Over the past several months, we’ve talked at length about the quarterback competition that has been taking place in Eugene between Bo Nix, Ty Thompson, and Jay Butterfield.
At long last over the past weekend, we got to see these quarterbacks in live-action during the Oregon spring game.
There were some mixed results.
Each QB got a fair share of reps, with Nix taking 15, while Thompson got 27 and Butterfield got 26. No player blew the competition away, but there were a number of TD throws as well as a handful of interceptions.
Offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham liked what he saw, but knows there is a ton of room for improvement.
“We got to get better. I think we put the ball in jeopardy too many times,” Dillingham said. “I think we had two throws that caused interceptions and we had four to five misreads that we put the ball in jeopardy when we didn’t have to because we didn’t account for that player with our eyes. Anytime you don’t account for a player with your eyes, you’re putting the ball in jeopardy because you don’t know who’s back there.”
Despite the mistakes, Dillingham left the spring game with a positive mindset about where the position currently is, and where it can get to by the time September rolls around. As they enter another stretch of the offseason, Oregon’s QB room is in a good position, according to the OC.
“I love where we are. I think we got a really really deep quarterback room. I think we got a ton of talent in that room,” Dillingham said. “And I think they’ve gotten better. And we all talk about the growth they’ve made just from how they think about the game, the growth they’ve made in pass protections. It’s a completely different way to attack and I think they’ve gotten a lot better and I’m really pleased with where they are.”
Where can each player focus over the coming months to get even better, though? Dillingham touched on that a bit as well.