Darron Thomas is Oregon’s most solid, well-rounded, bonafide returning starting quarterback since Kellen Clemens. It’s a luxury the Ducks haven’t had in a long while, a clear starter with no glaring liabilities, a guy who’d already won the job and established himself as a leader. Playing an elite school in game one, it’s vital to know who the guy is and what he can do.
Dennis Dixon turned out great in ’07 but he hadn’t had a big year the year before, and they were still questions about him in August. He’d spent the summer playing baseball, divided time in 2006 with Brady Leaf. Few people outside of offensive coordinator Chip Kelly knew how special he’d be running Oregon’s spread, how right he was for the number one job. Dennis buried all the doubts in a hurry. He burst free for an 80-yard run in the opener against Houston, and lit up Michigan in the Big House. With the quickness, the ball handling, the reliable arm and cool leadership, he was one agonizing freak injury from completing the dream, cleats caught in the turf while running out the clock against ASU. Until that happened the ’07 Ducks were the best Oregon team ever. Dixon would have won a Heisman and a National Championship. He almost did it on one leg. I’ll never forget him embracing Mike Bellotti on the sideline. We tried, man. We gave it everything we had.
Nobody was sold on Roper in ’08. He’d done a decent job in the Sun Bowl, but he wasn’t anybody to get excited about. Solid and unspectacular, with a loping stride that didn’t make anyone forget Dixon. Masoli was the clear starter going into ’09, but he was short and erratic. We learned how erratic at Boise State, then in the Rose Bowl, then again at the fraternity house, then once more on the way to 7-11. Masoli had chutzpah in spades, hearts and clubs, but he wasn’t a complete quarterback. Great in the zone read, but all over the place throwing the ball. Opponents could disrupt him, and finally he disrupted himself.
2010, no one knew who the starter would be. Thomas was talented, but young and inexperienced. Nate had the leadership ability and poise, but suspect knees. They dueled for three weeks of camp. Kelly was silent while the fanbase raged. Thomas has more upside! No, the Ducks need maturity and a game-manager! Kelly chose Thomas. The athletic department sent it out in a tweet. The Ducks went back to work. You knew Kelly had made the right decision when they got to Tennessee. Down 13-3 before 103,000 on the road, and Thomas throws two touchdowns with a defender in his face, taking a shot each time. Kelly calls him the toughest quarterback he’s ever coached. The kid even threw a block on LaMichael James’ 72-yard touchdown run. He had it, the competitiveness, the ability to absorb things quickly and the commitment to improve every week. They beat Stanford after going down 21-3. Thomas was a real leader and a student of the game. He met every challenge, and when he went down for three quarters against Washington State, the mature, reliable Costa was ready too, doing his job off the bench. Duck fans know the rest. 12-0, a second PAC-10 title, coming up just short in the national title game.
A winter, a spring and a summer later, and Thomas has done all the right things. He’s led in the weight room and in spring drills. He ran summer 7-on-7, a fixture every day, putting the young receivers through a crash course in Oregon football. They took their cue from his work ethic, and the passing combinations reportedly made great progress. Blackmon and the Black Momba looked ready to step in and fill the holes in the passing offense.
As a first-year sophomore starter Darron Thomas threw for 2881 yards and threw 30 touchdowns. He ran for another 486 and 5 more scores, capably running the zone-read, keeping good care of the football, and providing enough of a threat to defenses that they’d pay if they crashed in on James. He was an effective counterpunch, and exploited opponents who put eight in the box. He handled the pressure and responsibility, beautifully. Now he’s 12-1 as a starter.
Thomas gained 10 lbs. and worked on his footwork. He’s grown more comfortable in the leadership role, firmly established as the man and the identity of the program, which frees LaMichael James to just run and score touchdowns. LMJ’s not a talker, not one for headsets and press conferences. He does them, and he’s cordial and thoughtful, but the spotlight isn’t something he relishes, unless it’s doing the frogjump of joy in the end zone. LaMichael just wants to play football. He doesn’t want to have to explain it, although he can. Now Thomas is the leader, and he can just be the running back.
Darron’s development will push the coaches toward more balance in the offense. He’s proved he can handle having the game on his back, throwing 40 times if the situation dictates it. The supposed blueprint for stopping Oregon is to penetrate and disrupt and stop the run, to overcommit and shoot and stunt, spoil the timing of the zone read. Thomas, more consistent, more confident, and more assertive, can punish that strategy by stretching the defense sideline-to-sideline and vertically. Defenders will have to stay home. As in investments, diversity is strength. You can’t stop what you can’t contain, and speed trumps all schemes and blueprints. Darron Thomas has become the perfect triggerman for the Oregon offense, a smooth passer, a capable and poised decision-maker, tall enough and fast enough and athletic enough and tough enough and durable enough to do everything that’s asked of him and things you never expected. Thomas is the starter, and he’s one of the best in the country with two years to play, surrounded by speed and talent.
Read the position previews everywhere from Athlon to the Register-Guard, and somewhere everyone of them will say something like, “If Darron Thomas goes down, all bets are off for this team” or “the Ducks are in trouble” or “expectations will have to be severely adjusted.” Utter nonsense, for a number of reasons. First of all that is equally true for nearly every team in the Top 50 of college football, true of Oklahoma and Landry Jones, true of Matt Barkley and USC, or Stanford and Andrew Luck. Losing a starting quarterback is ruin and misery for a dream season. See Dennis Dixon, above. The talent to lead and inspire a football team the way a great quarterback can is not easily duplicated, or compensated for. That’s why whole websites and million-dollar camps are devoted to finding guys like these. They’re rare. They’re a product of fast-twitch fibers and a cool and efficient central processor, gifted with the ability to make a dozen instantaneous decisions in the midst of mayhem. There’s a reason why they got the job, the girl, and the picture on the magazine cover. Few people can do what they do.
That said, the Ducks are in better shape than most for the unthinkable negative hypothetical. Bryan Bennett hasn’t played a down of college football, but at 6-2, 205 the Manning Passing Camp counselor has the right physical tools for the job, and he throws a good ball and is coachable. He’s an athlete, a long-jumper and triple jumper in high school, with a 32.5-inch verticle leap. He gets around the corner quicker than Thomas, and is actually a better thrower. It’s too early to tell if he can develop Thomas-like courage and poise in the pocket, because he hasn’t been tested. Which doesn’t mean he’ll fail: in high school he faced the same situation, the ultimate negative hypothetical become crashing reality. 5-star senior quarterback Kevin Prince goes down with a knee injury in the first game at Crespi High, and Bryan Bennett, a sophomore with just one year on the freshman team, becomes the instant starter. Toss seven hurried warmup balls and go in. Sprint to the huddle for the Sunshine Moment. Bennett goes on to pass for 2,133 yard and 17 touchdowns, and Crespi makes it all the way to the state championship game against Long Beach Poly.
Duck fans hope Thomas plays 14 games and doesn’t miss a play, other than the mopup time necessary to groom Bennett for a distant future. They hope Marcus Mariota can complete a successful, learning-enriched redshirt season without ever having to make a hurried warmup throw in a real game. But whoever finishes the season the Ducks’ quarterback has two unassailable assets: Kenjon Barner and LaMichael James to hand off to, and Chip Kelly’s hand on their shoulder. No bets are off. The Ducks will compete with their starter, and they’ll just double their resolve if one of the youngsters has to become the family breadwinner way too soon.
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