EUGENE -- In August, a few days after a car driven into counter-demonstrators protesting KKK and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville killed one and injured more than a dozen others, Oregon Ducks football coach Willie Taggart broke the UO roster into small groups.
The discussion that followed, redshirt junior safety Khalil Oliver said a few weeks later, was "probably one of the most important things we've done since I've been here."
Their assigned topic was neither base defenses nor pass routes, but their own backgrounds and the paths that brought each to Oregon.
"This dude who grew up in this city, it sounds like it's a great city, but you have no idea how he was raised," Oliver said.