Pellum

LOS ANGELES — Sure, the Oregon Ducks are without star cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu. But they were facing enough challenges already against Florida State, even before the All-American went down with a season-ending knee injury earlier this month.

In Thursday’s national semifinal Rose Bowl, the Ducks will face a physical, two-back offense that they have not seen much in the Pac-12.

Oregon defensive coordinator Don Pellum said the Seminoles’ overall team speed, and the offensive schemes they use to accent that speed, will pose a serious challenge to the Duck defense. Seminoles freshman running back Dalvin Cook has 905 yards rushing and eight touchdowns this season, while senior running back Karlos Williams has 609 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“We haven’t played a lot of two-back teams in our conference,” Pellum said. “We don’t see a lot of them. So some of their styles of attack are different, and when you add that to the speed and just the athleticism, you go, you know what, this is different. This is different.

“So (we are) really excited about the opportunity and the challenge to face something different.”

Florida State is considered an exceptionally physical offensive team. Oregon seemed to answer the questions about its own physicality in beating Michigan State 46-27 on Sept. 6, but those questions have arisen again in the days leading up to the Rose Bowl, whose winner will play in the national championship on Jan. 12 against the winner of the Alabama-Ohio State Sugar Bowl semifinal.

Pellum knows what the Ducks must do to handle Cook and Williams.

“You’re not going to tackle these guys one-on-one,” Pellum said. “They’re too good. Everyone is going to have to be off blocks and run to the ball. If the first guy misses, shakes the guy, there’s a second guy and there’s a third guy. That’s how you’re going to have to handle this team because you’re not going to tackle them one-on-one. They’re really good.”

Oregon defensive lineman DeForest Buckner, who leads the Ducks this season with 12 tackles for a loss, is looking forward to taking on Cook and Williams, as well as 2013 Heisman Trophy quarterback Jameis Winston. Buckner compared the Seminoles’ offensive line to that of Stanford and Michigan State, both of whom Oregon defeated this season.

“You always want to go against the best, you know, and being able to go against Florida State’s offensive line, it’s going to be fun,” Buckner said. “It kind of brings me back to Tennessee last year. I mean, them boys, they was a different breed. I’m pretty sure all of them are in the league (NFL) this year. It’s just nice being able to go against the top guys. Throughout the past like two weeks, coach (Pellum) has been talking about just putting a body on guys, and Jameis is definitely a guy you’ve got to put a body on. You can’t arm tackle him because he’s going to break free.”

Defensive line will look to pressure Winston

Buckner, a junior, is a key part of an Oregon defensive line that is much improved this season and will look to pressure Winston — who has thrown 17 interceptions in 2014.

Pellum said the entire defensive line has excelled since “getting back to the basics” with the help of Oregon defensive line coach Ron Aiken.

“All those guys are playing at a really, really high level for us right now,” Pellum said of the defensive line. “I think the other thing is we’ve encouraged those guys to be leaders. When we took over, there was not a senior defensive lineman. They were all juniors, so they were really all sophomores from the year before. They were just kind of sitting behind a group of guys playing a little bit, then all of a sudden they’re juniors, and coach (Aiken) is coming over going, you guys are seniors. We need senior leadership from you today, and they put it on their back, and they’ve been carrying it.”

Buckner said he and his fellow defensive linemen hope to force Winston into throwing some interceptions in the Rose Bowl.

“As a defensive front, we’re going to have to put pressure (on Winston),” Buckner said. “When I’m watching film, that’s most of the time when he makes his mistakes. He kind of just throws it up or throws it away. So we’ve got to put pressure on him to help the DBs (defensive backs) out to get those picks.”

Not changing with loss of Ekpre-Olomu

Chris Seisay will start at cornerback in place of Ekpre-Olomu, who had 63 tackles and two interceptions this season. Seisay has played in 11 games and made 20 tackles. Troy Hill might have the task of covering Florida State star wide receiver Rashad Greene, who has 93 receptions for 1,306 yards and seven touchdowns this season.

“The biggest thing is going to be we’re not changing the game plan,” Pellum said, referring to the loss of Ekpre-Olomu. “You can’t change it. After 13, 14 games, you’re not going to change the plan. We have to do a better job of executing the plan. We have to do a better job of guys picking up slack.”

Hill said he is ready to do just that. But he admits it was emotional when he learned of his teammate’s injury.

“Man, that was hard,” Hill said. “That’s our brother. That’s family, especially in that secondary. He’s our leader, our brother, you know what I’m sayin’? It was hard but after the surgery we went all in and talked to him and he had a strong head and he soothed us and let us know he’s going to be all right.”

Greene said he was “disappointed” that he would not be able to compete against Ekpre-Olomu.

“At the end of the day, I was looking forward to competing against the best,” Greene said. “That’s how I judge myself. With a program like Oregon, they have some guys that could back him up, capable of doing the same thing that he’s done. So I’m not going to take anyone lightly that steps in front of me at the end of the day. So I look forward to it.

“Our game plan is not going to change because he’s absent from the game. We just still continue to do what we’re doing and preparing for this game because they have a great defense.”

But that defense will be tested in new ways on New Year’s Day in the Rose Bowl.

—Reporter: 541-383-0318, mmorical@bendbulletin.com.