College football season has been in hibernation for almost two months now, but as spring football season begins across the country, the sport is starting to stir from its slumber. The Oregon Ducks are once again projected to be one of the best teams in college football next fall, but the long road to realizing that potential starts with the Ducks’ 15 spring practices.
Oregon lost a lot of talent to the NFL this offseason, and although the Ducks have no shortage of talent in their program, finding success with an inexperienced roster will have its challenges. On Saturday, after the Ducks’ second practice of the spring season, Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein spoke about those challenges, highlighting a handful of returners, including Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq, who will provide the Ducks with precious experience.
“Kenyon Sadiq is one of the best players in the country,” Stein said. “I’m glad we’ve got him back.”
That’s high praise, but in his young career, Sadiq has shown that there aren’t many things he can’t do on a football field. Anyone questioning Sadiq’s ability can direct their attention to this touchdown from Oregon’s opening drive of the 2024 Big Ten Championship:
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Sadiq is entering his third season at Oregon, and despite never playing as the Ducks’ No. 1 tight end, Sadiq wasted no time letting the world know how good he is. In 90 snaps as a freshman, Sadiq caught five passes for 24 yards and a TD. In 2024, he was much more productive, catching 24 balls for 308 yards and two TDs. And as the Ducks’ top TE next fall, expect those numbers to fly up.
“It’s my job to make sure he’s getting as many touches as he can every single game,” Stein said. “He’s put on 15 pounds of muscle. He’s nearing 250 and still looks the same speed. He has great hands. I think he’s a better point of attack, on-the-ball tight end than people believe, just because he’s so dang strong. And now he’s got a great understanding of what we’re doing offensively.”
In 2024, Oregon threw to its tight ends far more than in the first two years of Dan Lanning’s tenure, and it was a shift that paid dividends for Oregon. Not only did the Ducks’ tight ends ramp up their receiving production, but Terrance Ferguson, Oregon’s top TE last season, was often Dillon Gabriel’s first look in crunch-time, gotta-have-it situations. Ferguson and Sadiq are very different players, but expect the Oregon offense to rely on Sadiq in the big moments the way it relied on Ferguson last year.
“Now he’s really in the limelight,” Stein said. “He’s the upperclassman in that room, he’s kind of the old head. Talk about leadership, Kenyon’s somebody that I’m expecting to be one of those leaders on our team. He’s a very special player. I mean, I think, I really do believe he’s one of the best players in college football. So it’s our job to make sure that he shows that ability this season.”
A recent $3 million donation to back GOP candidates is the largest single contribution by an individual in state history.
Phil Knight, billionaire co-founder of Nike, sits at an event at the Nike campus in Beaverton in 2023. Knight is a prolific donor to Republican candidates in Oregon.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
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Oregon’s richest man is once again setting political giving records with his checkbook.
Nike co-founder Phil Knight last month sent $3 million to a political committee focused on electing more Republicans to the state Legislature. That committee, Bring Balance to Salem, has been increasingly important to the GOP’s aim of winning back influence in the state over the last two election cycles.
The check marks the largest single donation ever by an individual political donor in Oregon. And it brings Knight’s total giving to Bring Balance to Salem up to $9 million over the last three years.
With the donation, first reported by the Oregon Journalism Project, Knight is signaling once again that he is fed up with Democratic dominance in Oregon. While the billionaire used to donate to members of both parties — including sending $250,000 to Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber’s 2014 reelection bid — his largesse has been squarely focused on the GOP in recent years.
In 2022, Knight spent more than $5 million supporting the two chief candidates running against Democrat Tina Kotek in the governor’s race. In a rare interview that year, Knight told the New York Times he is “an anti-Tina person,” and spoke of being opposed to drug decriminalization and other policies Oregon had enacted.
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Knight’s money didn’t dictate the outcome of the election. Kotek defeated both Republican Christine Drazan and nonaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson that year. Drazan is once again seeking the state’s highest elected office.
Four years before, in 2018, $2.5 million that Knight spent supporting GOP gubernatorial candidate Knute Buehler wasn’t enough to lift him over Democrat Kate Brown either.
Knight has had slightly more success with Bring Balance to Salem, the PAC dedicated to increasing GOP influence in the statehouse. The committee was spearheaded in 2021 by Greg Walden, a former Republican congressman from Hood River who helped run GOP races nationally while in office.
Aided by $2 million from Knight during the 2022 election, Republicans clawed back some seats in the state House and Senate, eliminating Democratic supermajorities. While progress, the result was not as robust as Republican strategists had believed was possible.
The 2024 election was worse for the party. Despite a war chest for Walden’s PAC that included $4 million from Knight, the GOP lost one seat in both the House and Senate, once again falling to superminority status in both chambers.
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Mid-term elections are often unkind to the party that holds power in Washington, D.C., and many prognosticators believe Republicans will face headwinds next year. Knight’s latest check signals he is ready to spend big to counteract that difficulty locally.
History suggests Knight will also intervene in next year’s governor’s race, in which Kotek is widely expected to seek reelection. Despite criticisms on both sides of the aisle, most political observers expect her to prevail.
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Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek talks about climate executive order
The executive order, announced on Nov. 19, is intended to align agencies toward meeting Oregon’s clean energy goals.
Oregon is in a fuel emergency following a shutdown of the Olympic Pipeline, Gov. Tina Kotek declared Nov. 24.
The pipeline provides more than 90% of the fuel used for Oregon’s transportation and was shut down Nov. 17, Kotek said.
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Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson issued an emergency declaration because of the leak on Nov. 19. The declaration activated an emergency management plan and temporarily lifted some regulations for commercial vehicles bringing jet fuel to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
A leak in the pipeline was found during regular maintenance in Washington on Nov. 11, Ferguson said in the declaration.
Oregon does not anticipate shortages to the fuel supply or jet fuel impacts at Oregon’s airports, but prices at the gas pump could increase for Oregonian drivers due to “higher-cost delivery methods,” an FAQ for Kotek’s order said.
The FAQ said it was unknown when the pipeline’s service would be restored.
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The order directs the Oregon Department of Emergency Management to use an emergency plan to direct and determine how agencies can respond.
The Oregon Department of Energy will communicate updates and advice to the state and fuel industry. ODOE will follow the Oregon Fuel Action Plan, which gives guidance for outages or impacts to the fuel supply.
Commercial vehicles “providing direct assistance supporting emergency relief efforts” will get regulatory support from the Oregon Department of Transportation, and the order directs the department to provide waivers to “state-regulated hours-of service requirements.”
The order is in effect for 30 days, but Kotek can extend or end it early.
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Anastasia Mason covers state government for the Statesman Journal. Reach her at acmason@statesmanjournal.com or 971-208-5615.
Just 11 games into his stint as the team’s offensive coordinator, the Las Vegas Raiders have decided to part ways with Chip Kelly.
The Raiders offense is averaging just 15.0 points per game this season, tied for last in the NFL. They hold a 2-9 record after losing to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
The former Oregon Ducks head coach was hired by Las Vegas in February after helping lead the Ohio State Buckeyes to the 2025 national title. His rushing scheme during the Buckeye’s College Football Playoff was lauded, with the Raiders expecting big things from Kelly and 2025 No. 4 overall pick, running back Ashton Jeanty.
The production simply hasn’t been there, as Jeanty has just a single 100-yard game this season and is averaging 3.7 yards per carry. He’s scored nearly as many touchdowns in the receiving game (three) as on the ground (four).
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The Raiders also traded for former Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith, pairing him with newly-hired head coach Pete Carroll and Kelly. Thus far, he leads the league in interceptions with 13, having thrown just 12 touchdown passes despite having one of the best tight ends in the NFL in Brock Bowers as his go-to target.
At the end of the day, the blame falls on Kelly, who simply couldn’t coax enough points out of this group as they embarked on an extremely disappointing season.
Kelly rose to prominence in the football world during his tenure as the Ducks’ head coach from 2009 to 2012. He led them to the 2011 national championship, where they narrowly lost to the Auburn Tigers, 22-19.
He parlayed his success at Oregon into landing his first head coaching gig in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, leading them to a 10-win season and a playoff berth in his debut campaign in 2013. But his quick, no-huddle offense quickly fell out of style in the league, and he was fired in 2015. He was soon hired by the San Francisco 49ers before being fired after just one season and a dismal 2-14 record.
Now, after less than 12 months on the job with the Raiders, Kelly is once again on the offensive coordinator or head coach job market.
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