Pac-12 After Spring: Oregon coach Mark Helfrich

Spring football is over. Real football is still far, far away.

To help bridge the gap, we’re checking in on Arizona’s competition in the Pac-12. Over the next few weeks, we’ll run some of the best comments from the league’s coaches after their recent participation in a conference call to wrap up spring ball.

Today’s Q&A is with Oregon coach Mark Helfrich, whose team is undergoing transitions on defense and at quarterback. Still to come this week: Oregon State’s Gary Andersen and Stanford’s David Shaw.

Here’s Helfrich:

(on the influence of new defensive coordinator Brady Hoke and the pros and cons of him being a former head coach)

“It’s been great. He’s been everything (we) expected in terms of (being) demanding and at the same time a players’ coach. Disciplinarian. A guy that immediately shows he cares about the guys and cares about them as people. And then at the same time, can really be demanding on the field. That’s been a great balance.

“From my standpoint, there’s way more pros than cons. There’s things that he’s been through that you can learn from or take advice on, whether that’s off the field, game-management things, recruiting. Both he and David Yost, the other new member of our staff, have added a bunch just in terms of making us validate why we do things, and if change is needed, tweaking it slightly. I anticipate that being nothing but a blessing.”

(on the high standard in the Oregon quarterback room)

“I think that’s a burden and also a beauty of the deal – trying to push them as much as possible. They’re all very conscientious guys in terms of wanting to do well and prepare well and compete. They also know there’s an extremely high standard here and expectation here of how that position is supposed to play. And then at the same time, utilize your resources. Utilize Royce Freeman, Tony Brooks-James, Kani Benoit, Darren Carrington, Charles Nelson, Kirk Merritt. These guys that are proven commodities. Be a point guard when you need to, be a playmaker when you need to. And just learn at as quick of a rate as possible.

“We’re going to push them, and we’re going to try to play better than we ever have at that position. But that might look different than Marcus (Mariota) breaking an 80-yard run. That just might be making a perfectly placed ball to Darren Carrington and letting him do the rest.”

(on having all the QB candidates available in spring as opposed to last year with Vernon Adams’ delayed arrival)

“It’s obviously the preferred method, having those guys in. We’re going to make it work however it falls from a production standpoint. We don’t have any choice.

“I think last year it was a different vibe. At the same time, Jeff Lockie and Taylor Alie did a good job of working through it and battling through it. Internally, we didn’t talk about the unknown or talk about what might happen. I know there was a ton of chatter on the outside that they managed and got through.

“Now we’ve got three guys that really are competing for the job (Travis Jonsen, Dakota Prukop and Terry Wilson) and a couple guys that aren’t at this point (Lockie and Alie), which is also difficult. But those guys, Jeff and Taylor, have managed that really, really well. It’s just a matter of distributing the reps with the long term in mind and knowing that we’re not going to decide who the starting quarterback is this spring. That’s not gonna happen.

“You can definitely tell (Prukop has) played more football than these other guys at this point. Certainly at the collegiate level. He’s got a natural charisma about him. But I also think Travis has that. Terry has that.

“It’s kind of a weird blend. Travis hasn’t practiced really ever here, but he’s been in the classroom listening to everything and observing everything. He just hasn’t done it. And Terry has been here for (just a handful of) weeks and is operating in some ways at a very high level and in some ways doesn’t know where the bathroom is. So those things all collide at some point. Dakota’s doing some good things. And he’s doing some things that we’ll improve upon leading into fall camp.”

Part 1: Arizona State coach Todd Graham

Part 2: Cal coach Sonny Dykes

Part 3: Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre