Who will start at center for Oregon Football? “We’ll see on Saturday,” says Dan Lanning

EUGENE – It is not yet clear who will be the first center in Oregon to snap the ball to Dillon Gabriel, at least not publicly.

Dan Lanning declined to say who will start at center for the No. 3 Ducks in their season opener Saturday (4:30 p.m., Big Ten Network) against Idaho.

“We’ll see on Saturday,” Lanning said Monday night. “I think a lot of guys can play winning football. … For me, it’s about how many guys can play winning football for us, and you could see more than one in those situations.”

Several players worked as centers in the starting offensive line during fall camp, including Iapani Laloulu and Charlie Pickard.

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Laloulu started in the Fiesta Bowl and stayed at that position in the spring, but realized throughout the offseason that his snaps needed to improve at a position he didn’t play in high school. When the sophomore plays center, Nishad Strother has been filling in at guard for the injured Matthew Bedford. Strother, a sixth-year senior, has also played left guard, where Marcus Harper II has been a key backup, but has also worked at center.

Pickard, a redshirt junior walk-on, was a second-team starter at Training Center last season. He took most of the reps with the first team during early practice sessions last week and was also on the starting offensive line for all 11-on-11 periods. When Pickard is center, Laloulu is right guard.

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Lanning declined to say whether determining the starting offensive line inside would depend more on Laloulu’s snapping compared to Pickard or Pickard’s play as a center compared to Strother’s play as a guard.

“I think anything is possible,” Lanning said. “Again, how many guys can we have that can play winning football? We’ll put the group that we think performed the best in fall camp in the starting lineup. But I think to think long term, we need to prepare and have multiple guys playing multiple positions.”