As the opening kickoff of the 2016 Oregon football season draws closer, fans, coaches and players are becoming more and more anxious to get going.

As quarterback coach David Yost mentioned earlier this week, the upcoming game against UC Davis is going to be “like Christmas morning.” For head coach Mark Helfrich however, “Christmas morning” came long ago.

“The Christmas part always for me, is fall camp,” Helfrich said in a press conference on Tuesday. “When you get those guys for the first time and you see Tristan Wallace for the first time, or so-and-so newcomer that you hear great things about, you expect great things from those guys, but you don’t know until you get your hands on them … And the game is then another level.”

There are many new pieces to this Oregon team both offensively and defensively, and Helfrich is eager to see how they react on Saturday.

“We’ll do some things in the game on purpose to kind of rattle them,” Helfrich said. “You know checks and things, change some things just to see how we can do in an in-game situation and how they react and absorb that during the game is a different thing [than in practice].”

With many redshirt freshmen potentially starting on the defensive line on Saturday, their experience is something that has frequently been questioned.

“It’s funny,” Helfrich said. “When we think about those guys we don’t talk about how old they are or anything. We expect them to play perfectly and compete, compete their tails off every snap.”

Helfrich said that he is confident in the depth that they have at defensive line and expects to see a lot of rotation, at least two-deep on the depth chart.

“I want them to play right on that edge. You know, recklessly, disciplined, persistent, chasing the ball, getting after the run game. These guys can pound the ball, get after the quarterback and rotate in a bunch of guys.”

On the offensive side of things, Helfrich is looking to see his offensive weapons start to “just play.”

“This week, it’s so much more pared down,” Helfrich said. “They’re able to see the first part of that signal and start to develop that picture in their head and just play. And that’s what you want for everybody to happen sooner rather that later.”

Follow Kylee O’Connor on Twitter @kyleethemightee