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Oregon

Tionne Gray: "I'm more confident in everything."

On3 imageby: Justin Hopkins09/03/25
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Oregon defensive lineman Tionne Gray was one of the surprise starters on the defensive line Saturday. Not necessarily for ScoopDuck readers but for Oregon fans in general.

The Ducks knew they had a lot of production to replace in the interior and Gray was able to push himself above others vying for the spot.

On Wednesday he spoke with media about his role, playing next to A’mauri Washington and more.

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On Development Process:

“I’ll say, like last year at the beginning, I just come from high school, you know, everybody being the top dog and coming here and you not the top dog. So it was more of a mental challenge. But then like midway through the season, I started to see it, understand it. And it was just learning my way, like with the playbook, learning my way with the, with our schemes and our technique. And after that, it was just, it’s just football.”

On Playing Next to A’Mauri Washington:

“Playing next to Amari is a very fun thing. He’s very explosive, very fast. And then we do our own things. Me and him, we own, our connection is different. I could just look at him and he look at me and we already know what we want to do and stuff.

And A’mauri, he just, him drawing attention, I know that’s going to give me my chance to get my one-on-ones, then make my plays. And it’s going to be the same thing for him when I get the double teams, he just like, him drawing the attention, I know that’s going to give me my chance to get my one-on-ones then make my plays. Then it’s going to be the same thing for him. When I get the double team, she going to make his plays.”

On Personal Growth:

“I’ll say mentally, like just coming in and being able to, like first was just learning the playbook. Cause that’s what I started with at first. Now that I know the playbook, I’m more confident in everything that I do, more confident in, like, calling out the play. So, yeah, mentally.”

On Learning from Caldwell/Harmon:

“I’ll say it was a very fun thing. Like them, you know, DJ (Harmon), he gets after that quarterback. And we were the same size too. So just knowing if I like see him, like do a staff club and I’m just studying how he do it. So I could perfect it. And then with JC, you know, big run stopper. And like, that’s, that’s one of my main things to be is like, I want to be just like JC with the run stopping. That’s why you see a lot, I’ve been working on the core group, just trying to get that down.”

On Ok State’s Offense Challenges:

“I’d say the only challenge is, obviously, everybody knows their tempo. But besides that, just trusting our coaches’ game plan and following through it. That’s the best way we could do.”

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