Webfoot Awards: Freeman is Newcomer of the Year

In what turned out to be a runaway victory, Royce Freeman took home the Webfoot award for Newcomer of the Year. Freeman won the award with 65% of the votes, while Devon Allen finished second second with about a third of the votes. Dillon Brooks finished in a very distant third.

Freeman came to Oregon last year as a highly rated recruit who was expected to contribute right away, but was thrown into the lead back position while Thomas Tyner battled health issues early on. Freeman ran for over 100 yards six times in 2014, and had multiple touchdowns in seven games. By rushing for 1,365 yards last season, Freeman set a new record for Pac-12 freshman.

Freeman is set to take on a bigger role in the offense in 2015, and he seems to be ready to embrace that role.

“I kind of took pointers from (Mariota) just seeing the way he handled it,” Freeman said. “He was a standup guy and he’s really well spoken. You have to just embrace it, you only get this a certain amount of time in your life.”

Watching Freeman's follow up performance in his sophomore season in 2015/16 is something every Duck fan should all be looking forward to.