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When you lose 10 players to the NFL draft in a given year, it’s always going to be tough to reload and get back into championship contention. For Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks, Saturday’s annual spring game was an opportunity to show not only the local fans but the college football world at large that the talent in Eugene is capable of making another run this season.
While a spring scrimmage is not the end-all, be-all for judging a football team, it serves as a good proving ground for young players in new roles, looking to showcase their capabilities for the future. The Ducks had a long list of young players who showed out on Saturday, making big plays on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.
There were the expected performances from established veterans like Kenyon Sadiq, Matayo Uiagalelei, Noah Whittington, and Jahlil Florence, but a handful of young players who made significant improvements to their stock and instilled confidence for the 2025 season and beyond.
Here are the players who stood out to me the most on Saturday, improving their stock.
Dillon Gresham
It appears that the Ducks are not lacking for WR talent once again this year. While we went into the game expecting to be talking about the likes of Evan Stewart, Dakorien Moore, Kyler Kasper, and Malik Benson, it was redshirt freshman Dillon Gresham who stole the show with three catches for 96 yards and a touchdown.
While Gresham’s TD came on a 56-yard catch and run over the middle, maybe his most impressive play of the day came on a diving catch down the right sideline with Theran Johnson in coverage. There are a lot of mouths to feed in Oregon’s offense, so projecting that Gresham is going to come in and take a legitimate piece of the target share is a bit of a stretch, but he, at the very least, showed that he is a future with the Ducks.
