Will We See Matayo Uiagalelei at Tight End for Oregon This Season?
It's been an offseason full of change for the Oregon Ducks tight end room.
Following the end of the 2022 season, the Ducks saw two of their top tight ends find new homes when Moliki Matavao and Cam McCormick entered the transfer portal.
Those losses made a spring injury to No. 1 tight end Terrance Ferguson that much more significant.
Short on bodies, tight ends coach Drew Mehringer called on true freshman Matayo Uiagalelei, who was ranked as one of the top edge rushers in the 2023 class, to spend some time on offense to help out the team.
Uiagalelei looked promising, even taking some snaps at tight end during the team's annual spring game. However, where he really drew praise was for his play at defensive end, emerging as a disruptive force off the edge.
So it only felt natural when fans started to wonder whether or not they'd see the true freshman suit up for some offensive snaps this season.
Since the end of spring ball, the Ducks went into the portal themselves to add a pair of transfers in Casey Kelly from Ole Miss Kaden Ludwick from Colorado. They're both getting up to speed alongside true freshman Kenyon Sadiq, at a position that will be led by both Ferguson and Patrick Herbert.
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Meeting with reporters on Wednesday, Mehringer was asked if Uiagalelei has been repping at tight end during fall camp.
"He's an impressive individual. If you wanted that kid to play quarterback he could probably figure out a way to do it," Mehringer said. "If I had an option to keep him out there more I probably would, but he's doing a good job. We'll see what he does right now."
Uiagalelei is doing all he can to adapt to the college level along with the rest of Oregon's signees from the 2023 recruiting class.
"Kind of like Kenyon (Sadiq), he's digesting the entirety of a pretty complex defense, so you can't stunt him on one side of anything to slow him just to say that we're gonna do something else with him."
Time will tell if we'll see any of the 6-foot-5, 270-pound defensive end on offense this season, but Mehringer sounds content with where his room is at two weeks out from the season opener against Portland State.
"I'm sure we're gonna find something to do with him at the moment," he said. "But we feel pretty good about where we're tight end depth wise as well."
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