Season In Review: Quarterback
12/13/16 | Football, @GoDucksMoseley
The emergence of true freshman Eugene native Justin Herbert as starting QB was among the top storylines of the 2016 season.
Reviewing Oregon's 2016 season and looking ahead to spring drills.
DEPTH CHART
QB: Justin Herbert, Fr.; Dakota Prukop, Gr.; Terry Wilson Jr., Fr.; Jeff Lockie, Sr.; Travis Jonsen, RFr.; Taylor Alie, Jr.
Starter: The Ducks opened the fall of 2016 with six quarterbacks on the roster, and five of them had been on hand for spring drills in April. The exception was true freshman Justin Herbert, a Eugene native from local powerhouse Sheldon High. And despite his relative lack of experience, it was Herbert who rose up to challenge projected starter Dakota Prukop during preseason camp, and Herbert who took over as Oregon's starter over the final seven games.
Herbert, a tall, strong-armed athlete with preternatural maturity, endured an up-and-down debut season. His first career start was a one-sided loss to Washington, and his next outing ended with an interception in double overtime at California. But Herbert also tied the UO single-game record with six touchdowns that night against the Golden Bears, and eight days later he tied another single-game record, with 489 passing yards in his first career win as a starter, over Arizona State. November told a similar story – disheartening losses to USC, Stanford and Oregon State, but also a game-winning touchdown drive that ended with Herbert's TD pass to Darren Carrington II for the upset at No. 11 Utah.
Reserves: Prukop began the season as the starter, and actually finished with a slightly better passer rating than Herbert, 152.71 to 148.75. In wins at home over UC Davis and Virginia to open the season, Prukop was a combined 42-of-61 for 602 yards and six touchdowns, with no interceptions. But he missed a couple throws at Nebraska that could have resulted in big plays, then threw an interception on a potential game-winning TD pass against Colorado. After a loss at Washington State a week later, coaches made the move to Herbert.
Had the Ducks needed to go to a third quarterback in games, it might have been senior Jeff Lockie. A part-time starter in 2015, Lockie was the ultimate team player in 2016, practicing primarily as the top scout-team quarterback. He shared that job with Travis Jonsen, whose participation was intermittent over the course of the season due to some shoulder problems. Taylor Alie also was available at the position, the Oregon's depth at QB – and lack of at other spots – freed up Alie to practice as a receiver and running back at times, too.
Redshirts: After arriving in time for spring drills, Terry Wilson Jr. was in the mix to battle for the starting job as August dawned, before Herbert's emergence. Wilson ended up spending the season as the No. 3 quarterback in practice, watching and working out with the travel squad. But coaches held him out of games, preserving his redshirt status.
SPRING PROJECTION
QB: Justin Herbert, Fr.; Terry Wilson Jr., Fr.; Travis Jonsen, RFr.; Taylor Alie, Jr.
What to watch: Herbert certainly looked like the quarterback of the future for the Ducks, after becoming the quarterback of the present this past season. But now that Oregon's future is in flux, the paradigm could shift. In eight total appearances as a freshman, Herbert ran the ball 58 times, including sacks. New UO coach Willie Taggart, the playcaller for South Florida's "Gulf Coast Offense" this season, ran his starting quarterback, Quinton Flowers, 177 times. Flowers amassed 1,425 rushing yards with 15 touchdowns, while completing 184-of-299 passes (61.5 percent) for 2,546 yards and 22 touchdowns, with six interceptions. Will Taggart tweak his style to fit the skills of Herbert, the first true freshman to start at Oregon since fellow Sheldon grad Chris Miller in 1983? Or will the new system better suit the skills of someone like Wilson?
