Oregon football has made it through spring ball and it’s time to look forward to the 2018 season. What’d we learn about the Ducks this spring?
Just one year of Willie Taggart and the Oregon Ducks are already starting a new era. The former South Florida head coach left the Ducks after a season and has since taken the Florida State job left vacant by Jimbo Fisher.
Oregon fans have the right to be bitter, but Mario Cristobal isn’t ready to let the Ducks take a step back, already doing an impressive job recruiting as well as keeping his team in tact.
The Ducks return an impressive roster and bring back starting quarterback Justin Herbert to lead the offense. Defensively, Troy Dye returns to make another push at the All-Pac-12 team at inside linebacker. Both sides of the ball have leaders, but will it be enough to contend for a Pac-12 title in 2018?
What’d we learn about the Ducks this spring?
5. Backup quarterbacks are more than serviceable
The backup quarterback position was a concern in 2017 for the Ducks as there wasn’t much in terms of experience behind Justin Herbert. Then-freshman Braxton Burmeister and Taylor Allie fought for snaps, but the former looked like the more serviceable backup. He’s back to defend that position in 2018.
Burmeister did just that in the spring game, going 7-for-12 with 64 yards and a touchdown, but he’s not going to have an easy battle for the backup job as true freshman Tyler Shough looked like the real deal, passing for 103 yards and two touchdowns on 5-of-8 completions.
While Herbert looked shaky at times, he finished strong with 126 yards, a touchdown and an interception, but he’ll no doubt be the starter as long as he’s healthy.
Spring ball proved that if he does go down, the Ducks are in good hands with two more than serviceable backups at their disposal.