EUGENE — Oregon emptied its bench in last week’s blowout of Nevada and the second team offensive line got to impose its will.
On what ended up being the longest drive of the night in Oregon’s 77-6 massacre of Nevada, the Ducks second-team offensive line paved the way for a 15-play, 80-yard drive spanning 6:15 in the fourth quarter.
“When the twos and threes went in I didn’t think it was much of a drop off,” starting left guard Shane Lemieux said. “It wasn’t us trying to run up the score or anything; I think it’s our twos and threes — like we’ve been saying for a while, are really good unit together on the O-line."
Most satisfying to the offensive line was the 11 runs for 39 yards during that span.
“We chewed up six minutes, ran the ball the whole way pretty much,” offensive tackle/tight end Brady Aiello said of the drive that was capped off with a 21-yard touchdown pass from Shough to Hunter Kampmoyer.
Game action was nothing unusual for Aiello, who caught a touchdown earlier in the game and has started numerous games through his career, or backup Steven Jones. But it was meaningful action for guard Alex Forsyth and the first game action for junior college transfer Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu.
“It was good for those guys to get out there and hear some calls and see some live music and live guys and live ball,” offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo said. “Sala did a good job. Some of those guys have never played. The ability for him to go in there and throw his body around and play full-speed, I think that’s the biggest thing, is adjusting to the speed of the game.”
Aiello credited Aumavae-Laulu with helping spring Darrian Felix’s 62-yard scoring run with 2:02 to go.
Though Jones, who is the backup left tackle on paper, has rotated in at right guard behind Dallas Warmack and Aiello and Forsyth are also both ahead of Aumavae-Laulu, Oregon coach Mario Cristobal isn’t designating the JUCO transfer as a likely redshirt candidate just yet and has seen him make enormous progress the last few weeks.
Nevada’s lone sack of the game did come against Oregon’s second team offensive line, but other than that the unit performed well.
“They’re learning from a great group,” Shough said. “They get held to a great standard by coach Cristobal and (offensive line) coach(Alex) Mirabal. I see no drop off in work ethic. They’re a great group of guys. I’m roommates with a lot of them. I’m really excited to see them get out there and see what they can do.”