Oregon Ducks loss to Washington was followed by high emotions, another players meeting

Oregon Ducks Greatest Plays in History ᴴᴰ

Senior offensive guard Cameron Hunt was not the first Oregon Duck quoted this fall questioning teammates" motivations and effort amid a 2-4 start.

But "mine was the one that blew up," Hunt said Tuesday.

After a 70-21 blowout loss to Washington on Oct. 8, Hunt said 30 to 40 percent of the team did not care whether the Ducks won or lost, a comment that was picked up nationally. By virtue of his standing on the roster -- Hunt"s 37 career starts are eight more any other current Duck his words took on greater gravitas.

By the following weekend, UO coach Mark Helfrich was being asked about Hunt"s 30-to-40 percent estimate in an on-camera interview with ESPN"s College GameDay. As he had done multiple times in the week after Hunt"s comment, Helfrich denied such locker-room division, blaming Hunt"s quote on high emotionsfollowing an embarrassing loss to a rival, not reality.

"I think there was a little bit of emotion," Hunt said Wednesday. "What I was meaning to say was some guys on the team aren"t giving that full effort in that game and we need everyone to be invested and we need all effort to be successful."

Helfrich later spoke privately with Hunt about the matter.

It wasn"t the only discussion happening behind closed doors last week during Oregon"s bye.

Several players told ESPN.com that Oregon held yet another players-only meeting to clear the air during the bye. Therealso wasa players-only meeting after a loss to Colorado in late September, its second loss in UO"s current four-game losing streak, a meeting in which the message was said to be aimed at younger players to "grow up" and lose their entitlement.

Hunt confirmed the latest players-only meeting Tuesday and said it involved both offensive and defensive players but didn"t want to comment on what was said.

"That"s stuff that stays in house," he said. "We"re just trying to figure out some stuff."

For an Oregon team in last place in the Pac-12"s North Division, there is plenty of stuff needing to be figured out entering Friday night"s matchup with Cal in Berkeley"s Memorial Stadium.

Oregon"s defense is allowing 41.8 points per game, while the offense is hoping the combination of its Pac-12 leading running game and true freshman quarterback Justin Herbert can hold itsown against the kind of explosive production expected by cannon-armed Cal graduate transfer QB Davis Webb, who is third in the country in yards per game and passing touchdowns.

"We had several meetings last week and again, guys are on the same page, they have worked," Helfrich said."It was very spirited yesterday, kind of challenged the defense yesterday, they kind of bounced back (Tuesday)."

For as much as Hunt may now regret making his feelings known publicly "I"ve seen some positive feedback, and also seen the negative side of the media" he believes a good result could come from them yet if they can serve as a spark to the second half of this season.

"I think some position groups really took that to heart that maybe we need to approach this differently or be in "attack" mentality," Hunt said. "I think anytime you lose a game by that measure it kind of opens some eyes and really lets people know we have to change something. I think that sparked some intensity at practice this week and hopefully that can give us some momentum going into the weekend.

"Being able to win four of our next six games to get bowl-eligible is the goal and we"ve just go to follow coach Helfrich"s lead. I feel like a lot of our guys will do anything for coach Helfrich, so we"ll continue to try to win games."

Andrew Greifagreif@oregonian.com@andrewgreif

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2016/10/ducks_loss_to_washington_was_f.html