What does it take for a true freshman to get meaningful playing time for Oregon football?

Eugene Register-Guard
Oregon football's crop of true freshmen are impressive in 2023, with a couple all but assured to play meaningful downs throughout the season, especially as it progresses.
With pads coming on and scrimmages set to ramp up during the second week of fall camp, will any see playing time during the Ducks' season opener at home Sept. 2 against Portland State?
Oregon's coaching staff said it isn’t ready to declare any freshmen as contributors yet. But they do like what they've seen from a few of them.
“True freshmen, you’d love to play them all,” offensive coordinator Will Stein said. “It’s a tough game at this level. The intensity, the physicality, the emotion, the knowledge you have to have to play at a high level and go win game after game, it’s hard to get as a freshman. But some can. It’s just about getting a little bit better each day and all of those kids have done really good so far.”
What are Oregon football coaches looking for from true freshmen?
What are Stein and head coach Dan Lanning looking for now that sets young players apart? How can a freshman, straight out of high school and with just a month of fall camp under his belt, earn playing time so early in their college career?
For Lanning, it's a simple answer.
“You have to perform at a high level,” he said. “The level isn’t based on if you’re a freshman or a senior, it’s based on your level of performance. If you perform on a high enough level, you’ll play.”
That said, the second-year coach did say there were things that could separate freshmen from the pack, even during the opening days.
One of those things is not letting mistakes mount.
“You're gonna make some mistakes, especially early,” Lanning said. “But being able to hit the reset button and keep going on is key.”
Lanning said his second year at the helm of Oregon’s program has been much easier with his first full recruiting class.
“We didn't have the bodies to even go two-spot practice last year,” he said. “We had to go seven-on-seven on one field and team 11-on-11 practice on the other field. We have a deeper team, we have more players that can play and are available so that's allowing those younger players to develop quicker.”
Though Lanning said it’s a bit too early to decide roster pecking order, he did mention a quartet of freshmen that have stood out in the first few days of camp and over the summer.
Defensive back Cole Martin is one of them.
“Cole Martin is a guy that gets up here early every single morning, he spends a lot of time at his craft and it’s really showing up,” Lanning said.
Martin was a consensus four-star recruit out of Basha High School in Arizona and could add some depth to a secondary that is looking for more consistency in 2023.
Lanning also mentioned five-star lineman Matayo Uiagalelei. The freshman helped St. John Bosco in California to a pair of national championships, and listed at 6-foot-5, 265 pounds in high school, Uiagalelei could rotate in on the edge next month.
Outside linebacker Teitum Tuioti was also noted as an early standout. One of the top recruits in Oregon and a Sheldon graduate, Lanning said he’d made a few big plays during Friday’s practice last week.
On offense, Lanning talked about how true freshman quarterback Austin Novosad had made big strides since he enrolled early in the spring.
“Austin Novosad has made some huge strides from spring to now,” Lanning said. “There’s a lot of guys that have really stood out and there are a lot of guys that are putting in extra work.”
From Dripping Springs, Texas, Novosad was a consensus four-star recruit who threw for 8,983 yards and 114 touchdowns during his three-year prep career. He’s expected to be third on the depth chart behind senior quarterback and starter Bo Nix and redshirt sophomore Ty Thompson.