There is losing with grace, and then there is whatever Oregon Ducks wide receiver Tez Johnson threw up into a microphone at the NFL combine. This was a player I thought every team would want to draft. He may be the adopted brother of Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix, but Johnson may now be off some teams' draft board after a terrible weekend for him in Indianapolis. He was the biggest loser.
Not only did the slight wide receiver get outclassed by bigger, stronger and faster wide receivers at the combine, but his response to what happened to Oregon in the Rose Bowl vs. Ohio State is the epitome of an exaggerated facepalm. I saw that game. We all did. Oregon got its ass kicked in the regular-season rematch. The better team won that day, and would win the College Football Playoff.
Here is what Johnson had to say about the Ohio State game at the podium during the NFL combine.
“The first Ohio State game, I felt like they came out there and they wanted to see who can win skill for skill, just let us play. The second game, they kind of played it like, we're going to drop back, we can't hang with these guys skill for skill, so we’re going to try to keep everything in front of us."
Johnson loses all credibility by saying Ohio State countered by falling back and being conservative.
“So that's what they did, and for them it worked. So we went out there to that game and we definitely had a really good game plan against those guys, but they executed well."
Last year was the year Oregon needed to win a national championship, which was not the Rose Bowl.
“So kudos to them, tip my hats to them because they won the national championship. If you beat us that year, you definitely better go win the national championship because that game, I think for sure, was the national championship for us.”
Here is the entire clip of what Johnson said at the podium about Oregon's lone defeat of the season.
Oregon WR Tez Johnson on the Ducks’ two games against Ohio State: “The first Ohio State game, I felt like they came out there and they wanted to see who can win skill for skill, just let us play. The second game, they kind of played it like, we're going to drop back, we can't… pic.twitter.com/p9CnoVc7FF
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) February 28, 2025
These comments feed into my much larger point that Oregon needs to get tougher as a program.
Tez Johnson's Ohio State take is everything that is wrong with Oregon
I understand these are kids, but this is the biggest job interview of every single one of them's life! Johnson is not his adoptive brother, but you would think all that practice and polish Nix needed to eventually go No. 12 to Denver would trickle down to his brother. This was not the case. The way you handle getting your ass kicked is by admitting it, and not making excuses for being so unprepared.
And again, this is not about Johnson as much as it is about Oregon. Since when did we crown this program to be on the same level of other college football blue bloods? They may have played in a pair of national titles over a decade, but they still have not won one and have not won a playoff game in over a decade either! At some point, it has to be more about winning than it is about cool uniforms.
I will say this until I am blue in the face. Last year was the year for Oregon to win the College Football Playoff, and the Ducks totally blew it! The top of the Big Ten was far stronger than its soft middle was. The SEC had a strange year. The ACC and Big 12 tried to find their footing in a new era of realignment. Oregon had the No. 1 seed and was the only unblemished team heading into the 12-team playoff.
What I am getting at is we have moved the goalposts up for Oregon because the Ducks represent something different and unique in college sports. Seemingly everyone who is good now was good over 50 years ago. Not Oregon. The Ducks have benefited from all the Phil Knight Nike money coming up. Prior to Mike Bellotti, Oregon was not a program on the level of the ones it is trying to be a part of.
The worst part of it all is Dan Lanning seems to be the guy to do this, the one to finally make Oregon champions. I wish for it to happen to him in the worst way possible. But at some point, a team led by a defensive-minded head coach should be able to play a lick of defense in a win-or-go-home scenario. Oregon is a lot of fun on offense, but this program has to get more mentally tough for me.
Johnson's thoughts on Ohio State are about as dumb as Kayvon Thibodeaux's were about Alabama.