Oregon Football QB Preview: In Shough We Trust

The current status of College Football be damned, I’m Writing previews at every single position for the 2020-21 Oregon Ducks.

It’s time to talk quarterbacks.

Let’s just get the starting spot out of the way: Sophomore Tyler Shough.

Many of the pundits assume—and Mario Cristobal has made it crystal clear—QB1 is RoboShough’s job right now, and until further notice. And I think it’s absolutely safe to say that’ll be the case on opening day against North Dakota State.

Shough spent one year with a redshirt, and all of last year as the second string behind Justin Herbert. Shough has taken advantage of every late game opportunity he’s been in. Most notably, he put in a stellar closing performance over USC, which he even topped off with a highlight reel block.

The guy’s first career completion went for a touchdown to Jaylon Redd, he’s never thrown back-to-back incompletions, and in his longest in-game experience vs. Nevada, he threw for 8 of 9, to eight different receivers, for 92 yards and 2 TDs.

The sample size is small, but it’s beyond promising.

And there isn’t going to be any quarterback-platooning going on, either. Shough is the starter, and that’s the end of it.

Mario Cristobal has a track record for being reluctant to take his starter out until well into garbage time. The Ducks aren’t going to be doing anything cute like switching signal callers every other drive, or bringing in someone else to take snaps in short yardage situations. If it’s Shough’s job (and it is Shough’s job) then it will be Shough’s job alone.

We’re in talking about replacing Justin fricken Herbert, here, and while he leaves a shadow that it might take three or four average players to fill, the leadership needs to be clear, and Mario’s confidence needs to lie on the shoulders of one man. And that man is Tyler Shough.

As for the backup scenarios, Grad transfer Anthony Brown comes in from three years of valuable experience at Boston College and will absolutely add depth, knowledge, and competition to the QB Room. He’ll be seeing tougher week-to-week competition in the Pac-12 than he did in the ACC, but he has improved year after year in his college career.

But even with a long resume, Brown might not be the automatic second stringer.

What about dual-threat true freshman Robby Ashford? He hasn’t even set foot on campus as a student yet—not that early enrolling would have made much of a difference anyway this Spring—but Ashford’s late flip from SEC doormat, Ole Miss, raised some serious eyebrows.

The four-star from Hoover, AL, looks dynamic in all of his high school tape, and his mobility definitely fits in with the increase in quarterback rushing that we expect to see in the incoming Joe Moorhead offense.

Shough will be running a bit more than Herbert did, and you can expect that the title of QB2 will go to a running-positive passer, too.

That being said there has been some narrative swirling around that says we are getting a super-mobile QB with Anthony Brown, and I’m honestly not sure where that’s coming from.

Over the course of his three-year career at BC, Brown rushed 129 times for 423 yds and 4 TDs.

Those numbers aren’t much different from Herbert’s three season mark of 173 carries for 510 yds, 9 TDs.

(In fact, it’s kind of worse)

If people were cranky about how little Mario ran Justin “The Hero” Herbert, imagine how worked up they’ll get if when they find out that a one year grad transfer would get used almost identically?

Don’t sleep on young Ashford, is all I’m saying.

So, we know Shough is QB1. That’s easy. And the second string job might go to Brown early on based on experience, but don’t be surprised one bit if Ashford sneaks in there.

As for the rest of the QB Room, could the Ducks find themselves with an embarrassment of riches?

Early enrollee freshman Jay Butterfield got to be around Eugene and the program throughout Winter Term, but now he doesn't get a full session of Fall Practice, which would’ve been invaluable for him.

Redshirt freshman Cale Millen could be an extremely outside contender for the second string job too, but if he makes some serious progress this Summer, and find himself log jammed with two freshman, and a now a grad transfer, might he look to transfer in order to take advantage of all possible eligibility?

Pay close attention to how Millen gets used through the first 4-5 games of the year. And don’t be shocked if he decides to make whatever decision he has to make for his future. He’s a young talent for sure, and I hope Oregon can find a way to utilize him, but College Football today is all about getting your playing time as soon as you can, and nobody can blame anyone for looking for a better circumstance.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t look to head back to his home state of Washington, for his own sake.

Redshirt Sophomore Bradley Yaffe has yet to see any in-game action for the Ducks, and he might not see much more than that in 2020-21, but a fun fact about Yaffe is that he won a Lacrosse State Title in High School. So even if the unimaginable happened, and Oregon’s depth chart was whittled down by injury and transfer and acts of god, Brad is a proven winner, and I’d wholeheartedly trust him to take the reigns.

Next man up, right?

Go Ducks.