Former Georgia Bulldogs defensive tackle Bear Alexander has drawn rave reviews for his spring with the Oregon Ducks. Alexander transferred to Oregon this offseason after his controversial decision to voluntarily redshirted during the 2024 college football season with the USC Trojans.
Alexander recorded five tackles for USC in 2024 after posting 47 tackles and 1 1/2 sacks with USC in 2023. He chose to redshirt to keep two years of college eligibility. Alexander played with the Georgia Bulldogs in 2022, appearing in 12 games and racking up nine tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks, including a sack in Georgia’s national championship win over TCU.
Now, he is hoping to finally reach his potential with Oregon. Alexander, a former five-star recruit, is practicing with the Ducks as they prepare for the 2025 college football season.
“To this point right now, Bear (Alexander) has been, I’d say, one of the hardest workers on the entire defense, from a from an extra work and mental standpoint,” said Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi.
Alexander needs to play with more consistency to elevate his NFL draft hopes. He is reunited with former Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning, who helped recruit him to UGA, at Oregon.
All you can do is research the heck out of them,” Lupoi said about adding Alexander. “Thankfully, we’ve had a lot of strong relationships at the University of Georgia, both myself and Coach Lanning with his past experience, so there are some guys there that we can trust. And then we have faith in ourselves. If there are some concerns there, you know, that’s up to us as far as we make that decision, then how we can attack that and challenge him.”
Ducks Wire’s Zachary Neel proposes that Ducks fans have cautious optimism on the former Georgia and USC defensive lineman. “Intriguing for Oregon fans?” said Neel. “Absolutely. But remember that spring football is a season for hype and flowery language. None of that is to say that Oregon coaches are fluffing Alexander up, but rather that there needs to be proof in the pudding before we start to declare this transfer a massive success.”
Neel is correct. Every college football team goes undefeated in the spring and coaches tend to not be to critical of their players to the media in the spring because players can exit via the transfer portal in April.
