Oregon quarterback battle still ongoing ahead of Ducks' second fall scrimmage
Kenny Dillingham isn’t ready to say at this point if Oregon will know enough by this weekend to decide on its starting quarterback.
The Ducks are just over two weeks away from their season-opening matchup with Georgia at Mercedes Benz Stadium, and their starting quarterback competition is still very much ongoing. Dillingham, Oregon’s offensive coordinator, was asked on Friday if 13 fall practices and 15 spring practices have left him with enough “data points” to decide who is best suited to lead his offense.
“To be honest, I don’t know,” Dillingham said. “I think that’s just gonna happen when it happens.”
At this point, Jay Butterfield, Bo Nix, and Ty Thompson are all still competing to be Oregon’s No. 1 signal-caller. The Ducks will hold their second scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday.
When asked what questions he still needs to have answered in order to decide which of those three will be his starter, Dillingham was fairly unspecific in his response.
“I think guys just continuing to operate, and what guys can be consistent,” Dillingham said. “We’re always talking about if you want to be a great player, if you want to be counted on, you’ve got to be consistent. So, we’re looking for consistency across the entire board.
“This is only our second scrimmage, so we’re excited to see what players can show up again and be consistent when the lights are on.”
Following Oregon’s first scrimmage of fall camp last Saturday, Oregon coach Dan Lanning said none of his three quarterbacks have necessarily separated themselves as the frontrunner.
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On Friday Dillingham was asked in which areas he wants to see his quarterbacks make quick improvements.
“Operating. When bad things happen, do you make a bad play worse?” Dillingham said. “That’s what makes great quarterbacks. Not necessarily the great plays that make Sportscenter. But do your bad plays make SportsCenter? When your bad plays don’t make SportsCenter, that’s when you’re a great quarterback.”
Dillingham also noted that he wants to see the offense as a whole play with better tempo during Saturday’s scrimmage.
“I wanna improve on our tempo; we’re not playing at a very fast pace right now,” Dillingham said. “It’s not really who we are, but we’ve gotta play a little bit faster.”
