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A talented line has eight months to become one wall.
It was a sunny day in Beaverton in 2018 when I remember first being struck by Oregon’s transformation.
Mario Cristobal was in his first fall with the program and he had just signed a recruiting class that was filled with the types of bodies he believed would win him games in the trenches. He wanted SEC-sized guys in there, and in his first signing period, he brought in the 6-foot-5, 349-pound Penei Sewell, the 6-foot-6, 340-pound Steven Jones and the 6-foot-7, 355-pound Justin Johnson.
On paper, it seemed like quite the foundation. But on paper doesn’t quite prepare you for in person.
The Ducks bussed a talented squad up to Beaverton that August afternoon and hosted an open scrimmage on the Nike campus. Employees came out on their lunch breaks to watch Justin Herbert zip passes to Dillon Mitchell, and us reporters got pretty good access to the sideline to get a glimpse at the newcomers.
I couldn’t get over the giants walking around. Yes, almost every offensive lineman who plays Division 1 college football is a massive human being. But there are levels to this, and some of the players on that offensive line were unlike any I had ever seen.
It was a new era for the Ducks, one that would be the bedrock of their success throughout Cristobal’s tenure. And while Oregon’s guidelines for offensive linemen aren’t so dependent on size here in 2025, Dan Lanning’s offensive lines have called for lengthy, rangy, strong athletes — who also happen to be in the 300-350-pound range.
Talent and size have played a large part in the successful continuity between the Cristobal and Lanning eras. However, for the first time since 2018, the Oregon Ducks have crafted up an offensive line that will be unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
First, a refresher: The 2024 Oregon Ducks offensive line was good. Now, they started out bad — like, really bad — allowing seven sacks through the season’s first two games. But the Ducks allowed only five more over their next 10 regular season games, closing the year as a Joe Moore Award Finalist.
“When the house was burning, for us there was calm in the noise,” offensive line coach A’lique Terry told The Register-Guard at the Rose Bowl. “All you can do is go back to work. When everyone else has an opinion, we’re going back to work.”
That line was built on the foundation of Josh Conerly Jr. (959 snaps) at left tackle, guards Marcus Harper II (706 snaps) and Nishad Strother (833 snaps), center Iapani Laloulu (970 snaps) and right tackle Ajani Cornelius (962 snaps). And of those 4,430 snaps those five combined for in 2024, only Laloulu and his 9701 snaps are set to return in 2025.
Conerly is a projected first-round draft pick. Cornelius, Harper II and Strother all have NFL potential. And while the Ducks have had massive losses from their lines in past years — think about 2020 when the Ducks regrouped after losing Sewell, Shane Lemieux, Jake Hanson, Calvin Throckmorton and Dallas Warmack from the line — there are a couple of factors that make the readjustment here for 2025 unique.
The main line: The Ducks have never had to break in a new offensive line while harboring national championship aspirations.
The 2014 Oregon Ducks? Their starting line of Jake Fisher, Hroniss Grasu, Hamani Stevens, Cameron Hunt and Tyrell Crosby combined for 2,899 snaps for Oregon in 2013.
The 2019 Oregon Ducks? Their starting line of Sewell, Lemieux, Hanson, Warmack and Throckmorton combined for 3,824 snaps in 2018.
And the 4,430 snaps the offensive line combined for in 2024 came after the group played 2,960 snaps for Oregon in 2023.
In 2025, the Oregon Ducks aren’t just replacing four starters, they’re projected to do so with players who have played little to no football wearing Oregon colors.
In the transfer portal, Oregon has brought in tackles Isaiah World and Alex Harkey, along with guard Emmanuel Pregnon. All three totaled major snap counts last year for their respective teams — 955 for Pregnon at USC, 972 for Harkey at Texas State and 899 for World at Nevada — and come to Oregon with one year of eligibility remaining.
If we go by the not-perfect-theory that those transfers will win their desired starting jobs, Oregon is looking at a projected offensive line that could feature:
Left Tackle: Isaiah World (0 snaps for Oregon in 2024)
Left guard: Emmanuel Pregnon (0 snaps for Oregon in 2024)
Center: Iapani Laloulu (970 snaps for Oregon in 2024)
Right guard: Matthew Bedford (2 snaps for Oregon in 20242)
Right tackle: Alex Harkey (0 snaps for Oregon in 2024)
Would that be a talented offensive line? You betcha. Laloulu is a former freshman All-American who got stronger as the year went on in 2024 filling the role of the departed Jackson Powers-Johnson. Pregnon was the No. 1-rated guard in the portal. World was the No. 1-rated tackle in the portal. Harkey was the No. 6-rated tackle and comes in at a towering 6-foot-5 and 330 pounds.
On their own merits, these are all very good football players. The challenge for them, Oregon and Terry is going to be finding the time for cohesion. That took Oregon’s line time in 2024 — with a group that had a fair amount of experience playing with each other the year prior.
In 2025, not only will the Ducks have four new starters along the line, they’ll also have a new quarterback, a new starting tight end and a wide receiving group that, while still incredibly talented, is losing all-purpose safety valve Tez Johnson.
On paper, a lot of experts think the Oregon Ducks can be better in 2025 than in 2024. But just like back in 2018, there’s always what you see on paper versus what you see in person. All I know is Oregon and its coaching staff have eight months to work on the ever-important chemistry before the games start counting again.
And while it might not be perfect at the start, if the 2024 season taught us anything, it’s more important where you finish.
“Everyone kind of just doubled down and grew tighter and tighter,” Harper said earlier this month on his YouTube show. “It’s like the louder everyone else became on the outside, we just grew tighter.”
— Tyson Alger, The I-5 Corridor
Snap counts per Pro Football Focus.
Bedford was a transfer portal addition for the Ducks prior to the 2024 season, but missed nearly the entire year with an injury. While his eligibility is exhausted, Bedford has filed a medical hardship waiver to the NCAA to try and play in 2025. If that waiver isn’t approved, the Ducks will likely start 6-foot-3, 340-pound junior Dave Iuli, who played 197 snaps last season for the Ducks.
