Even from across the room in the south concourse of Autzen Stadium, Matthew Bedford looks big. The two-story ceiling and ten-foot backdrops do little to shrink the frame of the 6’6”, 315-pound offensive lineman as he climbs up the escalator and through double glass doors. By the time he makes it in front of the microphone, he’s doubled in stature.
Under head coach Dan Lanning and offensive line coach A’lique Terry, Oregon’s quarterback protectors have been named finalists for the Joe Moore Award — given to the best group in college football — two times in three years.
One year after center Jackson Powers-Johnson won the Rimington Award in 2023 as the nation’s best at his position and was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, four of the Ducks’ five starters moved onto professional pastures. The group that dwarfs the microphones for the first day of the 2025 season has no lack of experience — just an appetite for connection.
Bedford entered a year ago from Indiana but sat out most of 2024 with an injury. The new crew, Alex Harkey (tackle, Texas State University), Isaiah World (tackle, University of Nevada, Reno) and Emmanuel Pregnon (guard, USC), step into immediate starting places. The only returning starter, center Iapani “Poncho” Laloulu, said early that he has his eyes on the Rimington, too. They’re backed up by a mixture of experience (Charlie Pickard and Dave Iuli) and talent waiting for a chance (Genorris Wilson, Fox Crader and Kawika Rogers).
They’re ten men deep in connection. They had personality last year, too, but it didn’t translate immediately to the field.
With Powers-Johnson gone to the NFL Draft after a year where his program led the nation in fewest sacks allowed, Oregon had a void in the middle of its line for the first time since Lanning and Terry arrived. They filled it, at first, with a mixture of Pickard and Laloulu.
It didn’t stick. Oregon gave up more sacks (7) in its first two games against the University of Idaho and Group of Five (albeit eventual College Football Playoff qualifier) Boise State University than it did during the entire 2023 season. Transfer starter Dillon Gabriel, for all of his experience, couldn’t get comfortable while the Ducks snuck through home wins over the Vandals and Broncos, 24-14 and 37-34, respectively.
This year, it’s the opposite. There’s only one player who remains from last year’s group of starters. He’s not usually the vocal type, Laloulu said, but that had to change this year. He’s the veteran now, and he had to learn to get out of his comfort zone.
The ability to call teammates out starts with connection. That part came easily, the center saw. He calls Pregnon “E-Man.” He talks about how he’s grown as a leader, as the guy who pulls them all together. He already introduces World to the media as “one funny dude.” They’re together off the field, too.
When one funny dude walks into the media scrum at a listed 6’8”, 315 pounds (he says he’s 320), there’s not much that can move him.
Isaiah World spent almost seven minutes talking about his ability to block out the noise and his respect for Oregon strength coach Wilson Love and the weight room before he cracked a smile at the suggestions that he’s the line’s biggest personality.
“I’m just happy, mostly,” World said. “I’m grateful for the position I’m in, and that comes with whatever — any shenanigans. I try to be as fun as possible. I don’t like having a stoic demeanor. I like just bringing happiness and joy everywhere I go.”
On the field, the happiness and joy flows when an edge rusher gets shut down. He was an All-Mountain West honorable mention last year in a season that had Terry asking how he slipped through the Power Four cracks.
“The skillset he has is already rare,” Terry said. “But the way he’s attacked learning our system, learning our calls… he deserves everything that’s coming for him.”
It’s how transfers blend in. There’s two more who’ll take starting roles on Oregon’s line this year: Alex Harkey and Emmanuel Pregnon.
Pregnon, the 6’5” redshirt-senior guard, has played a game in Eugene before — but as a Trojan. His 14 total pressures allowed in two seasons at USC made him the right man for Oregon’s left guard slot. Terry and Laloulu both talk about his freakish size and reach.
Back in the spring, he talked about stepping away from “the apathetic mindset” and finding a team groove to get that connection.
Opposite World on the line is Harkey, the G5 transfer from a high-powered Texas State offense that ranked seventh in FBS in points per game and averaged 208.2 rushing yards last season.
After rising from junior college to Colorado and Texas State, Harkey nailed down his position as the starting right tackle in San Marcos, Texas. en route to a third team All-Sun Belt Conference selection in 2024. By the time he began fall camp in Eugene, he’d drawn impressive comparisons.
“He has that bluntness of Shane Lemieux,” Terry said. “But he’s also got that gameday mentality that I haven’t seen since Penei’s (Sewell) been here. When it’s gameday, he turns a switch on.”
Lemieux and Sewell were both first-team All Americans at Oregon. Sewell, who allowed just one sack over his two seasons as a Duck, remains the highest-drafted lineman to ever play his home games at Autzen Stadium.
For Bedford, it could be déjà vu. When he moved to Eugene last year, the belief was that it would be his final season of college football. The knee injury changed that, of course, and the now redshirt-senior from Memphis, TN. had to re-examine his plan of attack on the NFL Draft.
This year, he’s projected to start at right guard for the Ducks, tasked with anchoring a revamped rushing attack. When Terry was asked about him at his first press conference of fall camp, he went straight from the injury to its benefits.
“He became such a great leader,” Terry said from the podium. “There were times he couldn’t travel (last year) — it didn’t matter. Up until the time we left, he was helping young guys with the install, watching film… it pays dividends.”
When Bedford gets on the field, he’s playing with another year of experience — one he didn’t expect to have.
“Honestly, if anything, it made me more grateful for where I’m at,” he said.
This group is connected. Laloulu sees it. Terry, who calls it “a blessing” that the group was able to connect in the spring instead of in fall camp, sees it. Autzen Stadium is the only group left who hasn’t.
“We don’t like to dwell on the past,” Laloulu said. “Last year, it was bad. Even for me, I know it was bad, but we’re focusing on this season with a new group, attacking it from day one.”
He’s the leader now. He sets the tone.
