Watch: Oregon football coach Dan Lanning talks after spring game
Oregon football coach Dan Lanning speaks after the Ducks’ annual spring game at Autzen Stadium in Eugene.
The Oregon football offensive line is rarely shy about what they define as their standard.
The group has achieved much: Back-to-back seasons as a Joe Moore Award finalist — given annually to the nation’s best offensive line — two NFL Draft picks and another two starters receiving rookie minicamp invites from April and a Rimington Award winner at center in Jackson Powers-Johnson in 2023.
Alex Harkey, a transfer from Texas State who is projected to start at tackle for the Ducks, saw what tackles Josh Conerly Jr. and Ajani Cornelius did over the last few seasons and set lofty standards for himself for 2025.
“They set the standard,” Harkey said after Oregon’s spring game April 26. “Watching film, it was good ball, but they brought me in to do better than that. The standard keeps rising and that’s what I would like to do.”
A fifth-year senior from Austin, Texas, Harkey started his collegiate career as a tight end at Tyler Junior College in Texas before moving over to the offensive line. He played one season at Colorado in 2022 before transferring closer to home at Texas State, where he really came into his own in 2024.
Harkey has one year of eligibility left and plans to make it count at Oregon, where his connection with offensive line coach A’lique Terry has already grown.
“It’s what he can bring to me as a player,” Harkey said of Terry. “Not even like development, but like the juice he brings, it turns me up. That’s what it needs to do for me mentally to get to where I need to get.”
Though Terry knew what the Ducks were getting in Harkey on tape, he said he was surprised at his nimbleness and size when the 6-foot-6, 335-pound tackle finally arrived on campus.
Harkey is one of several transfers, along with guard Emmanuel Pregnon (USC) and tackle Isaiah World (Nevada), who are being asked to fill in holes left by four departing starters on the offensive line from 2024.
Conerly and Cornelius served as bookends at left and right tackle from 2023 to 2024 and were each drafted for their strong play in Eugene. Guards Marcus Harper II and Nishad Strother weren’t drafted but will compete at NFL rookie minicamps throughout the spring to hopefully make an NFL roster in the fall.
The only returning starter, center Iapani Laloulu, will be joined by Pregnon, World, Harkey and a slew of young talent to replace one of the best offensive lines in college football.
The trio of transfers hopes to bring experience to a room that desperately needs it heading into the 2025-26 season. Though Harkey is working on his development to eventually make a run at the NFL Draft in 2026, right now he’s focused on building rapport with his fellow teammates and enforcing his play style and mentality on opponents.
“You can run behind me, that’s what I want,” Harkey said. “That’s what I want my identity to be at the end of the day. I’ll run through someone’s face.”
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
Jedd Fisch wasn’t able to send the Washington Huskies’ seniors off with a victory, as his team fell 26-14 to the No. 5 Oregon Ducks on Saturday afternoon.
As sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr. struggled, completing just 50 percent of his passes for 129 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions, the Huskies dropped to 8-4 on the season and 1-3 against ranked opponents.
Among the 23 players who walked on senior day that were hoping to go out with a victory were running back Jonah Coleman, wide receiver Denzel Boston, offensive linemen Carver Willis and Geirean Hatchett, defensive linemen Ta’ita’i Uiagalelei and Anterio Thompson, and cornerbacks Tacario Davis and Ephesians Prysock. After the game, Fisch took some time to acknowledge what all the seniors have meant to his program.
“Couldn’t be prouder of them, the way they’ve handled themselves,” Fisch said. “A lot of them have been with me and our staff for four years, from the time we recruited in high school at a different school. 2022, were a part of changing an entire culture, and really changed it twice.”
“I want to appreciate the guys that stayed here when we arrived and bought into what we were trying to get done, and have become team leaders and captains. I appreciate the guys that just transferred in this year and were a part of a good season, proud of those guys and appreciate those guys as well.”
Since his arrival, Fisch has done an impressive job upgrading the talent on Montlake after Kalen DeBoer’s departure for Alabama left the cupboards bare. While some of those promising building blocks were apparent in the loss, like running back Adam Mohammed, wide receiver Dezmen Roebuck, offensive lineman John Mills, linebacker Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, and cornerback Dylan Robinson, Saturday’s game also showed that the Huskies still have some maturing to do before they can compete with the top teams in the Big Ten.
“That’s kind of the way it works…you lose big, then you lose small, then you win small, then you win big,” Fisch said. “That’s kind of the progression of how these turnarounds occur, or how these builds occur. I think we had some interesting ‘win bigs’ throughout the year, but these types of games, against the top ten teams, they’re challenging, and they’re going to be like this.”
A special weather statement was issued by the National Weather Service on Saturday at 11:39 p.m. until Sunday at 4 a.m. for North Central Oregon and Central Oregon.
“Patchy dense fog will reduce visibilities to one quarter of a mile or less in the city of Bend and portions of US-97, US-197, and US-20. If you are driving, slow down, use low beam headlights and allow for extra space between your vehicle and those around you,” according to the weather service.
When Emily Purry casually asked her surf guide how far off she might be from competing, she never expected his answer would catapult her onto Team USA within weeks. On a recent episode of the Peak Northwest podcast, Purry shared the whirlwind journey that transformed her from a beginner blind adaptive surfer to an international competitor representing Oregon on the world stage.
“It was quite the whirlwind. Honestly, nothing that I expected or really even thought could happen,” Purry, who goes by “Strong Sightless Surfer” on Instagram, told host Chiara Profenna. “I’ve been surfing for a very short time. I’m very new to the sport.”
That conversation with her guide quickly escalated from hypothetical to actionable. When he suggested she could compete immediately, Purry discovered she needed to enter a competition before Team USA tryouts, leaving her with just two options: Hawaii the following week or Japan in three weeks.
Despite being a novice surfer who had progressively lost her sight to Stargardt’s macular degeneration, she made a decision that would intimidate even seasoned travelers: “As weird as it sounds, I think I can pull off Japan. And so, I flew to Japan independently. It was my first time flying internationally by myself.”
The logistics were daunting. In rapid succession, Purry had to purchase her first surfboard, navigate international travel alone, and trust strangers in a foreign country where communication was difficult. “I had to meet people I’d never seen before in my life. I talked to one of them on the phone once,” she explained, detailing how she was picked up by a Japanese man whose English was limited.
Despite these challenges, Purry not only competed in Japan but returned home and, just eight days later, successfully tried out for Team USA.
For Purry, this journey represents far more than athletic achievement.
“It started to bring my confidence back as far as who was I, who I used to be, and how much I missed me as a human being,” Purry shared, highlighting the deep connection between physical activity and sense of self.
Purry spoke on the podcast as she was preparing for the ISA (International Surfing Association) World Competition in Oceanside, California, held Nov. 2–7.
“I definitely want to win,” she shared on the podcast, revealing the competitive spirit that propelled her from that first casual conversation to the international stage in mere weeks. In Oceanside, Purry went on to help Team USA secure the silver medal at the ISA World Championships.
Listen to the full episode here:
Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive’s travel and outdoors podcast Peak Northwest on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Hosts Jamie Hale and Chiara Profenna take you to some of the greatest destinations in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Check out more Peak Northwest episodes below.
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