Oregon Ducks 2017 Football Preview

When Oregon hired Willie Taggart, I have to admit that my first thought was that Oregon was going to stop being, well, Oregon. I wasn’t thinking about the 250 random uniform combinations that Nike provides the Ducks equipment staff; I was thinking about the breakage from the Chip Kelly offensive philosophy that turned Oregon into one of the most lethal offenses in college football.

Turns out that my first impression was a little dated. Sure, Taggart’s offensive philosophy originally was rather traditional with a lot of pro-style, West Coast concepts, as it was in his days at Stanford. But then he decided to modernize things, first with the shotgun formation. Once he got his quarterback out from under center, he quickly realized how that opened up his offense to do so much more. Out went the fullbacks and tight end-heavy formations; in came more spread concepts. Taggart went out and studied the best in modern offenses: Baylor, Clemson and, yes, Oregon.

The transition from Helfrich to Taggart on offense should be more evolutionary than revolutionary; they have the pieces to do what Taggart has been doing recently on offense. Sophomore Justin Herbert (6’6″ 215 lbs.) took over for graduate transfer Dakota Prukop in October last season and despite the Ducks struggles, never relinquished the job back. Herbert is more of a pass-first, run-second quarterback; he rushed 58 times for 161 yards and two touchdowns last season. Through the air, he completed over 63% of his passes for 1,936 yards and 19 touchdowns with just four interceptions; in three of his seven starts, Herbert hit the 70% completion percentage. After the spring game, Taggart refused to name Herbert the starting quarterback despite the sophomore clearly outplaying the competition that day. For what it’s worth, leading receiver Darren Carrington didn’t hesitate to name Herbert the starter over sophomore Travis Jonsen (6’3″ 200 lbs.) or early enrollee Braxton Burmeister (6’1″ 205 lbs.). Reportedly, Jonsen has now decided to transfer to a junior college in California, following former Nebraska commit Terry Wilson’s choice to transfer to Garden City (KS) Community College in May.

Running back Royce Freeman’s junior season seemed to crash in the second quarter against the Huskers with a leg injury. Going into week three, Freeman was ranked seventh in the nation in rushing, but Freeman limped through the season, rushing only for 945 yards and nine touchdowns, half of the results of his sophomore season. The 5’11″ 230 pound back flirted with declaring for the NFL draft, but decided to return for his senior season. While Freeman was nursing his injuries, junior Tony Brooks-James (5’9″ 185 lbs.) rushed for 771 yards on just 101 carries with nine touchdowns and senior Kani Benoit (6’0″ 201 lbs.) added 300 yards and three touchdowns. This very well could be the best running back corps in the Pac-12 this season; some think that any of these guys could start at most other conference schools.