Oregon Football: We should see healthy dose of Ty Thompson vs. Arizona

Through three weeks, it seems like just about every important player has made an appearance on Oregon football’s injury report.

Kayvon Thibodeaux was injured in the opener against Fresno State and has still yet to return, Justin Flowe broke his foot and could miss the rest of the year, both players’ replacements have been banged up, and Anthony Brown left the Stony Brook game at halftime, giving way to freshman quarterback Ty Thompson.

CJ Verdell missed some time in the spring, Troy Franklin has been banged up a bit, Devon Williams has been battling back, Cam McCormick and Patrick Herbert are out at tight end, and the linebacking corps have been bitten by the injury bug a bit as well.

But the Brown injury was a little concerning right away because the Ducks were only up 10 on Stony Brook at the half and they would be forced to rely on an unproven true freshman who had never taken a live snap before.

Fortunately, Thompson looked really good, completing 6-of-9 passes for 82 yards and two touchdowns, extending the lead over the Seawolves which eventually concluded at 41 points.

With winless Arizona coming to town and Brown being “good to go” per Mario Cristobal, one has to wonder if the head coach is going to give his true freshman quarterback more run on Saturday night. The Wildcats are the worst team in the Pac-12 and there’s no need to rush Brown back if he could rest another week. Or even if he does play, maybe take him out at halftime again if the lead is comfortable enough.

We should see a healthy heaping of Thompson against the Wildcats.

Thompson has proven himself with Oregon football

Week 3 was a big test for Thompson despite the opponent not exactly being top-tier, but he entered the game with just a 10-point lead and 30 minutes left to play and did nothing but build on the lead. He drove Oregon down the field a few times, leading to touchdowns and a 41-point win over Stony Brook.

Thompson looked calm and didn’t panic despite getting a little more playing time in a pressure situation than he expected and he took advantage of the opportunity.

He could do the same against Arizona on Saturday night.

The Wildcats have been really bad this season and they haven’t even faced a Power Five team yet. They lost to BYU in the season opener, got smacked around by San Diego State, and then lost a heart-breaker at home to Northern Arizona of the FCS.

Thompson should get plenty of snaps on Saturday.