It’s been practically two full months since the 2019 season ended for the Oregon Ducks; a season that will be long remembered as a year of resurgence for the Oregon football program.
A Pac-12 Championship. A Rose Bowl victory. A second consecutive star-studded recruiting class signed, sealed, and all but delivered. Those types of accomplishments simultaneously restore the integrity of a proud program while also serving as an emphatic launch point for a new era under the direction of Mario Cristobal.
Yet, as strange as it may seem, the time for reminiscing and the savoring of moments from the recent past is over – at least insofar as it relates to Cristobal and his coaching staff. The countdown to spring practice can be marked by days, if not hours, and with it marks the first tangible signs that preparations for the upcoming 2020 season are underway.
With spring football set to begin in earnest for the Ducks on March 5, culminating with the annual spring game on April 18, WFOD is taking the time between now and then to examine the prevailing storylines at each position group.
Today, our Spring Storylines series begins with a look at quarterback.
Is Tyler Shough ready to ascend to true QB1 status?
Even in spite of Justin Herbert‘s graduation to the NFL, there seems to be hopeful optimism surrounding the Ducks’ quarterback situation, as the lasting vestiges of Mark Helfrich’s imprint on the program have been all but wiped away with Herbert’s departure from Eugene.
Of course, that’s not to say that replacing Herbert will be done with a snap of the finger. In fact, with Herbert’s career at Oregon having come to a close, he undoubtedly leaves as one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in school history.
Pac-12 Champion, Rose Bowl Champion, Campbell Trophy Winner, First Team Academic All American, and First Team Pac-12 Academic All-Conference honoree are just a few notable titles Herbert picked up during his collegiate career, not to mention leaving his name scribbled throughout the school record book, second only to the incomparable Marcus Mariota in many statistical categories.
Though, even in the face of all that invaluable experience and all those impressive accolades vacating the scene, that aforementioned hopeful optimism remains, undaunted.
Some of that has to do with the arrival of new offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead, who brings his reputation as one of the top offensive minds in the game to Eugene to replace Marcus Arroyo, who accepted the head coaching job at UNLV this past December after two solid, if not uninspiring, seasons as the Ducks’ offensive play-caller.
Much of that optimism, however, surrounds the talent and promise of redshirt sophomore Tyler Shough, who put those virtues on full display – albeit in small, difficult to analyze sample sizes – for the first time in his collegiate career last season.
A native of Chandler, Ariz., the 6-foot-5, 219-pound Shough has the size and physical traits of a player you’d expect to thrive when given the keys to the Oregon offense, but the 12-of-15 passes he’s completed for 144 yards and three touchdowns (with no interceptions) in eight career games is hardly anything you can reliably hang your hat on.
Neither is it something to be completely discounted, as Shough has looked sharp and plenty capable in the few and far between moments he’s earned (previous spring games included), but his next opportunity to gain a critical first down or lead a critical scoring drive will be his first at this level. “Quarterbacks are like tea bags,” to paraphrase former Ducks head coach Chip Kelly. “You never know what you got until you put them in hot water.”
With redshirt freshman Cale Millen and true freshman Jay Butterfield set to compete with Shough over the next several weeks, and eventually into the summer, we should have a much clearer sense of the flavors that reveal themselves this season at quarterback, beginning – and perhaps ending – with Shough.