Category: Oregon Legends

Justin Herbert is growing as a leader and taking advantage of his first offseason in the NFL

Cemented as the starting QB in Los Angeles, coaches have remarked that Herbert has taken command of the team and growing as a leader.

If there was ever a question about the type of work ethic that former Oregon Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert would show in his first offseason in the NFL, just ask someone from Eugene what they thought.

After watching the semi-scrawny kid from Sheldon High School turn into an eventual Rose Bowl MVP and NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, it was clear that the Eugene native worked harder than anyone else.

Now, in his first true offseason with the Los Angeles Chargers, Herbert is getting a chance to take command of the offense, and really settle in as a leader on the team. Through the first week of OTAs, that leadership is palpable.

“Justin’s a big part of the operation in terms of his command in and out of the huddle and I think that’s going to be a hallmark of how we play … I thought he was really impressive,” said Chargers coach Brandon Staley, via the team’s website. “There was one (play) in particular that I felt like really demonstrates that he’s got the capacity that you guys are all aware of from an identification standpoint of something we do defensively that we feel like is tough to pick up, and he picked it up practice No. 1. He’s off and running.”

Herbert also has the benefit now of returning to a more normal offseason, where, thanks to the prevalence of vaccines in our society, we can worry less about the coronavirus and more about football. Of course, Herbert is once again dealing with a new coaching staff, but he’s shown in the past that the change to a scheme is little to worry about for No. 10.

It’s always hard to make good on a career season, and when you set the bar as high as Herbert did in 2020, expectations are almost insurmountable. Regardless, we know that the former Duck will put his all into climbing this mountain ahead of him, and if his career trajectory is to continue, we will be talking about him for a long, long time to come.

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Changing coordinators isn’t anything new for Justin Herbert

Justin Herbert is looking to avoid the fate of Tim Couch, who had a tough time with the neverending carousel of offensive coordinators.

Justin Herbert has seen this movie before.

In his second season as a Los Angeles Charger and as a professional football player, the former Oregon quarterback is going to have to learn an entirely new system.

Usually, this means bad news for young signal-callers in the NFL. It’s difficult enough to come in from college and learn a playbook that’s probably three times as big. But then to have to learn yet another playbook so quickly in one’s career sometimes means the end of that career.

NFL.com columnist Jim Trotter used former Cleveland Browns head coach Bruce Arians and his new quarterback Tim Couch as an example of how is can all go wrong.

Arians had spent the previous three seasons as quarterbacks coach in Indianapolis, where he helped Peyton Manning develop into one of the game’s top young stars. There was no expectation he would make Couch the next Manning, but there was hope he would transform the former University of Kentucky star into an efficient performer who, at times, could lift those around him.

Problem was, the damage had already been done. There had been too many failures, too many absorbed hits on sacks and pressures and too many voices in Couch’s ears.

Arians was Couch’s third offensive coordinator in three seasons and the former Kentucky superstar didn’t last long after that.

Herbert’s career trajectory most likely will not end up like Couch’s because changing coordinators should be old hat for him. He went from Matt Lubick as a freshman to Marcus Arroyo and Mario Cristobal as a sophomore to just Arroyo as a junior and senior. That’s three coordinators in four seasons and it worked out.

So going from Shane Steichen to Joe Lombardi in Los Angeles shouldn’t be that big of a deal. What will be a bigger deal is that the Chargers find some protection for Herbert up front, which to their credit, it seems like finding offensive linemen is a priority with draft picks Rashawn Slater from Northwestern and Nebraska’s Brendan Jaimes.

Only if Tim Couch had been so lucky.

Former Duck Aaron Wise sits in 3rd place after Day 1 of the PGA Championship

The former Oregon champion got off to a hot start on Thursday with a three-under 69, and is in a good spot to chase his first major championship over the weekend.

It may have been a while since fans of the Oregon Ducks have thought about the name Aaron Wise, but he is still doing great things since leaving Eugene.

Just a few years removed from winning the individual national championship at the Eugene Country Club and helping the Ducks to their first-ever team national title in program history, Wise is now settling in at the professional level. With one career win under his belt at the AT&T Byron Nelson in 2018, there is a dream to get a major championship under his belt.

On Thursday, Wise got off to a great start and shot a three-under 69 in the opening round of the PGA Championship, being played at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. Wise is tied with five other players for second place, including major champions Brooks Koepka and Keegan Bradley.

Via ESPN.com

Everyone is currently chasing Correy Conners, who shot an impressive five-under 67, leading the field by two strokes. With the notoriously windy conditions at Kiawah, an even-par round was considered to be an accomplishment going into the round on Thursday.

Wise was part of the morning group on the first day, so he will get a chance to sleep in a bit on Friday and enjoy the afternoon wave with the rest of his group.

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Sabrina Ionescu records her first professional triple-double

This is the Sabrina the New York Liberty were counting on as the GOAT records her first pro triple-double.

New York Liberty fans and just general WNBA fans better get used to this.

Sabrina Ionescu collected her first professional triple-double for the Liberty with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists to help New York defeat Minnesota 86-75. New York is 3-0 for the first time in 14 years.

She also became the youngest player to complete the feat as no other player did it before their third season. Ionescu has six games under her belt.

Watching the former Duck rack up such a stat line is nothing new for those who witnessed her brilliance in Eugene. In Ionescu’s four seasons for Oregon, she managed to collect 26 triple-doubles in her career and that number most likely would have been higher if the 2020 NCAA tournament had occurred.

Ionescu made triple-doubles a regular event at Oregon, but they don’t happen all that often in actuality. She became the 10th player in league history to have a triple-double, and the first since Chelsea Gray did it in 2019 for the Los Angeles Sparks.

New York will attempt to go 4-0 on Friday with a trip to Washington to take on the Mystics.

 

 

Fresh off of a Rookie of the Year season, Justin Herbert is hungry for more success

Former Oregon QB Justin Herbert was a revelation in the NFL last season, and with a full offseason to work, his future is looking even brighter.

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Expectations were surprisingly low for Justin Herbert as he entered the first year of his NFL career. Though he was drafted by the Los Angeles Chargers with the 6th overall pick, many people thought he would be a bust and were not certain of the leadership ability he would have in the NFL, nor how his game from Oregon would translate.

He proved all of the doubters wrong in an instant. going toe-to-toe with reigning Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes in his first career game — a game in which he learned he was starting just minutes before the first kick — and later continuing that torrid pace and running away with the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award.

With so much success already realized at the professional level, Herbert enters his first real training camp in the NFL with a hunger for more, though.

“There’s a lot to improve on,” Herbert said, via NFL.com. “I think if I could master the offense, if I could go to the line of scrimmage and have a plan of exactly what we’re going to do. I think I can always work on footwork as well, stepping up in the pocket, getting the ball out quickly. There’s a lot of stuff to cover.”

Ever the gym-rat, Herbert continually got better each and every year at Oregon, ultimately capping his career off with a mega-performance against the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2020 Rose Bowl victory, rushing for three touchdowns in a 28-27 victory.

Though he was riding high while leaving college, Herbert definitely took some hits in the draft evaluation process. In true Justin fashion, though, none of that effected the stoic QB, who went on to shame the rest of the 2020 rookie class and make fools of any team who passed on him in the first round.

Now, with a full NFL offseason to hone his craft and work on becoming better, there is no telling what can be accomplished in 2021 and beyond. We know the hard worker and dedicated learner that Herbert is, and the rest of the NFL is about to find out as well.

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