Elijah Rushing

I did think it was interesting that they went with the five-man rotation.

It was typically going to be Matteo Iongole, Tatum Tuioti, Amari Washington, and then they would kind of have a rotation of the other two spots of Bear Alexander, Elijah Rushing, Aiden Breland, and Matt Johnson.

Every once in a while – I think Dontre Robinson got in there as well.

But that was kind of like the main group of guys.

Aiden Breland played 20.

Those four guys are their dudes right now.

Elijah Rushing played nine.

Dontre Robinson played eight.

I'm really curious to see the younger players.

Do any freshmen like Keandre Harrison, Tommy Toffey, Emmanuel Hianacho, Jalen Lott, Gateland Bear, do any of them play? Do we see Naeem Offord, who is now a true sophomore and landing as it has taken a huge leap forward? What about Elijah Rushing? Just checking out, really, on the 2D here.

I'm not interested in the starters because they return so much and are so good there that I trust them.

What's going to help Oregon win the title and break through this year, if they do, is going to be improvements in depth on top of their starting lineup, taking the steps that I think we all expect them to do.

I don't anticipate it being a regular occurrence, but do they do it? Combinations in the secondary, but yeah, I think there's a lot of information we're going to get in the first week and to a point you almost kind of hope i guess for you and i's perspective to do our jobs you hope this game can can be as competitive in the length of time as it possibly can be and from an organ perspective still cover so that we get more sample sizes of it being a competitive game to see what oregon's game plan is at when they don't have to be worrying about all right let's let's get these other guys in we want to keep guys fresh we don't want to show too much and and and the case so for me i i would look probably along the offense and defensive lines who's the starting unit what's the first guy or two guys that come in if they come in along the offensive line and then the defensive line you know who starts But where do the guys fit behind them? How often do they fit? Where do they fit? And what kind of combinations do we see of the blended starting and backup guys? That's what I'm really interested in on the defensive side is when they blend starters and backups, what do those combinations look like?

Well, and here's another one, Matt, is if this game does get a little out of hand, like I think we both anticipate, is that not a good opportunity to see what the second team defense looks like to really get an assessment of the Matt Johnson's and Aiden Breland's and the Sear Wyatt's and Elijah Rushing's and go on down the list, DeAndre Robinson's, the, you know, the Jet Washington's in the secondary, Devon Benjamin's, if he's, you know, the guys who we don't anticipate start, Benjamin maybe is a bad example, but just a younger player we haven't seen.

Like if this game does get out of hand, to your point, maybe we end up learning more there.

And one thing I just dawned on me that I think is a really kind of a good way to look at this, if we're going to take Chris Hampton at his word.

The recruiting ranking suggests Oregon is a lot better in 2026 than it was in 2025 in terms of the guys we're anticipating play.

Aiden Breeland, Elijah Rushing were both borderline five-star recruits.

Tank Jones was a five-star.

Matt Johnson was a similarly ranked recruit to a Terrence Green or a Tion Gray or an Ashton Porter or a Blake Purchase, the four players they're replacing.

while they don't have the same level of experience, the talent level is probably better or comparable.

And to get these guys up to speed quickly and to get them performing at a level, it was kind of a natural progression here.

Like they were probably going to lose – were going to lose guys like if if some of the portal guys stayed i i don't think aiden breland stays i don't think uh maybe elijah rushing stays i don't think maybe matt johnson isn't as enticed to stay that's all speculation and just you know us theorizing here for a minute it's not nothing we heard but that's the reality right they only had so many mouths to feed so many snaps to be given out someone was going to leave and so i think oregon's banking on hey we we banked on the younger guys we're going to backfill with a couple editions of some of some fifth year senior guys and jerome simmons derrick brown jr i think deontay robinson's edition was a big coup for oregon a guy that's going to be a i think he's got nfl traits we're just talking about it like Like maybe not this year, but maybe next season.

Kind of having that Casey Rogers.

Guys like Matthew Johnson, guys like Nasir Wyatt, guys like Aiden Breeland.

Is Elijah Rushing going to finally play a meaningful role? We are going to find out.

I'm a huge Matthew Johnson fan.

So that's where you would start.

Hopefully we'll get him back for 2027 and beyond.

And then, you know, Elijah Rushing is listed as a DL, 6'6", 290, Tucson, Arizona, Sailpoint Catholic High School.

He's kind of a tweener, right? Defensive end, defensive line.

Not a true, like, edge rusher, so to speak, but he kind of plays that kind of... big end position in Oregon's lineup.

Like, he was like a big puppy, right? Like, when you see these kids who just have, they have, like, They have big frames, like a puppy with big paws, right? They're kind of clumsy.

They don't really know how to use their body yet.

That was kind of Elijah Rushing early in his Oregon career, and I don't think that's a bad thing.

It's just some guys need a little bit of time.

Um, it's just kind of i- increased this and then you, the way you heard Tony Tuioti who's, I don't know, a top two or three interview on the staff for me in terms of what he shares and how open he is, and his enthusiasm for the players in his room, it just took it to another level for me on Monday.

I, I came out of that going like, "Man, I'm fascinated to see what this looks like." You know, I asked him, you know, what were his scrimmage takeaways and he just basically ran through all the second Nuna guys, you know, the names I just mentioned and then was like, "This guy's a dude, this guy's a dude." You know, I mentioned Elijah Rushing is a dude.

I mean, the fact that DeAndre Robinson, who was a starter at North Carolina last year, was kinda like fourth billing in the way he ran it down, that, that, that doesn't necessarily mean that's like representative of the roster, right? Like that could've just been, you know, it could've been alphabetical for all, for all I know.

Um, which I think, I think technically it would've been.

Like, it was very evident, "Sorry, man, like, you're so far down the list, we can't even get you in the game.

Um, and you're not, you're, just 'cause you're not ready yet." Um, guys I think, though, will take the jump, and that I think we're probably banking on for the hype to be real, obviously Tank Jones.

I think Elijah Rushing is probably the next one.

And then there's two other guys that I have on my list of, they're probably gonna play, it's just gonna be limited snaps.

It really feels like it's him versus Carl Williams there.

So I, I just think the, the '25 and '26 classes, and I know a couple of the names I mentioned earlier, like more like 2024 guys with an, with an Aiden Breeland or maybe an Elijah Rushing.

But, you know, just in general it, it feels like they've recruited these positions really, really well the last two cycles.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm

...

Aiden Breeland, uh, Elijah Rushing, and then Nasir Wyatt.

And you probably could throw in a Tank Jones, you probably could throw in, um, uh, the other Anthony Jones, you could probably throw in a, a Blue Dancer or, or Dutch Horsek.