[h=1]The reason Willie Taggart took a select group of jersey numbers away from Oregon players[/h]
Oregon’s spring is now in the books, but Willie Taggart is still holding single-digit jerseys until fall.
The new Oregon coach took them away in the winter after he arrives, saying players who wore them had to earn them. That continues into the summer.
"Not only do you have to be a good football player you've got to be a good student and have great character," Taggart said. "We want guys to have all three things in order to get those numbers back."
Last year’s Oregon team had 12 players wearing single-digits, including some duplicates on both sides of the ball. Nine of those players return in 2017. Oregon’s spring game was on Saturday, but Taggart won’t determine if the players earn them for quite a while still.
"We're going to continue to evaluate that over the summer," he said. "… You can't just have it for a good five months and then go the other way. I'm going to continue to evaluate that and let guys continue to work for it if they really want it."
It was a successful finish to a spring for Taggart after a rocky start to his tenure included three hospitalized players and an arrested assistant. But the staff got completed, Taggart was happy with the growth in the field, and the Ducks added five new recruiting commits over the weekend.
"The competition made us a better football team," Taggart said. "When I talk about getting better, it's learning how to compete. You compete like that every day and that's what helps us get better."
"It’s hard to say exactly what we’re good at right now." 
