Football Practice Recap: April 16

The Oregon football team opened its third week of spring practice Tuesday morning, getting in a workout in full pads on the team's grass practice fields.

The Ducks returned to action following a scrimmage Saturday. They'll plan to scrimmage again this Saturday, and next week brings the annual Spring Game on April 27.

Following practice Tuesday, head coach Dan Lanning met with local media, as did offensive line coach A'lique Terry, defensive back Nikko Reed, running back Jordan James and quarterback Austin Novosad. Video of those interviews is embedded below.

Some highlights from coach Lanning ...

On what he'll be looking for in Saturday's second scrimmage of the spring: "Just improvement. We want to get better. So the mistakes we made in scrimmage one, I don't want to see us making those same mistakes in scrimmage too. And situational awareness — I think that can continue to imporve as well."

On improvements the team has shown so far this spring: "Certainly seeing a better team right now, and continue to hope to see that improve as we move forward."

On the development of Novosad: "You go from being a freshman coming in, having a little bit of a deer-in-the-headlights feel, to where Austin really knows our offense now. He's able to go out there and operate and do it at a really high level. He's had a really good spring."

On his offensive line coach, Terry: "O line is tough — you've got five guys working in sync. You've got guys that have to have position flexibility, work in multiple spots. So it takes a really detailed teacher, which A'lique is. And a coach that's really passionate about making his players better. You can tell he cares about his guys; that's where it starts. They don't care what you know until they know how much you care, and he's one of the coaches that live by that."

Head coach Dan Lanning

Offensive line coach A'lique Terry

Senior defensive back Nikko Reed

Junior running back Jordan James

Redshirt frehman quarterback Austin Novosad