10 days till Duck football. Practicing behind barbed wire and closed doors, the only impression fans get of the team’s progress is in interviews and sound bites. Tomorrow is the last scrimmage of fall camp, a key one for evaluating players, especially in closely-watched position battles like quarterback. On Friday they announce the depth chart. Saturday begins the week of preparation for the first opponent, Gus Malzahn and Arkansas State.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gfUJOs9iXmQ
Running with the Red Wolves, Wildcats, Cougars, Huskies and Bears, Chip Kelly is a decisive guy. Walk throughs are precise, decisions are careful and emphatic. He’s never had trouble with 4th and goal or a call on who starts, and it isn’t likely he’ll waver now. Mike Bellotti used to drive Duck fans crazy with quarterback platoons. He waffle-souled over Brady Leaf and Dennis Dixon for Ducks sakes, going with first one and the other even late in their junior year. Leaf was on the field on the last drive when they lost the Holiday Bowl to Oklahoma, a Schooner linebacker making a spectacular fingertip grab for an interception to preserve the win. It wasn’t Dixon’s job to keep until Kelly came. After a summer in minor league baseball DD dazzled in fall camp, then baffled Michigan in the Big House. Sometimes position battles bring out the best in players. Dennis took the Ducks within a twisted knee of their first national championship, guiding a loaded team that gunned down USC and undefeated Arizona State before a bizarre trip to the Arizona Zoo.
Two years ago, Nate Costa was the poised and experienced senior leader, deft and in command in interviews. Darron Thomas won the job, though, and cemented his hold on it with early comeback wins over Tennessee and in Tempe. Kirk Herbstreit, who gets to attend practice when he comes to town, says this year Marcus Mariota will win a Herbie and the job, but Kelly insists his friend doesn’t have any inside knowledge, though the coach joked he’ll make a conference call to Bristol before putting together the depth chart.
When camp began it looked like Bennett would keep it. He had a year longer in the program and looked good in an extended audition last season. He won two games off the bench and started one in between, beating the Sun Devils with a second-half rally, managing the offense capably in a rout of undermanned Colorado, and reviving a lethargic and sputtering offense coming off the bench against Washington State. Darron Thomas had looked rusty and out of synch returning after his injury; the Ducks only led 15-10 at halftime. Bennett tossed a couple of touchdowns and ran four times for 25 yards as the Webfoots put together three scoring drives and The Black Mamba’s 93-yard kickoff return to put away the pesky Cougs 43-28 in a game that was a little closer than it was supposed to be at midseason, the banged-up Ducks winning by the margin a successful fake PAT, DAT’s electrifying return and Bo Lokombo’s first quarter, 25-yard scamper with a blocked punt. At quarterback the visibly gimpy Darron Thomas had only managed one scoring drive against two picks, but he rallied the next week with a strong performance against the Huskies in Seattle.
In all as a redshirt freshman Bennett looked very capable, with six touchdowns and no interceptions, running nimbly with a gaudy 8.7-yard average per carry. He could throw downfield and avoided mistakes, and the whispers were his steady progress, as well as Marcus Mariota’s evident future brilliance, hastened Thomas’ unexpected decision to opt for the NFL draft last January. For the fourth time in Chip Kelly’s brief tenure he would have a quarterback decision. The first three, Dixon over Leaf as offensive coordinator, Masoli over Roper in his first year as head coach, Thomas over Costa in the national championship game year, turned out great. The Ducks became a fixture in the Top Ten, winning three conference championships.
This decision could be the most important. The Ducks have a soft schedule and a loaded lineup, and if they can prevail against the overrated and depth-shy USC Trojans on November 3rd, they’ll be solid favorites in all the rest of their games. The offensive line is strong and experienced. The skill positions are stocked with playmakers, and Bralon Addison and Byron Marshall will infuse some additional spark. Colt Lyerla, back in camp and huffing and puffing a bit, has reportedly mastered the playbook and seized control of the tight end job. The defense is deep, snarling and athletic. All that’s needed is for the team to remain healthy and focused, and for one of the quarterbacks to separate himself and get comfortable and in command over the season’s first four games.
If it were my dime and it isn’t, I’d play both. Conventional wisdom says if you have two starting quarterbacks you haven’t got one, but this is a unique situation. Neither quarterback is a mop-up man. Bennett looked solid and promising in his extended audition last fall, and as a two-time camp counselor at The Manning Passing Academy. He’s succeeded in this kind of pressure before, taking over from an injured Kevin Prince at Crespi High in the season’s first game as a raw sophomore, leading his team to the state championship. Though a step slower than Mariota he’s no slouch as an athlete, a high school long jump champion, a gym rat who spends long hours in the film room and summer 7-on-7, with a powerful arm. Every year since Kellen Clemens the Ducks have needed at least two quarterbacks to complete a season; in 2007 and 2008 they needed five.
Mariota has star power. He exudes confidence and cool, and has that laid-back island attitude that would rub off on his teammates. In the end that, along with his speed and dual-threat exceptional ability, great touch and decision-making, means he probably wins the job. But you hate to sit the guy who played very capably in 8 games, partly because of the possibility of losing him to another opportunity. Ryan Katz, demoted to #2 last season by the Beavers and Mike Riley, is starting in a couple of weeks for San Diego State. Quarterbacks are hard to find.
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