Bo Nix labeled a 'touchdown machine'

The Pac-12 is littered with great college quarterbacks in 2023. Led by reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, Oregon‘s Bo Nix doesn’t fall too far behind the nation’s top player.

On3’s Andy Staples joined Pardon My Take to preview the upcoming college football season and had high praise for Nix and the Oregon Ducks. Remaining healthy and cleaning up a few mistakes from last season might be all it takes to put him on the same level as his Pac-12 counterpart.

“He was putting it together last year,” Staples said. “This was amazing to me because I saw this stat late in the season. I started comparing it because I thought this couldn’t be real. His stats going into the Washington game last year — that was the one he got dinged up in and they ended up losing — his stats going into that game were almost identical to Marcus Mariota during his Heisman season, and that was a dominant performance from Marcus Mariota.

“Bo is a touchdown machine and yeah, he’s definitely matured. The ‘Good Bo,’ ‘Bad Bo,’ we saw at Auburn — there’s a lot less of ‘Bad Bo.’ I like Oregon a lot. … They have some guys that look like they can compete against anybody.”

During Mariota’s Heisman Trophy season, he threw for 3,783 yards and 38 touchdowns to go with two interceptions. His 53 total touchdowns tied Oklahoma‘s Sam Bradford for the most in Heisman history at the time.

Nix didn’t end up equaling those numbers from the Oregon great, but still managed to set career highs across the board in his first season at Oregon to finish with a passer rating of 165.7. His completion percentage of 71.9 percent was more than 10 percent higher than any other season in his career to rank second in the country. He passed for 3,593 yards, 29 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

He led the Ducks to an 8-1 start to the season and had them receiving College Football Playoff consideration in early November as they climbed as high as No. 6 in the rankings. However, they went 1-2 in their final three games of the regular season, dropping contests to Washington and Oregon State to fall out of the Pac-12 title race.

Nix will look to avenge those losses during the 2023 season and take the Ducks back to the Pac-12 Championship game for the fourth time in five years. From there, it’s up to Oregon to earn their title and punch their ticket to — at the minimum — a Rose Bowl. 

Oregon will kick the new season off on Sept. 2 at home against Portland State.