Athlon Sports: Oregon Football Will Lead With Quarterback Justin Herbert
Oregon Football begins a new season with a playmaking Quarterback in Justin Herbert that started to show his potential last season.
The Oregon Ducks will enter the 2018 season similar to how they did last season. While the team expectations will be high, Oregon Football begins the Mario Cristobal era with a new philosophy built on fundamentals and strength and conditioning. Athlon Sports sees the Oregon Ducks as the 23rd best team in the country to start the season in September.
Athlon Sports sees the Oregon Ducks behind USC, Stanford and an 8th Ranked Washington Huskies squad. Oregon will miss facing the USC Trojans in the regular season in 2018. Boise State is also ranked ahead of Oregon after beating them in the Las Vegas Bowl to end the 2017 season. Tabari Hines could play a key role as a transfer Wide Receiver. Oregon has four transfer players who will be eligible to play in 2018.
Last season, Royce Freeman saw a lot of the attention on Offense, but this season it will be on the shoulders of Quarterback Justin Herbert. The Ducks Junior Signal Caller was on the verge of a breakout season in 2017 before a shoulder injury kept him off the field for a key stretch of the year. Herbert did return to finish the year with over 2000 yards through the air. Backup Braxton Burmeister struggled, but gained valuable experience in Herbert’s absence.
Athlon Sports saw the potential with Justin Herbert last season and he is a Top Ten Signal Caller entering the 2018 campaign. Herbert will be the main focus for the Oregon Football Offense in 2018 with the departure of Royce Freeman to the NFL.
Washington Huskies Quarterback Jake Browning is slotted just ahead of Herbert on the list. Both Herbert and Browning will face off in Autzen Stadium this Fall. The last time Herbert faced Washington at Autzen Stadium, he was a Freshman and the Ducks suffered one of the worst home losses in their history under then Head Coach Mark Helfrich. I expect the meeting this season could bring a different outcome.
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The Oregon Ducks are in Summer Break with Fall Camp right around the corner.