Though he is still working in a backup role, freshman quarterback Ty Thompson received a rave review from coach Mario Cristobal.
There were a lot of things that we can take away from our first live glimpse at the Oregon Ducks at Saturday’s spring scrimmage, but one thing that everyone had an eye turned towards was the competition at the quarterback spot.
It remained senior Anthony Brown who took the first-team reps, and he certainly looked polished and capable throughout the day. However, that was expected. What fans really wanted to see what their first look at freshman QB Ty Thompson, the program’s first five-star recruit at the position.
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The 6-foot-4, 215-pound future phenom did some impressive things on the day, but his youth was still present. After all was said and done, though, head coach Mario Cristobal had some encouraging words.
A program that has seen its fair share of talented freshman over the past several years — both Noah Sewell and Justin Flowe last year, plus Kayvon Thibodeaux a couple of years back — that is some high praise coming from Cristobal. It appears that Brown is still the heavy favorite to get the start once fall camp begins, but the things we’ve seen from Thompson so far have been encouraging.
Approximately 8,000 fans will be allowed inside Autzen Stadium to watch the Oregon Spring Game, set to take place on May 1st.
We got our first taste of what it will be like to have fans back in the stands for Oregon Duck games at the spring scrimmage on Saturday, and now the school has announced that they will once again be giving spectators a chance to see their team at the Spring Game, set to take place on May 1st.
The game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., and Autzen will be allowed to fill to 15 percent capacity, which is approximately 8,000 people.
Normally a free-for-all that allows spectators in for free with a donation to Food For Lane County, this year’s spring game will be a ticketed event to allow for proper physical distancing. The tickets will first be made available for season ticket holders, Duck Athletic Fund members, students, and the general public.
Led by CJ Verdell and Travis Dye, the Ducks running backs might be the best duo the country has to offer.
The Oregon Ducks have enjoyed the services of a lot of quality running backs in its history, but the dynamic duo of CJ Verdell and Travis Dye has the chance to eventually go down as one of the best.
Both are juniors that already have plenty of accolades attached to their names. Verdell has already gone on record as to saying he wants to rush for 2,000 yards this season. Oregon has never had a tailback go for 2,000 yards in a single season, but if someone has a chance to do it, Verdell could be the guy.
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Oregon will most likely rely on its running game this season with an inexperienced Pac-12 quarterback calling the signals, so offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead will likely be calling Verdell’s number a lot throughout the year.
Having his number called in virtually every situation is something Verdell is used to. In his freshman season, he rushed the ball 202 times in 13 games for 1,018 yards and 10 touchdowns. Verdell equaled his initial success his sophomore season with 198 rushing attempts for 1,220 yards and eight scores. In 2020, the junior was slowed by a couple of injuries that allowed him to just gain 285 yards (57 ypg) in five contests and three touchdowns.
Now fully healthy, Verdell believes he and his team is due for a monster season.
“The main goal here ever since Coach Cristobal took over the program and going in the direction we’ve been going is to definitely get into that playoff and win a national championship,” he said in a press conference last week.
If those goals are to be accomplished, Verdell is going to need Dye to shoulder some of the load. Dye is the speed back with Verdell’s power.
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No longer considered Troy Dye’s younger brother, Travis has turned into a quality tailback himself and is a weapon receiving the ball as well. At 5-foot-10 and 200 pounds, Dye has 37 career receptions for 467 yards and six touchdowns through the air.
When Verdell was sidelined much of the latter half of 2020 with a thumb injury, Dye became the starting tailback where he flourished. In those seven games, he gained 443 yards and averaged nearly seven yards per carry.
In goal-line situations, the Ducks relied on Cyrus Habibi-Likio, but the power back decided to move on to Boise State, leaving those situations to Verdell and Dye.
Behind those two main tailbacks, redshirt freshman Sean Dollars was looking to see more playing time, but he suffered a considerable leg injury, so he won’t see action until the middle of the season, according to Cristobal.
True freshman Seven McGee, a four-star recruit from Rochester, NY, won’t be on campus until June. So Aaron Smith, a 5-11, 205-pounder from San Jose, Calif. has received the other snaps in Spring practice. Whether he sees the field come September remains to be seen, but just being able to get those early reps in is going to be invaluable to him.
Senior Anthony Brown is the starting quarterback, but freshman Ty Thompson isn’t going to make Mario Cristobal’s decision an easy one.
Nearly every head football coach wants a healthy positional competition in spring practices as it tends to make the players better, causing the cream to rise to the top.
If there is one spot on the football field the coach wants to be sure of it’s the quarterback. But if that all-important spot isn’t a sure thing, you want two talented players to compete.
That’s exactly what faces Oregon Ducks head coach Mario Cristobal, as he watches senior Anthony Brown and freshman Ty Thompson battle each other. It’s a decision that will be so close that Cristobal might not be able to make it until the fall.
Whatever that decision is, however, the Ducks will be in good hands.
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Brown came to Eugene last season after a three-year career at Boston College. His time with the Eagles was hit-and-miss because of injuries, but when he was able to see the field, Brown was able to tear apart Big East defenses.
In those three seasons, Brown threw for 40 touchdowns and 4,738 yards. Those numbers would be bigger, but he suffered a season-ending injury after six games as a junior.
Once healthy again, Brown transferred to Oregon looking to start, but then the pandemic hit last year and put spring practices on hold. His progress in offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead’s system was hampered, so the staff went with Tyler Shough, the known quantity.
But Brown slowly worked his way onto the field as the season went along. He played well in the Pac-12 title game where he threw for two touchdowns against USC, and then again in the Fiesta Bowl. Despite the 34-17 loss to Iowa State, Brown rushed for two touchdowns and threw for 147 yards in part-time duties, splitting reps with Shough.
After the season, Shough transferred, making Brown the incumbent, but when Oregon recruited and signed the program’s first-ever five-star quarterback, the Ducks suddenly had a decision to make at quarterback.
Nick Oza/The Arizona Republic
Thompson is the Ducks’ first five-star signal-caller to sign. He stands at 6-foot-4 and weighs 215 pounds. Thompson was Arizona’s top prep football player last season and was rated as the No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in the country.
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At Mesquite High School in Gilbert, Ariz., the two-time state champion ended his career throwing for 9,891 yards and 100 touchdowns, while also rushing for 1,145 yards, averaging nearly five yards a rush and 20 scores.
It’s difficult to ignore a talent like that, and since Thompson is an early enrollee, it gives the freshman the best possible chance to start right away.
As the schedule is set, no one would blame Cristobal if he wanted to go with the upper-classman. Ohio State looms as the second game of the season in the 12-game slate and having a true freshman enter the Horseshoe in Columbus, Ohio might be too much to ask.
Oregon has the talent at the other positions to be the favorite to win the Pac-12 title and possibly sneak into the College Football Playoff if everything falls into place for the Ducks.
This one decision might determine the destiny of the 2021 Oregon Ducks football team.
Oregon’s lead back has lofty goals for what is likely to be his final year with the Ducks, aiming for a historic 2,000-yard season.
If you want to set the bar high for a running back at any level of football to have a historic season, you throw out the number 2,000.
2,000 yards rushing in a year is the high-water mark, set by a handful of players over the decades. Tennessee Titans RB Derrick Henry did it just last season, and Adrian Peterson accomplished the feat back in 2012.
While there have been only eight players to cross that barrier in the NFL, the feat is a bit more achievable at the college ranks, with 26 players doing it, five of whom came in the past 10 years, most recently Christian McCaffrey in 2015.
So is there a chance that we could see this stat reached by a certain player in Eugene this season? Well, if you ask junior RB CJ Verdell, it is definitely the goal.
“A goal I set for myself is definitely 2,000 rushing yards. I feel like I can get it. My coaches feel like I can get it. It’s up to me,” Verdell said, via Duck Territory’s Erik Skopil.
Verdell is currently 9th on Oregon’s all-time rushing list, with two seasons where he’s totaled more than 1,000 yards. He would need to break a school record to accomplish the feat, which is currently held by Royce Freeman, who ran for 1,836 yards in 2015.
Not only may Oregon have one of the best running back tandems in the nation this year, but they could be home to another history maker if all breaks the right way. For Verdell, who is likely to be playing his last season with the Ducks, there is maybe no better way to go out.
The experience and explosiveness brought by Verdell and Dye have a chance to put Oregon’s running game among the best in the NCAA.
The last couple of decades of Ducks football has been buoyed by the presence and performances from Oregon running backs. You have Maurice Morris, Onterrio Smith, Jonathan Stewart, Jeremiah Johnson, LaMichael James, and Kenjon Barner, Want to keep going? Throw in De’Anthony Thomas, Royce Freeman, Byron Marshall, LeGarrette Blount, and Thomas Tyner.
No matter what year we are focusing on, Oregon has had at least one proficient or dominant runner in the backfield, and the 2021-22 season looks to be no different with the return of C.J. Verdell and Travis Dye.
With years of experience and lofty goals, the duo plans to be among the best tandem in the NCAA this season.
“I believe that we are the best 1-2 punch in the Pac-12, if not the nation,” Dye said, via Duck Territory’s Erik Skopil. “Of course we’re going to say that, but we’re going to show that this year for sure.”
So far, both backs have proven that they can be dangerous with the ball. Verdell currently ranks 9th on Oregon’s all-time rushing list, with 2,523 total yards, and 23 total touchdowns. His time with the Ducks has been cut short by injury as well, missing the final two games of the 2020 season with a broken wrist.
Dye is lower on the all-time list, sitting at No. 21 with 1,840 total yards and 11 touchdowns. However, Oregon has been formidable and reliable in the running game since those two have taken over, and that trend could very well continue this season. There are other young players like Sean Dollars or Trey Benson that might get some run early in the season, but when crunch time comes around, you can expect to see No. 7 or No. 26 line up in the backfield.
Though he’s dropped in some mock drafts, Penei Sewell claims that nobody can do what he does as an LT in this year’s draft class.
If you want to look at the bulk of players who chose to sit out their final year of college because of the COVID-19 virus and see how it affected their NFL draft stock, Oregon left tackle Penei Sewell might be a perfect example of how a player can drop.
Almost unanimously regarded as the best left tackle in all of college football after the 2019 season, Sewell was atop many people’s mock drafts a little less than a year ago, with only players like quarterback Trevor Lawrence or linebacker Micah Parsons going ahead of him.
You look at those mock drafts now, and things have changed quite a bit. For the most part, draft analysts are pegging Sewell to be taken somewhere in the first 5-12 picks, with many guessing that he will fall to a team like the Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Cowboys, or Detroit Lions. Some mocks even have other left tackles being taken over Sewell, with guys like Northwestern’s Rashawn Slater, or Virginia Tech’s Christian Darrisaw coming off the board first.
None of this should be a major concern for Sewell, though, or the team who eventually drafts him. He knows that he is the top LT prospect in this draft class, and he plans to prove it.
I mean… he’s got a point. Sewell hasn’t played in a game since 2019, and it’s not like he’s gotten worse since then. The last time he stepped on the field, the 6-foot-6, 325 pound lineman was considered among the best overall players in the NCAA, and he’s spent the last 12 months focusing on his craft and avoiding injury. He has good size and the elite foot quickness to make some of the most challenging blocks in the game.
There’s a chance that he falls past the Bengals at No. 5, though they could really use him to help protect QB Joe Burrow. If he does, it is no matter, though. We all know the talent that he will bring to the NFL, and whichever team gets him will be counting their lucky stars.
The Badgers are projected to a face a familiar Pac-12 opponent
If there is one out of conference team that Wisconsin fans, in both basketball and football, have become well acquainted with in recent years, it’s the school in Eugene, Oregon with as many uniform combinations as the entire Big Ten combined.
In USA TODAY’s latest 2020 bowl projection, Wisconsin has a trip to the Fiesta Bowl against none other than the Oregon Ducks. Given the fact that the Rose Bowl is a College Football Playoff game this season, the two would potentially meet as at-large bids in the Fiesta Bowl on January 2.
Wisconsin fans still have fresh images of questionable pass interference calls, Oregon QB Justin Herbert running wild, and dropped punts in their minds after a tough loss to the Ducks in the 2020 Rose Bowl. A rematch with Oregon would certainly have a different edge to it than other at-large matchups for the Badgers this bowl season.
