Jake Hansen, Oregon's senior center, grew up dreaming of playing in the NFL like his grandfather. He describes the center position as the line's quarterback, responsible for reading defenses and calling plays. Hansen credits his four-year development to fixing early weaknesses in explosiveness and handling quick defensive linemen.
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Welcome to Beyond the Pads. I'm your host, Max Starks. We are here in the beautiful OLP Studios, and today my guest is Jake Hansen, center for University of Oregon. For all of us to get to know you better, kind of what is your why? Why do you want to be in the NFL? Why do you want to pursue a career in professional football?
Well, I want to play in the NFL just because it's always been really my lifelong dream. I grew up an NFL fan from a really young age. My grandfather played in the NFL years back, and so I always grew up around the sport, watching it with my family, playing it with my older brother, and I just knew that I, you know, eventually if I was fortunate enough, wanted the opportunity to play in the NFL.
What is it about offensive line play that drew you to the position and why do you love it so much?
I love the position just because it's 5 guys working together as one on the O-line. You know, you can't be selfish as an offensive lineman. You always got to be working for the betterment of the team and always have to work together with, you know, the other guys on the offensive line to achieve your goals.
Now for you specifically, you're at the center position, right? Which is long held as the quarterback or the leader of that offensive line. What makes the center position so unique and what makes you unique to the center position?
Well, yeah, the center position is unique because like you said, it's like the quarterback of the offensive line, um, and everything starts with the center. First you have to identify the front, then you have to identify your mic point, and basically determine what everybody else is going to be doing based off of your calls and your ideas. So there's a big responsibility on you to make sure that everybody's working together. And that's what I really like about the position. When I first started playing my freshman year of college, I had never played before, had no idea what I was doing, was just trying to, you know, figure it out as I was thrown out there. And I really learned loving the position, just being at the forefront of the communication of the O-line.
So you started center your freshman year. We fast forward to now, senior, getting ready for the combine. What do you feel in those 4 years, what have you identified as been kind of one of your biggest weaknesses that you need to work on? And then also kind of what are some of the strengths or things that you've learned over your time at the center position?
Yeah, I think some weaknesses that I've identified in my game, I feel like I need to be more explosive. I feel like that was something that I always could have been better at. I feel like I tended to struggle with smaller, more athletic defensive linemen. A lot of problems early in my career with, you know, just struggling with that speed, getting beat across my face and things like that. And this last year, that was something that I really worked on my game. I wanted to take that weak point and turn it into a strong point in my game. And some of those issues with movement and speed on the defensive line that I struggled with the first few years of my career. I do believe I turned that into a strong suit. Um, you know, I can— you can look back on my film and some of those games, um, and those were some of my better games from this season that, um, I feel like I improved a lot on.
Now, what would you say is probably— you felt, in your opinion, what was your best game? What's the best game that you played this season that you felt in your eyes?
Uh, this season, I think my best game was the Pac-12 Championship against Utah. Um, I I feel like, especially as a whole offensive line unit in that game, we had a real chip on our shoulders. I had a chip on my shoulder personally. We were going up against a big, physical defensive front 7 in Utah. No one really gave us a shot, and I feel like that we as a unit and myself came out there and really took it to them and were the more physical team out there.
Well, awesome. Well, once again, thank you, Jake. I appreciate the time today. Thanks. And thank you guys for viewing. This has been Beyond the Pads.
