The Ducks double down, and other thoughts from Big Ten Media Day

The Oregon Ducks are climbing right back up that mountain.

I was going to write my takeaways from Big Ten Media Days on the flight back from Las Vegas, but the “light turbulence,” as experienced in seat 33E, felt a bit how I would imagine trying to tackle Kenyon Sadiq in space is like.

So here it is today.

1. The Big Ten is getting less of Sadiq

Bryce Boettcher told me that I needed to see Kenyon Sadiq without his shirt on.

I wasn’t ready for that at 9 in the morning on one cup of coffee, so I told the senior Oregon linebacker that I’d take his word for it.

“It’s like Hercules,” Boettcher said of his teammate. “Guys who look like that usually aren’t that fast.”

Or can jump that high.

Remember, Sadiq is the 6-foot-3, 245-pound tight end who was known in Eugene before the Big Ten Championship game, then known around the country after doing this against Penn State:

“The exposure changed,” Sadiq said. “It was people knowing that I had the ability to do that. It’s great, but it came with a little expectation with it, just to keep performing at that level.”

Sadiq caught 24 passes for 308 yards and two touchdowns as a sophomore in 2024 — numbers that figure to increase in 2025 with the departures of Terrance Ferguson and Patrick Herbert.

But for those to go up, Sadiq wanted his body fat to go down. Last season, Sadiq said he was between 12 to 13 percent. This year, he’s at 10 percent.

And yes, Sadiq said it does allow him to run faster and jump higher. But more than anything, he said he did it for his health.

“Injury prevention,” he said. “Our nutritionist has done a great job of helping me with supplements, joint health, overall body health — those types of things. It’s just about longevity down the road.”

2. This pirate trend is going to be the new look of the 90s

Player attire on Wednesday had quite a variation. Some looked like they were headed to weddings. Others appeared destined for board meetings.

Then there was Matayo Uiagalelei, who picked up this beautiful number at a thrift shop before hopping on the flight to Vegas.

In his own words: “I look like a pirate.”

“I brought every jacket and dress pants that I own,” said the 20-year-old junior. “I didn’t know what to wear. I never really had to wear a suit until I got to college.”

Boettcher had a more uniform look on, with a green tie layered on top of a white suit.

“I had two or three suits from baseball because we had to wear suits when we travelled at the airport,” said Boettcher, who came to Oregon as a 190-pound baseball player and now sits as a 230-pound football player. “But I’m a little bigger now, so it’s constantly changing.”

Boettcher said they got a stipend and were told to go to town at Men’s Warehouse.

Said Sadiq, who wore an all-black ensemble with Meta Ray Ban glasses: “I’m new to the suit game, so this is my first one. It was a good experience. I wasn’t too picky.”

3. Where’s the juice?

Maybe it’s because I haven’t been to a media day in a few years and my expectations were too high for the Big Ten’s debut in Las Vegas, but my one-day drop-in at Mandalay Bay didn’t leave much of an impression. Coaches spoke to a half-empty conference room. Some, like Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck, would have kept selling had it not been for the 15-minute cutoff. Others, like Lanning or Penn State’s James Franklin, seemed tired and subdued as they monologued — I don’t entirely blame them, it’s a long, long day of saying the same things.

It could be the Pac-12 still running through my veins, but I remember these things at least trying to be fun. Instead, Wednesday felt like a regional sales convention instead the season launch from one of college football’s two power conferences.

Whatever, like the sport it represents, media days have become made for television, anyway.

4. Offseason gains

One thing to note from Lanning’s presentation to the room: he said the Ducks have collectively gained 1,300 pounds this offseason.

“The average gain for our freshmen is over 17 pounds,” Lanning said to a room full of ~~experts in the field~~ sports writers.

It’s not just the freshmen, though. As noted earlier, Boettcher has thickened up since putting his baseball career on hold.

“It’s the strongest I’ve ever been in my life,” said the 13th-round pick of the Houston Astros in the 2024 MLB Draft. “I feel really good.”

Good enough to stay at that weight when/if football ends?

“When I go back and play baseball, I probably won’t be 230 pounds,” he said. “It might be like 220, because playing centerfield, you have to be able to move. I’m still fast. It’s just lateral quickness and stealing bags, which is part of my game, has gone down a tick.”

That added power has got to be enticing though, no?

“Oh yeah,” Boettcher said. “It definitely feels a whole lot different. Come out and watch me hit. It definitely looks a whole lot different.”

5. Media Musical Chairs

One of these days I’m going to catch Yogi Roth having a bad day. It might be my white whale as a sports reporter.

Wednesday was not that day. I caught him in the hotel lobby with a wide smile.

How are things?

“So good.”

Of course they are.

The Big Ten football analyst, who did similar work for the Pac-12 back in the day, is one of the few people I’ve met in this business where none of that enthusiasm you see on TV is forced.

Roth really is about that life.

Yogi Roth chats with Dan Lanning while on set (Tyson Alger/The I-5 Corridor)

And while it may be harder for him to get in a morning of surfing in Las Vegas like he used to do before Pac-12 media days down in Los Angeles, I can’t imagine he’s using the same space on his Substack as I am to voice complaints.

But it wasn’t just Roth that had me doing a few double takes — it’s uncanny just how many familiar faces the Big Ten absorbed from the Pac-12 orbit.

Also, welcome to the era of the independents. I got dinner with On Montlake’s Christian Caple Wednesday night and we ran into The Inside Zone’s Matt Fortuna in the lobby. All three of us used to be co-workers at The Athletic. Now, all three run our own ventures. There were a lot of those types in Vegas. Roth writes his own thing. John Canzano, who was on my flight, runs his own thing. The networks and legacy media still pull the strings here, but it was fascinating seeing so many people I know in this business who are in different gigs than the last time I saw them.

6. The Double Down

One thing that does fascinate me about Dan Lanning is his ability as a storyteller.

What does storytelling have to do with being a college football coach?

Did you watch Ducks vs. Them?

It’s clear that Lanning takes a lot of pride and time to think about messaging. It’s why he had the sledgehammer queued up against Washington last season, why his Ducks waved goodbye to Michigan fans in Ann Arbor, why the Ducks jumped around in Madison and why he rotates through a list of guest speakers to talk with his team throughout the season.

“We’ve started on that already,” Lanning told me before his address to the conference. “We’ll hop into a deeper dive on that here next weekend as we get ready for the season. You kind of lay down what is what and what becomes what.”

Later during his speech, Lanning did peel back the curtain ever so slightly.

“Since we’re in Vegas, it seems like the right time to say it. Our theme for this team is double down,” he said. “We have done an unbelievable job of building this team over time. You look at our success season to season, and as this team has grown, the process works. We’re close.”

I’m glad to see the Ducks are leaning into it, even if defending their 2024 Big Ten Conference championship comes with considerable hurdles. Oregon doesn’t have the most challenging schedule, but there are so many new faces in new positions that players told me on Wednesday that they don’t really see this as a continuation from a season ago.

“I’d say it’s definitely its own new thing,” Boettcher said. “We don’t have the same guys on the team as we did last year. It’s a different team. It’s 2025. But the exciting part for me is that I’m strictly football this year. I’m not worrying about baseball right now. I’m excited for what’s to come.”