Dan Lanning addresses decision to play Bo Nix over Ty Thompson

As Georgia steadily beat back Oregon en route to a 49-3 win in Atlanta to open the season, new Oregon head coach Dan Lanning opted to stick with transfer quarterback Bo Nix for the entire game. With the result no longer a question, Lanning could’ve taken the opportunity to play backup Ty Thompson.

Lanning said he thought the offense was still moving the ball well and just didn’t finish in the red zone. He’s confident in the other quarterbacks, but maintained Nix is the starter for the Ducks.

“Yeah, Bo’s a leader and I think if you go back and look at our offense, they really moved the ball well. We just didn’t cap off our drives,” Lanning said. “Obviously the turnovers is something we don’t want to have. But we moved the ball down the field at times. We just didn’t finish drives. You get down to the red area, you’ve gotta score touchdowns. Not kick for field goals. You know, had a couple chances down there that we didn’t capitalize.”

Thompson, a redshirt freshman, was a five-star prospect out of Arizona and the No. 6 quarterback prospect in the 2021 class according to the On3 Consensus rankings. He sat behind Anthony Brown, a Boston College transfer, last season, and now finds himself backing up Nix, a transfer from Auburn.

Lanning knows Thompson provides plenty of upside for Oregon, but was mum on the chances of him or another quarterback seeing game action any time soon.

“Bo’s going to go evaluate himself,” Lanning said. “We have other quarterbacks on our team that obviously can compete, as well. But Bo’s our quarterback. Bo did a good job today of handling some adverse situations. But he’s also going to figure out how can he improve. Just like we can as a staff.”