The Duck offensive lineman talks about his trip to Seattle and correcting some misconceptions.

He’s considered one of the Ducks’ best offensive linemen, but you can still find Josh Tschirgi after practice looking to improve his footwork, his hand positioning or any other part of his technique.  The 6-4, 310-pound left guard from Vancouver, Wash. is someone who is always looking to make his best game that much better.  Putting it another way, he’s someone who is never satisfied.

Take the recent 55-34 win over the Washington Huskies. Tschirgi had been wanting to play this game at Husky Stadium since he came to Oregon in 2003; just to be able put on a great performance in his home state in front of a lot of friends and family.

GETTING THE WIN IN SEATTLE

DI:  Okay, you had the game you had been waiting all these years to play. How satisfying was it to go up to Seattle and beat the Huskies?

JT:  “Obviously, it was exciting. Before the game, I didn’t realize how excited I was going to be when I got up there and how much it meant to me before we started playing. But it was a real satisfying experience beating them up there at Montlake.”

IN THE FRONT OF THE LINE

DI:  Before I go a little more in depth about you and your fellow linemen, let me ask you about something. Coach Bellotti has described you as fairly laid back off the field, and ‘Mr. Business’ on it. Do you agree with this assessment?

JT:  “I’d say Coach Bellotti’s description of me is pretty accurate. I just like to play football. There’s nothing better than competing and playing as hard as you can with the boys on Saturdays. Having a the great relationship with guys like Geoff Schwartz, Max Unger, and all those guys off the field is really rewarding, too and then getting to play with these guys on Saturdays has been a great experience.”

DI:  Now that we’ve discussed that, are your classmates that haven’t played that much football astonished to find out just how smart the offensive linemen have to be out there on the field?

JT:  “Well, I don’t think that a lot of people actually know how challenging and complicated blocking schemes and blocking patterns can be at the collegiate level. I just think a lot of people just think we’re big guys. But you talk to some of us like Max Unger, Geoff Schwartz, or Mark Lewis and you’ll find we’re all fairly bright guys...”

Tschirgi: Linemen are bright too.

DI:  Have you and the rest of the offensive line had to improve your endurance with the offense going no huddle all the time?

JT:  “Not really. I mean we’ve done a little more conditioning, but just by working on the no huddle in practice has improved our conditioning.”

DI:  It’s not going to show in the stat sheet, but how satisfied are you and the rest of the offensive line when you make the blocks necessary to enable Dennis Dixon, Jonathan Stewart and Andre Crenshaw to run for 464 yards?

JT:  “It’s satisfying as far as all the yardage and all that stuff, b ut when we watched the film and there’s still a lot of things we can improve on. There’s a lot of technical things and a lot of footwork things we could do a whole lot better, so I don’t think we’ve tapped our potential, yet.”

ON THE ROAD AHEAD

DI:  It’s a mild understatement to say you’ve got a huge game this weekend with USC. What have you seen on the Trojans’ defense and what do you and the rest of the line have to do to stop their front four and pull out the victory?

JT:  “They have a really athletic front four and counting their linebackers, a real athletic front seven, so we’re going to have to play them quick, play fast and play with good technique. Basically, the things we try to do every game, but we’re going to have to take it to another level on Saturday.”

For more of the Josh Tschirgi interview, pick up your free Ducks Illustrated today!!

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