The freshman stands at 6-foot-6 and weighs 360 pounds. That size alone would turn some heads. But freshman offensive lineman Tommy Tofi is turning heads not only with his massive size, but with his play as well.
"He's big. He can move bodies. There's some real positives in some of those moments, what he was able to create at times in the run game, being able to get some movement on some guys up front," Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning said. "There's also some misses that he has that are going to come with more time and more experience. What you have to weigh in our situation with a young player like Tommy is that you know he's going to be really, really good."
As a true freshman, Tofi is going to make those true freshman mistakes. But having him play meaningful downs this early in his college career says a lot about how talented Tofi is, and his future looks bright.
But there will be bumps in the road, according to Lanning.
"There are going to be mistakes that happen within there as well, especially with the variety of defenses you can get. So there were some positives, and there were some things that weren't good enough, and he knows that. But you know, if he continues to get more reps, more time, I think he's going to be able to be a really, really good player for us."
Tofi is already a good player, as he was on the field on the Ducks' game-winning drive in their 17-14 win over Nebraska last Saturday. And he wasn't out there just because Tofi was the only choice. Oregon has plenty of options to go to along the offensive line. The fact that Tofi was out there in the most pivotal of crunch times goes to show the coaches have trust in Tofi and he won't buckle under the bright lights.
"Again, I think I said it last week: there's competition. There's a lot of competition right now in our offensive line, and not a lot of separators right now of like, 'This guy's distinctly better,'" Lanning said. "They kind of all have different skill sets that they're good at. So Tommy's going to be a guy that's right in the mix of that."
From the looks of it, Tofi is going to be in that mix for quite some time.
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This article originally appeared on Ducks Wire: Freshman Tommy Tofi pushing for bigger role on Oregon offensive line