Ra'Shaad Samples Doesn't Hold Back on Oregon Ducks Running Back Additions

On the Newcomers to the Backfield:

“Simeon (Price) is a seasoned vet. Man, I tell him all the time, he's been playing college football longer than I've been coaching him. We got a little joke on that. So, he's a seasoned vet man. He's a grown man. He goes about his business. He plays the game hard. He's in the field room every single day.”

“He's probably up there already watching practice. He's stretching. He's encouraging the guys to do, yoga and drink beet juice. He's a vet. He brings some consistency to the room, and he has some ability also. (Tradarian) Ball is a versatile guy. He's learning and getting up to speed, but like when he looked, when he does things and he does things the right way, you can see. You can see the talent there.”

“Just like Dierre, he has to continue to grow and understand the conceptualism of the game. And I think Brandon (Smith) has exceeded expectations for a guy who's been here. I don't know if he's been here a week yet, but he made some plays today where you can just see that kid has a chance to be special if he continues to improve. I don't even want to say improve the way he's improved, he's been here a week. So, if he can just continue to pick things up and play the game competitively, there's a lot of talent there.”

Replacing Running Back Noah Whittington’s Veteran Leadership:

“An honest truth is, whenever you lose a guy like Noah Whittington, you can't replace that. First of all, it's being honest about that guy who's been in this program forever, who's a grown man who understands the on and off the field expectations, understands the film, and Noah was the first one to build in every day.”

“So just meeting those guys, where they're at first, and bringing them up. Also, we brought a veteran guy in the room with Simeon Price, and he's been amazing for the room already. He's kind of filled a little bit of that void. But also, the young guys have grown up. I mean, Dierre has grown up. He speaks more. He talks more. Jordon has grown up.”

“Like those guys didn't say a word last year. They just were happy to play football. Now those guys are talking, and you add Simeon, so that you do it by committee. There's a group, more of a leadership group than there was a leadership guy last year.”

Running Backs Jordon Davison And Dierre Hill Jr. Taking the Next Step This Offseason:

“Growth. They did that last year and really didn't know what they were doing. They're going through the maturation process. They have to understand who they are as players, understand their strengths and weaknesses.”

“They were operating off of pure talent last year. They've gotten the film more in the film room. They understand the game conceptually. What we're trying to accomplish the moving parts of the offense, different spots. So, just growth. They should be key parts of not just the backfield, but our offense.”

How Da’Juan “Dink” Riggs Has Attacked Return From Injury:

“For Dink, the mental process has been really important, like his growth mentally. And I think he's taken a step growing mentally. Obviously, he had an injury. He had a couple injuries since he's been here. Just talking to that guy, how can you help yourself when you're not on the field, and guys are physically able to get better, you got to be in the backfield room.”

“You have to communicate the offense. You have to be able to teach it and regurgitate the same thing as I'm saying. And so, he's gained weight, he's gotten bigger, he's gotten stronger in the weight room, so that's just going to help him physically. He understands the offense. He's a really smart kid. Once he's able to go full and compete, and he's already out there, and once he's just back to his normal self, he's getting back to it. He's going to insert himself in that competition.”

How He Handled Injuries and the Transfer Portal During the College Football Playoff Semifinals:

“That was a week like no other. We had two guys that didn't play running back the week before come over. And we were teaching the offense, and it was a crazy week, man. But it's exciting. It's part of the job, man.”

“It's why they call us coach. How fast can you move guys along? How fast can you get guys up to speed? But you talk about a hectic week with a bunch of early mornings and a bunch of late nights. I don't think I slept that week. I think that was the that's probably been one of my most challenging weeks as a coach, for sure.”

What He Learned From the Peach Bowl:

“I learned a lot of things. Actually, I learned you have to be able to turn over every stone. You have to be able to look at every rock. You have to be able to try different things. You have to be able to try the things you haven't tried before. There was a lot of new things I had to do that I hadn't done before because I was coaching guys who played the position came ready. I had a bunch of vets last year, too. I was blessed.”

“Right now, you got a bunch of guys who haven't played running back in a long time. And so that's one thing I learned. I learned also to prepare for the future. Like man, you never know what's going to happen. And sometimes when you have abundance and abundance of riches like we had in the back in the running back room last year.”

“You never think, what if nobody's there? All of a sudden, nobody's there. And like, Jay Harris, and what a guy, showed up. He practiced every day. He worked his butt off, like a guy that I'm rooting for. But you look up, and he's the only healthy guy in the room, and Dierre is like, half healthy and trying to push through it. As a young guy who's 18 years old, and this is his first season, you learn to prepare for the future.”

“You learn to prepare every single guy, every single guy that gets the ball in their hands, receivers, running backs, tight ends, DBs, whoever. You learn to culture everybody hard. And you learn to prepare for the future.”

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