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In Year 2, Oregon’s 5-star receiver is lighter and further ahead.
EUGENE — The benefit of a player and coach hitting it off right away is there’s not a lot of time lost on beating around the bush.
For former 5-star WR recruit Jurrion Dickey and Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein, that meant a pretty frank discussion about the player’s weight in 2023.
“I came in heavy,” Dickey said of his freshman year. “I was at 225 and he was like, ‘Dude, you’re a receiver. We want you to move. We want you to get jump balls. You’re 225. You’re heavy. You’ll get them, but it’s going to be harder. You can make it easier.’”
That, Dickey said, was one of the many talks he and Stein had throughout his first year in Eugene — a series of meetings Dickey hopes pays dividends here in 2024 as the Palo Alto native establishes himself on the Oregon depth chart. Now at 205 pounds, Dickey spent his spring and summer showing coaches that he was serious about maximizing the potential the Ducks saw in the 6-foot-2 Menlo-Atherton grad who signed with Oregon as the No. 2 receiver in the 2023 class.
Outside of an ankle injury that’s kept him limited throughout camp’s first week, Dickey said he’s moving around well at his new weight. He’s faster — and not just physically.
“I grew a lot,” Dickey said. “I’m not just a freshman coming in from high school [anymore], you feel me? [Stein and I] had a lot of talks about where I need to improve and step up on my journey to get to the route I want to go. … Just knowing plays. There’s a difference between knowing it and your body just doing it before you even think of it.”
Dickey came to Oregon coming off a knee injury suffered in high school and said it took him until November before he finally started to feel normal physically. He played in four regular season games as a true freshman to maintain his redshirt status, catching just one pass for seven yards in Oregon’s Fiesta Bowl win over Liberty. Stein said he really noticed a change in Dickey during bowl prep, a mentality that carried over into spring workouts.
“He wasn’t ready,” Stein said in April. “He’s a phenomenal player. He’s ready now. But it takes time. When guys can succumb to the process and understand that it doesn’t happen overnight, take a deep breath and realize I’m at a great place, the best place to play college football in the country and that I can grow and develop, then when their time comes they’re ready to play and there’s no mistakes.”
Added wide receivers coach Junior Adams last week:
“[It’s] just the day-to-day. Can he be consistent? We talk about being a pro. Jurrion is making a lot of strides and a lot of progress.”
Of course, progress doesn’t exactly equate to more playing time on an Oregon roster stacked with receivers — especially out wide where Dickey will be competing with veterans like Traeshon Holden (senior, 37 catches in 2023) and Texas A&M transfer Evan Stewart (38 catches in 2023) for reps.
And that’s fine, Dickey said.
“You get the ball and you take advantage of your opportunity,” he said. “Whether that’s 10 catches, five catches, two catches or one. You could have two catches for 160 yards. Whatever you do with it, just eat. We don’t care about [who catches more passes]. Well, we do, but there’s other stuff that weighs on it.
“Whoever eats, we eat. Let’s win. We want the Natty. That’s all we want.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
