Oregon Football Freshman Focus: Robby Ashford
Robby Ashford's first year as an Oregon Duck was quite a unique one. He achieved his childhood dream of playing football and baseball in college, but he's only going to keep improving every day.
"It was a great experience, definitely getting my feet in the water as a true freshman," Ashford said at Oregon football media day. "It's really only up from here."
That improvement has come from the Ducks having a full offseason to work with. Seeing that the Ducks are one of the youngest teams in the country, the normal offseason will transform the team from a group of highly-recruited young players to a team of solidified college football players.
Ashford is no exception, as he said he has improved his body and his craft this offseason. The young signal-caller, who scored the game-winning two-point conversion in the spring game in May, said that he believes the full offseason was "big" for the Ducks as they look to defend their consecutive Pac-12 titles.
"We came in every day ready to work, and you just felt a whole different vibe from the team just because we knew it was a regular year," he said. "A lot of guys got better, bigger, stronger, and faster."
The conversation of improvement always seems to start with the quarterback spot. Anthony Brown has more or less been confirmed as the starting quarterback in fall camp, taking all the reps with the one's, and the battle for the number two spot is as hot as ever.
Ashford and Jay Butterfield return for their second year in the program, while freshman Ty Thompson comes in looking to take over the program. Ashford understands his role and is working to stay ready so he doesn't have to get ready.
"It's just being as ready as I can, taking it day-by-day and just trying to get better every day," he said. "AB has nothing but earned those number one reps. That's not even up for discussion.
"Everybody's sleeping on him, which I love because I know how he is. He's gonna turn a lot of heads."
Ashford and the skill position players have been growing their chemistry during the offseason, and he lauded the talent that the Ducks' ball-carriers and pass-catchers have.
"Everybody we have is good. You don't come here if you're not good," Ashford said. "I feel like we have the best running back and best receiver room in the nation. I feel like we have the best everything in the nation."
Johnny Johnson III, Jaylon Redd and Devon Williams will likely be the top targets at receiver this year, but the ball will find many more hands this year. Ashford believes that one receiver has improved the most — Kris Hutson.
"Kris Hutson is gonna be something special," he said. "Kris is my roommate, so I'm around him all the time. Just to see the growth he had from his freshman year coming into year two and just how much better of a receiver he became, it's been great to see."
Going from year one to year two can be quite a dramatic jump for college football players, especially coming off of a season riddled by the pandemic. Few athletes in all of Division 1 athletics can relate to the workload that Ashford faced last year as both a quarterback on the football team and an outfielder on the baseball team.
Ashford appeared in 20 games for the baseball team, batting .200 and driving in two runs in 35 at-bats. It was reported following the Ducks' loss to LSU in the Eugene Regional that he was quitting baseball to focus on football, but he cleared up the rumors.
The Ducks outfielder got caught up in contract tracing for several weeks leading up to the last week of the regular season due to some positive COVID-19 tests from his roommates. Ashford explained that he was also worn out from rehabbing his ankle injury.
"It was a mutual decision between football and baseball to just let me rest," he said. "Being injured was taking a toll on me, and they saw that and wanted me to be 100%.
"I'll definitely be back for baseball. It wasn't like I was quitting for good. I'll definitely be back."
Ashford was ranked the No. 160 prospect on MLB's top 200 prospects leading up to the 2020 draft. He was also considered one of the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the 2020 recruiting cycle, and even committed to Ole Miss before signing with Oregon.
Wherever Ashford plays, you'll see a flash of his next-level talent.
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