After Oregon’s second day of bowl practice in San Antonio, members of the Ducks offense, including coordinator Joe Moorhead sat down for their first official meeting with the media.
While most bowl press conferences are fairly vanilla in nature, and not much is really learned or revealed, Sunday’s briefing with the Ducks contingent was intriguing and informative.
Sitting down were offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, RB Travis Dye, QB Anthony Brown and offensive lineman Steven Jones and Alex Forsyth.
JOE MOORHEAD HEALTH SCARE
The first nugget came when Moorhead was asked about his in-season health scare when he missed the Stanford game for a mysterious illness which forced him into surgery on the day of the game. While Moorhead had remained quiet during the remainder of the season about his surgery, he opened up about it on Sunday in the public setting.
What began as an uncomfortable and nagging stomach pain in the team hotel on the morning of the game turned into something much more serious that certainly could have cost Moorhead his life.
After being rushed to the hospital with his increased pain, it was learned through tests and a CT scan that Moorhead suffered a tear in his colon, or what’s commonly described as a ruptured diverticulitis.
“I had a ruptured diverticulitis and had to go into the ER the morning of the game,” said Moorhead when asked to discuss his health scare in Palo Alto.
“It’s a ruptured abscesses essentially in your colon and they had to — they took me in for CT scan, brought me back and they said, ‘hey we got to get you into surgery.’ It was a cut from just below my breastbone, past my belly button, they removed a foot of colon, sewed the ends together and then 24 staples to close it up. For a guy who had never spent a day in a hospital in his life it went from zero to 60 pretty quickly.”
And while his medical situation was extremely personal and private, Moorhead described even further his feeling of mortality when he came face to face with a very serious surgery.
“I’m 48 and I had never spent a night or a day in the hospital in my life, so I mean, not to sound morbid, but I was wondering if I was going to die” explained Moorhead.
“You hear about the things that could happen, kind of what the complications could be and then you wonder about going under anesthesia and you wonder about the entire procedure. You’re questioning your own health at that point.”
VETERANS RETURN ALONG THE OFFENSIVE LINE
The second informational nugget came when offensive linemen Steven Jones and Alex Forsyth both committed to returning to the Ducks next season providing new coach Dan Lanning with a veteran squad up front. Typically decisions like this aren’t discussed in an open forum, especially while sitting down in a bowl game presser.
“Yeah, I mean, as of right now I’m ready to come back for one more season and get after it with my O’line brothers, so I’m excited.” said Jones.
“Yeah, I’m super excited” explained Forsyth.
“I’m going to give my best recruiting pitch to Ryan ( Walk ) and T.J ( Bass ) to come back, but now that we’ve got Steve ( Jones ), me and Sala back, we’ve got a good core group of guys, so I’m excited to get after it again next year after we take care of business this week.”
WHAT WOULD CHRISTMAS BE WITHOUT A ROMANTIC MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
Continuing in the good news column, it was also revealed Sunday in the team presser that Oregon star running back Travis Dye proposed marriage to his fiance Erin Hemerson. The couple have been dating for six years.
After wearing jersey number 23 in high school, Dye took the opportunity to propose on December 23rd before catching the team flight to San Antonio.
“Yeah, you know, she had no clue, but the 23rd — 23 has always been a special number for both of us, so it was just nice to do it on the 23rd, close to Christmas” explained Dye.
“You know, I had a nice setup for her right when she got into the house, and it was just a nice moment. I was very, very nervous, and it was difficult to do, but it felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder after I did it. I’m glad she said
yes.”
ANTHONY BROWN DEALING WITH SEVERE CRITICISM, ON AND OFF THE FIELD
The last, and most surprising nugget that came to light Sunday, was the excruciating and demeaning criticism that surrounded Oregon quarterback Anthony Brown during the season.
Brown was openly demonized throughout the last half of the season for his sometimes less-than-stellar performance and inability to manufacture points for the offense. Brown was not only loudly booed during the Ducks home win over California, but he continued to hear the whispers, and sometimes loud chants for backup Ty Thompson.
What also came to light were references to racial overtones and threats.
With all of that, Brown continued to lead the Ducks to a North Division crown and a spot in the Pac-12 Championship. Brown was also instrumental in leading the team to a 10 win season and a massive road win over Ohio State.
Brown remained silent about the criticism until Sunday on the dais in San Antonio.
“I would say looking back at it, the criticism makes the season seem a lot more worse than it is” explained, Brown.
“Like you said, we’re a 10-win team, which is very hard to do in college football,…we played in the Pac-12 Championship and top 10 in rushing in quarterbacks. I would say just the voices alone make it sound worse than it is.”
And, under all of that turmoil and public noise, Brown remained steadfast focused with the help of his teammates and family.
“I reached out to my parents, my dad, my mom, a few of my cousins, a couple of my uncles, and just — really it was really my family and some of my teammates because those are the people that are always here,… and my family at home are the people that understand me the most” said Brown.
“So just being able to lean on them was very important for me, and without them, I wouldn’t have kept going.”
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