The Oregon Ducks are doing something a bit different in the 2024 recruiting cycle. It’s not something that is unheard of, nor is it something that we’ve never seen take place in Eugene. But it is a methodology that you don’t see happen very much, but could see take place more going forward.
The Ducks have a pair of quarterbacks committed to the 2024 class — 4-star Michael Van Buren and 3-star Luke Moga.
[lawrence-related id=43318]
Moga committed near the end of April ahead of the Ducks’ annual spring game, while Van Buren announced his commitment over the weekend. Oftentimes in college football, you see teams take a quarterback each year to keep the depth chart stacked with talent and hopefully maintain the development cycle going forward. However, taking a pair of QBs in the same cycle can complicate things a little bit.
Obviously, both players can’t play at the same time, so it immediately creates competition between the two going forward. Who will eventually become the starter, and what will the other player decide to do? Will he wait it out and try to gain the starting spot eventually, or will he opt to look elsewhere for a starting spot in the new era of the transfer portal?
It will be fascinating to watch how things play out between Van Buren and Moga in Eugene. To try and get a sense of what we might see, I went back and looked at the other times in UO history — since 2000 — that the Ducks have taken multiple QBs in a class.
Here’s what I learned from the five times it happened.