Oregon Football: 5 players to watch in 2017 spring game
By Zach Bigalke
After a 4-8 campaign, Oregon football looks to generate a turnaround in 2017. Which players should you watch at this year’s spring game?
The Ducks have been a mainstay in the Pac-12 race for much of the past decade. 2016 was not one of those years, as Oregon failed to reach bowl eligibility for the first time since 2004. For a school that historically has been a middleweight at best in the conference, its recent run of success has heightened expectations to the point where one losing season cost Mark Helfrich his job as head coach.
Enter Willie Taggart, the former Western Kentucky and South Florida coach who takes over in Eugene. Taggart helped turn around fortunes at USF, going from two to four to eight to ten wins over his four years with the Bulls. He will try to expedite the turnaround at Oregon, especially given that he starts with a much stronger talent base.
As the Ducks enter their first spring practice since the 1970s led by someone from outside the Rich Brooks/Mike Bellotti coaching chain, let’s look at bit at that talent pool. Click through to learn more about five players to keep an eye on when Oregon plays its spring game at Autzen Stadium on April 29.
Entering last year, Oregon thought FCS transfer Dakota Prukop was the short-term answer at quarterback. Instead, they might have instead stumbled upon the long-term answer at the position when Mark Helfrich inserted freshman Justin Herbert as the starter against Washington.
Though Herbert went just 2-5 as a starter in 2016, he showed flashes of brilliance and finished the year with the same quarterback efficiency rating as Heisman winner Lamar Jackson.
Highly-touted recruit Braxton Burmeister is enrolled in time for spring practices, but the starting job is still Herbert’s to lose. Though he is not as fast as either past Ducks quarterbacks or Taggart’s former USF quarterback Quinton Flowers, Herbert is still capable of keeping the chains moving with his legs.
If Herbert can avoid a sophomore slump and build upon a freshman campaign that was impressive in every way but the win column, Oregon should once again feature another high-octane offense.