Ducks were loaded with talent across the board and a roster full of veteran experience.
You had experienced players like Dillon Gabriel, Tez Johnson, Terrance Ferguson, Jeffrey Bassa, and Jordan Burch all leading the team, with years of experience in the Oregon program under their belt. In 2025, though, that experience in Eugene is gone, and the Ducks are looking for new leaders to emerge.
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That's one of the primary goals for Dan Lanning this spring as he brings a young roster into the new season and works to identify both who his playmakers will be, as well as the standard-bearers. Veterans like Bryce Boetcher, Noah Whittington, Matayo Uiaglelei, Jahlil Florence, and Iapani Laloulu remain, but for the Ducks to reach the heights that they're setting out for, it will be on some young guys to step up and take on a more primary leadership role.
"That's one thing that I was hoping to see today. I saw some of that," Lanning said on Thursday after the team's first spring practice of the year. "I saw some guys stepping up, but we have to develop leadership on this team. You know? We're not returning a ton of experience. We're returning some really talented players. So it's about those guys stepping up, creating leadership, creating standards for our team, and those guys attacking."
You would expect that someone like Dante Moore or Austin Novosad will step up as a leader of the offense, but there are others on the team, even transfers, who are likely at the forefront of the vocal leadership charge. One of those guys is Purdue safety transfer Dillon Thieneman, who Lanning has said is leading by example already, and working hard to set a high standard of work in the DB room.
"He's infatuated with the extra work," Lanning said of Thieneman. "There's probably not a day that goes by that he's not in the weight room, getting bonus work, doing extra rehab, getting extra film. His intelligence, all those things are really picking up, you know, establishing some standards for the DB group and how they're going to operate."
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With one practice down and 14 more to go over the next several weeks, Lanning will have plenty of time to see who is going to step up and take charge.
This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Oregon Ducks looking for young leaders to step up in spring camp
