Bryce Boettcher has been a literal hit in two sports for the Oregon Ducks

He’s the best hitter in college football.

That’s hyperbole when it comes to Bryce Boettcher. It’s impossible to measure whose tackles make the hardest impact on opposing players, though if you could, the Oregon Ducks inside linebacker might be up there on the list.

He loves to hit hard and often.

“Well, he weighs a lot more (than he did), and he doesn’t hit people he’s not supposed to hit at practice anymore,” Oregon Coach Dan Lanning told local media earlier this season. “You know, he used to hit everybody. So now he only hits the people he’s allowed to hit, but with about 25 more pounds on him, which is awesome.”

Hit everyone?

“Yeah, he would hit anybody,” Lanning said. “He’d hit a punter in a punt drill, right? Like it didn’t matter. Bryce would hit anybody. And the way you learn not to hit people is you have to go take a really long lap and go run. He did a lot of running early.”

Boettcher will be a pivotal player Saturday when No. 6 Oregon takes on the Iowa Hawkeyes at Kinnick Stadium. It’s a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.

The senior hometown boy from South Eugene High School leads the Ducks in tackles by a wide margin with 64 total. He had a career-high 94 last season when he was awarded the 2024 Burlsworth Trophy as the nation’s top player who began his career as a walk-on.

That’s where this story gets really interesting, using the term “hit” in a different way.

Boettcher went to Oregon as a baseball player, an outfielder, specifically, playing four seasons for the Ducks as a utility guy. As a senior in 2024, he was named to the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Team as a center fielder and taken in the 13th round of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft by the Houston Astros.

He signed a contract with them but hasn’t yet played a professional game. The reason is football.

Boettcher joined the Oregon football team as a walk-on in 2022, going from special teams to defensive back to starting linebacker. He was awarded an extra season of football eligibility for this fall and decided to take it.

“I love my Ducks, I love my hometown,” Boettcher told local media preseason. “If I had another year of eligibility and didn’t use it, I feel like I’d regret it down the road. Nowadays in college football, it’s beneficial to do that. So that’s why I did it.”

He added about 10 pounds last offseason instead of dropping 10, as he normally did for baseball season, making him a solid 230. Concentrating on one sport instead of two obviously has made him a better football player.

“It’s definitely 100-percent football focused right now. I’m just developing myself as a football player,” Boettcher said. “I’d be lying if I said I haven’t (still) been hitting a little bit. Watching the team play and not being a part of it, I’m still getting into the cages. But, yeah, absolutely football focused right now.”

Boettcher could be playing himself into being a professional hitter in two sports, a la Deoion Sanders. Though Sanders really was never known for his tackling.

Boettcher was asked if he might pursue that if the NFL shows interest in him.

“I’m just trying to live in the moment,” he said. “Whatever happens in the future, happens in the future. But I think certainly developing another year as just a football player will help me on that side this fall. Just being the best version of myself on the football field.”

Like Iowa, Oregon also is coming off a bye week. Like Iowa, that bye week gave the Ducks an opportunity rest, heal and reassess some things.

“I really liked the work we got in this past week,” Lanning said this week. “I think we found some things that we can grow from. Talked about it last week, just our ability to jump into some self scout and attack some things that we felt like needed to improve. Then really identify what’s going to show up in these next four opponents.

“There are some great teams we are going to see over the next few weeks, and Iowa certainly sets that off. I’m shocked that this team isn’t ranked, the way they’ve been playing, especially recently. The job that they’ve done.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com