Oregon's Bo Nix named a finalist for Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award
Oregon star quarterback Bo Nix has landed on the shortlist of finalists for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award.
The award is issued annually to the top quarterback in the country who is either a senior or redshirt junior. This marks the second year in a row that Nix has been named a finalist for the award.
LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy, Washington’s Michael Penix Jr., Florida State’s Jordan Travis, Washington State’s Cameron Ward and USC’s Caleb Williams were also incouded among the list of finalists.
Last season, Max Duggan of TCU won the award. Former Oregon star Marcus Mariota won the award in 2014.
In his second season with the Ducks, Nix leads the nation with a 78.3 completion percentage and is currently on pace to break the NCAA single-season record of 77.4 held by Mac Jones (2020, Alabama).
Through eight games, he has thrown for 2,337 yards, 21 touchdowns, and one interception. He has also rushed for 113 yards and three touchdowns.
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“I’m going to say it again — Bo Nix is the best quarterback in the nation just to be really clear,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said following the Ducks’ win over Utah last Saturday. “I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. And again, it’s not just the plays he makes on the field. I think a lot of people talk about chasing stats and all these things. This guy just plays consistently. He gets us in the right calls. He comes to the sideline and helps us through adjustments. He tells us what he sees. He’s an unbelievable person. When you have a good team like we have, and we have a quarterback like we have, that’s a special recipe for success.”
During his Monday press conference, Lanning spoke in detail about the the pre-snap work that Nix does on a game-to-game basis in order to get Oregon’s offense into the right looks.
“I’ve never been around a quarterback like Bo that understands what we’re trying to accomplish so well,” Lanning said. “And there are times that we’re there as a coaching staff on the sidelines saying, ‘Okay, wait, wait, what did he check into? Oh, all right. Good, that works.’ He gets it right a lot more often than not. And that was a look that we had worked a lot because it’s a tough pressure to deal with. And we felt like we had a really good answer if we saw it. I thought our coaching staff and the players on the field had a really clear indication of exactly what we wanted to accomplish if we saw that look.
Nix and the No. 6 Ducks (7-1, 4-1 Pac-12) will host Cal in Eugene this weekend before setting their sights on a marquee Week 11 showdown with USC.
