Joe Lorig Speaks Openly About Gage Hurych, Special Teams Competition

Despite the stability the Oregon Ducks retained across many key starting positions in the offseason, the special teams unit is an area where the Ducks saw change.

Oregon lost punter James Ferguson-Reynolds after a standout season, as well as long snapper Luke Basso and kicker Atticus Sappington, all of whom ran out of eligibility. Meanwhile, returner specialists Noah Whittington and Gary Bryant Jr. also exited.

Special teams coordinator Joe Lorig addressed the media after practice during week 2 of fall camp. Lorig spoke about the transition in the unit and what he’s seen from players stepping into larger roles.

oregon ducks joe lorig special teams gage hurych kicker dan lanning bailey ettridge dakorien moore luke basso punter recruit — Oregon special teams coach Joe Lorig, left, joins practice March 29, 2022. UO football 03 | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Everything Joe Lorig Said

Gage Hurych Earning a Placekicker Role:

“It's going really well. Gage is really a guy that we've been prepping for the last couple years for this spot. So really excited about what he's going to do. We've been obviously testing in practice and stuff over the last couple years, and he had great mentors before him.”

“The guys that have played before him that really meant him. Super excited about him. (Rocco Graziano) and Keaton (Emmett) will also push for him as well. But I think it's pretty confident to say that that the Gage is going to be the guy.”

Preparing for the Kicker Role:

“Yeah, I don't know if you really can. A big part of it is in recruiting. You try to identify those guys that are that are really mentally tough.”

“I've had a lot of kickers go on to the NFL: Jordan Stout, Jake Elliot, a lot of guys, Zane Gonzalez, and all those guys had the same commonalities as far as their mental makeup before, during the recruiting process, how they respond to adversity and also they were athletes. They weren't just kickers, not to minimize kickers.”

“But Gage was a phenomenal football player at West Linn. He played safety and receiver. I think his team might have won the state championship or certainly played for it, so part of that's being a really good athlete, being a being a real football player, and understanding the ups and downs of games.”

“They were calling him Ice Man like the first week he was here. Like he just has a – he never really gets too high, never really gets too low. He's just always the same whether it's a miss kick or a made kick, and that mental piece is the hardest. I'm sure that's why you're asking.”

“It's the hardest thing, and certainly I try to prepare them, coach Lanning, and I put them in situations in practice where if they were to miss a field goal, the whole team has to run. Those kind of things. But the truth is, you really can't.”

“There's only so much you can do to prepare a kid for being in the kind of stadiums that we're going to play in. It's very unique. I think I've talked about this before, but if you think about it, like when a kicker goes out there, it's the only position in football that I can think of that like all eyes are on you.”

“Like on offense, all eyes are on the quarterback. But then when the ball snaps, there's a lot of different moving parts. Well, the kicker, like when he goes out to kick the game-winning field goal, everyone's just looking at him. There's a lot of pressure there that I think is really hard to replicate, and that's the biggest challenge.”

“But we certainly try to build those things into practice as much as possible. And I made sure that looking ahead last year, I made sure that we got Gage in the game multiple times in lots of extra point scenarios, also in some field goal scenarios, as well as the spring game. So, this is something we've been building up to. You want to prepare for those things at least a year in advance, or you're putting yourself at a disadvantage.”

Players Standing Out as Punt Returners:

“Yeah, this early in camp, I'm hesitant to point out just one guy because it's still certainly a competition. But I think you said it, you got Dakorien, who's really special. Just think of the guy, anybody that's special with the ball in their hands, and then they have the element of being able to catch the punt.”

“So, it's not everybody that's special with the ball in their hands, but I think of like Evan Stewart. Coach Switz told me today that Evan Stewart's been really good. Dakorien’s been really good. Certainly, J-Mac's been back there. Jalen Lott, the young guy. So, I think we have a lot of a lot of guys here. It's really important.”

“We have two goals: own the ball, and no penalties. So, when you think about that, certainly we want we want to be good on punt return. Don't mishear me, but we don't make decisions based on who's going to be the most dynamic returner.”

“We make decisions based on who's going to be the number one guy that's going to get the ball back to our offense because we think we're going to have a great offense. And so, what I'm saying is it's a combination thing. We chart it every single day.”

“This is the guy that has the most drops. This is the guy with the surest hands, and then also obviously got to have some athletic ability to make plays, but it might not be the most dynamic guys. What I'm saying is going to be the guy with that that has that in combination with the best hands, and I should say those the other way: best hands and can run the ball well.”

Punter Position Battle:

“Yeah, I think at every position there's got to be competition. If you're at a school like Oregon, reach the goals that we want to reach. You got to have competition in your quarterback room. You got to have competition in your D-line room, and it's no different at punter. But I think it's also clear that Bailey's in in the lead. It's not a secret.”

“He knows that the other players know that, but the other players are pushing every single day to push to make him better. We got Michael Sbuttoni, who's a grad transfer, who's very good in his own right, and he's pushing Baz. We call him Baz, but he's pushing Baz every day. And then we got Jack Nicoli, who's a young, real raw talent from West Salem High School.

“So, I think it's safe to say that Bailey's the lead guy. But certainly, there's going to be competition every single day. Everything that we do in special teams is charted every day. So, like today we had a five minute. We call it daily skill. It's how we start practice.”

“Every one of those is charted. Coach Lanning gets the chart every night. I get the chart every night. The players get the chart every night, and we're going to kind of base it not solely on that, but a lot of it on that.”

Bailey Ettridge Transferring to Oregon Because of James Ferguson-Reynolds:

“He thought that might have been the reason? That's 100 percent the reason. Yeah, him and James are from the same hometown, Geelong. It's called in Australia. They tell me it's beautiful, but I've never been there. I keep trying to convince coach Lanning I need to take a recruiting trip there, but so far it has not worked.”

“But yeah, I've worked with Australians since my days at Memphis was my first one, which was probably 10-12, years ago. So those guys just have a really specific skill set. Like, how it's not so much this way anymore in the U.S. But like when I grew up, we always just throw the ball all the time, play, play basketball, play foursquare, throwing a football.”

“We were always outside doing that stuff. In Australia, they literally just grow up kicking the ball to each other. Like they play – they call it footy – and it's just like it's as natural to them as throwing a ball was to me as a kid. So, it's just something that they do.”

“And then I like tease him a lot because he's older and he should get teased for that. But you kind of like that maturity. It brings a different level of understanding. If you saw our games last year, there was a couple times you could see where James Ferguson-Reynolds would hold the ball longer.”

“That that that's a big thing that allows your coverage team to get down. You had a fake punt against Oregon State, where we kind of say the alert is on. So just kind of a savviness to those guys that maybe a 19 or 20-year-old wouldn't have. And then one of the things I also really appreciate is that those guys have worked in the real world.”

“Like how many other college football players at Oregon have gone and had real jobs in the real world and know how lucky they are to not take it for granted. Those guys really, we were talking about it today because we were watching these construction guys and really obviously appreciative of them.”

“But we were saying like he was a welder. He was really a welder, and he was telling the players like that's real work. If you think this is hard, go try doing that. And so I really appreciate. I'm extremely appreciative of being at Oregon. This is my dream job.”

“There's no other job in the world that I would rather have than this one, and so it means a lot to me because I'm from here. And so, I really appreciate people that appreciate being here. And he and all the other guys that are like that that have been out in the real world really have a different appreciation than a 19 or 20-year-old that's never done anything else or seen anything else could.”

Koi Perich as a Returner:

“Yeah, same thing I just said with those guys. When you're looking at a dynamic guy with the ball in his hands, he's certainly one of those as well. I should have mentioned him, but one of the things that I really like about a guy like Koi, he's got a lot of experience.”

“Certainly, if you're good enough, you're old enough. But again, like I just said with the kickers, it's kind of different when you're back there. I mean, I don't know if anybody's ever done it.”

“I have not at this level, but when you're back there, and you're going up to catch a punt, and the whole world it feels like is looking at you. There's a lot of pressure there, and so certainly having game experience is a big thing. And Koi has a ton of that, so he's another one that I think is a very viable option.”

Ryan Switzer as the Punt Returner Coach:

“Yeah, here I don't have to fight for anybody's time. So, the special teams is really important to coach Lanning. So, all of our coaches are involved. I watched his highlight immediately, made him our punt returner coach. Right?”

“No, he's coaching our punt returners, working with our kick returners, I think anytime you have a guy that's got that level of experience, it'd be crazy not to use him. And really, we use pretty much all of our coaches are involved in special teams. I'm the coordinator.”

“I'm in charge of it, obviously, but it's a team effort. So, literally every coach besides the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and O-line coach are involved in our special teams. But I guess he's involved with the returners.”

Gage Hurych’s Improvement and Quality Traits:

“Yeah, so I think I said a little bit, like just the Iceman stuff. He just kind of he always had a different maturity level, has a lot of leg strength, super good athlete, and so, just having done this for a long time, I know that you don't want to just focus on that particular year.”

“You're always developing, like we've done it at quarterbacks, for instance, with having a transfer sit behind a starter as an example, training that guy, knowing that they're going to be the future. So, I anticipated him being the future. I'm super excited about it.”

“And so again, every time we could in practice last year, we were getting the guys, we were getting Atticus or whoever it was going to be that week ready to play. But we would always put in an extra rep.”

“Coach Lanning and I would know that like this extra, we're going to get like say game-winning field goal. Well, instead of doing one with Atticus, we would do two. Do one with Atticus, and then have Gage come out and get his rep. And really, you're just building so that by the time we're to now, he's gotten all those different reps.”

“So, it's not just like thrown into the fire right now. And then what he's done since then. I think it's always different when you're the guy in the wings versus when you're the guy in the front seat, and now he knows he's in the front seat, and he's never has worked differently. He's just a super hard worker, and I think he's really, really excited about the opportunity. And like I said, I know it means a lot to him.”

Koi Perich’s Versatility:

“He really reminds me a lot of Dillon Thieneman, and I'm sure I don't read all that stuff, but I'm sure that there's been people that say that they're very similar players. Our deal here, the deal that I have with coach Lanning here is in our staff is that every player can start on two special teams, other than O-line, D-line, and quarterbacks.”

“That versatility could be used in a lot of different ways. You know Dillon Thieneman. I was I'm going to show the players here later this week. He started on kickoff cover last year. He started on punt last year, and at times he started on punt return ladder.”

“Another one that I'm going to show just because I just made the tapes. Kenyon Sadiq. And Kenyon Sadiq's career here he started on all four units. So having that versatility just obviously allows us to play them in different areas, which allows us to have the best players on the field.”

“Which, if you want to be good on special teams, you got to play the best players. And then a big part of it for them is it helps their resume. When you get to the NFL, almost everybody, unless you're a super, super high draft pick, you're playing on special teams, and so that's a big part of it for these guys is knowing that they can help join the Oregon certainly, but also knowing that that in order to achieve their goals of going to the NFL, they're going to have to have those skills.”

“I was telling the players, Jeff Bassa literally sent me video of him doing a drill that we did here like two nights ago, and he was like, ‘Coach, thanks. I'm so glad I listened.’ When we were, because he took special teams very seriously, and he would tell you that it's a big part of why he made the Kansas City Chiefs roster, and so that versatility can help us in all the different areas, and then it can certainly help him in his future as well.”

Oregon High Schools Developing Kickers:

“You forgot Luke Basso. Luke Basso, Rocco Graziano. Is there any more? I'm trying to think anymore. No, well, it's just it's a recruiting philosophy. I don't know that anybody's doing anything particularly different here than any other state.”

“I can't speak before I got here, but I know when I got here, I'm always going to start in state first, and I actually am the only coach on staff that has a recruiting area. I have Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, so any position in that area, I'm one of the recruiters.”

“So, if it was a Hudson Lewis, a receiver from Idaho, I'm going to be the probably the first one, maybe, or one of the ones that identifies, and then coach Douglas and I will kind of team recruit that guy.”

“So, part of it is that it's my area, but certainly if there's if there are kids in state that are that I think or we think, with coach Lanning obviously are good enough, then we're going to do everything we can to get them to come to Oregon and play for Oregon. I think it means we have kids from all over the country, so certainly it's important to all of them.”

“But my personal opinion is it means just a little bit more to people that are from here. I know it does for me. So, if there are guys in state that are good enough, then I want them to come to Oregon and develop them. If they're not, then we have to go, if there's not someone in Oregon, there might not be a punter that we think is a guy that's the right fit for us at Oregon.”

“Well, then in Oregon, well, then we're going to look at what we call our footprint. Okay, who's going to be in California or Washington? If they're not there, then we got to then we're going to go national. So, it happened to be that we've had those guys that in state that that we felt were good enough that wanted to come here.”

Similarities With Boise State Special Teams coordinator Stacy Collins:

“Well, number one, extremely highly educated because Western Oregon's the harbor to the West, right? That's what I tell people. No, Stacy Collins and I were college teammates. We're the best of friends.”

“And anytime I've left a job, and if it's always been on good terms, thankfully, the head coach usually will ask you, ‘Well, if you're going to leave, who do you think I should hire?” And I always say Stacy Collins. I think he's one of the best teams coordinators in the country, unmatched in my opinion.”

“So, you could go through all my stops when I left Utah. When I was at Idaho State, we got him there. When I left Utah State, got him helped. He gets himself hired, so don't misquote what I'm saying. But I mean, I give his name, and then he does the rest. And same thing. So yeah, I think extremely highly of him. He's very, very good, and we're super good friends.”

Pursuing Long Snappers in the Transfer Portal:

“So, I don't know if it's any more unique than any other position to pursue in the portal. I guess I never thought of it like that, but if you have a need just like anywhere else, if you don't have a guy in the program that you think can help you win a Big Ten championship and a national championship, then you have to look elsewhere. And so, we found ourselves in that situation.”

“And then what you do – I work with Chris Rubio and Jamie Kohl. They're two of the top long snapping coach Jamie's kind of a kicking coach, but Chris Rubio is a strictly long snapping. That's their full-time business, their full-time job. I've dealt with them for almost 30 years now, so kind of get recommendations from them, and then just like any other position, we watch the film, talk to their coaches, show it to coach Lanning.”

“For us, it's not really – it's kind of like all special specialist positions. It's not really like the talent level that'll show on films. A snapper can do it or not. You want a guy that's done it at a high level, and then you want a guy that's going to be a fit in your program. So, it's kind of checking all those different boxes, not just the talent piece. RJ is really, really good.”

“He reminded me a lot of Luke Basso, who's really good. Luke's in camp right now with the Denver Broncos. Very excited for him. And we were just spoiled for a lot of years. He's really good. No, no one but me and probably their mom thinks about the long snapper until there's trouble. But if you look at other schools even around this area, look at last season.”

“There was some people that didn't have long snappers, and it will derail your season extremely quickly. Again, people don't think about it besides me and their moms, but they're very, very important. And so, just like any other position, we kind of just go through, utilizing contacts and making sure that all those boxes are checked.”

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