How will Oregon's backup quarterback competition be decided?
Oregon announced last week that senior Anthony Brown has won its starting quarterback job. The news didn’t come as a surprise; it was always Brown’s job to lose, and his coaches and teammates raved about his leadership and playmaking ability all preseason camp.
But there is still a bit of intrigue around which of the Ducks’ freshman quarterbacks will serve as Brown’s backup.
The organizational chart Oregon released Monday lists Ty Thompson OR Jay Butterfield OR Robby Ashford as the backup signal caller.
The battle over which of those three freshmen will win the backup job — and possibly, get some reps in the opener against Fresno State — will continue throughout the week.
“Like every other position, the guys are coming out and they’re competing,” Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead said. “I’ve been excited about their progress. … A true freshman and two redshirt guys.
“I’m happy with how they’ve conducted themselves and learned the offense and taken that to the field. We’ll keep giving them reps, keep allowing them to compete and go from there.”
Cristobal said Oregon will “hopefully” have more information on the battle later in the week.
Last week, Cristobal said the battle is tight, and that the Ducks are running out of reps to decide which of the freshmen is best-prepared for the backup job.
“It becomes a real tight situation — not only from the standpoint that the game is coming, but from the reps available to let it play itself out,” Cristobal said. “So we’ve got to make a decision and we’ve got to be able to handle it as a team.”
Moorhead elaborated a bit on how Brown has continued to improve during camp, and what specifically he did to win the starting job outright.
“He’s played a lot of football, as a starter, at a high level,” Moorhead said of Brown. “I think the biggest change now is that he was operating in a backup capacity last year and doing his best to learn the system.
“Now he’s been working with the ones and has a continued understanding of the system.”
Moorhead said between spring ball and now, Brown has done a nice job of creating explosive plays, protecting the football and making plays with his feet.
“We just want to see that play out on the field on Saturday,” Moorhead said.
Cristobal was asked Monday if he was hopeful that whoever wins the backup job will see game reps on Saturday, and if that will dictate how the backup battle takes shape this week.
But he did not necessarily provide much information on the subject.
“All we want from Saturday is to win a football game,” Cristobal said. “Play well — play to the best of our ability.
“I have too much respect for our opponents and for the game of football to ever even think like that.”
