At this point, I am fine with playing DT ans starting his development. His growing pains cannot be that much worse than suffering through Masoli or Roper. We are basically waiting for any one of our three QBs to develop. Roper is the least-suited of the three for our offense and, in my opinion, has the least potential. That narrows it to Masoli and DT, and I like DT’s potential more.

…there simply is no good answer for the immediate future. I voted for Masoli – for this one game, because I believe he gives Oregon the best chance to win. If the Ducks drop this game, it’s time to start developing DT under fire. Arizona, Oregon State and hopefully a bowl game of some sort would be a nice set-up for him heading into 2009.

I’ll rehash a point I made earlier this week that was buried at the bottom of another long thread:

It’s on Chip and Mike to make a decision and develop one of these guys into a leader. No one quarterback has shown he has developed into a clear #1 starter. Each has had flashes. Each has looked terrible, or in the case of DT, raw. I think the entire program is at risk of slippage if the coaches aren’t willing to establish a clear pecking order for 2009 – which, in my humble opinion, starts with DT. Even if it means losing someone to a transfer.

Hold an open competition, flip a coin, roll a 27-sided dice, eat peyote and go on a spirit walk – I don’t f-ing care. Pick one guy who will get a significant majority of the reps, not only for his benefit, but for timing with the WRs, consistency with the RBs and cohesion with the O-line.

I hope we’re able to enjoy a strong finish to 2008 despite playing musical chairs at the QB position. Whatever the outcome, Spring ball should be very interesting. Definitive answers need to be made before the entire team suffers a crisis of confidence.

Just random info: Cody Kempt is 5-4, with 1368 passing yards 9 TDs, 12 INTs and a 105.2 QB rating. NO, I am not implying he was going be an answer for Oregon. Just saying it looks like transferring to Montana State was a good call on his part. He’s done okay and I’m glad for him.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about the Ducks this year (and it years past) is that you always had talent, but never had a leader out on the field. Last year, you finally had Dixon step up, pull his head out of his ass, and things happened for you. As soon as he went down, your season ended. Say what you will about the rest of the injuries, but you were playing just fine until DD went down.

People love to rag on Moevao about how he’s too short, doesn’t have a great arm, etc. But he get’s the most out of his teammates and everyone looks to him to be THE guy. Mike Belloti’s biggest problem is that he beats around the bush every week saying “oh I dunno who it’s gonna be this week. I’ll know at game time” as if it’s some grand scheme to destroy the other team’s game plan. Guess what MB, it doesn’t. Every defensive coordinator knows exactly what you’re going to try to do, no matter who’s at QB. It changes nothing. So pick a guy that everyone can look to. What happens when you have QB controversies is that 1/3 of the team follows one guy, 1/3 of the team follows the other, and the final 1/3 doesn’t know who to follow.

Why do you think Pete Carroll at the beginning of every spring says “this is our guy”? It’s not because he doesn’t have a treasure chest of talent to choose from; we all know he does. But he knows that the QB is the single most important player on the field because he is the leader.

people forget that masoli joined the team right before the season. not to mention when he joined the team he was probably number 4 (costa, roper, harper) so he got no time with the first unit. i think he has shown improvement and shown talent. although i do agree though if we lose this game the darron thomas era should begin.

How fickle have we become? Roper wasn’t too bad when he finally took the reigns seriously during the OSU game. He had good success, almost pulling that game out. We had a Sun Bowl victory where he threw for 4 TDs and was neck and neck with Costa to start. All Roper does is win games during his time as a starter and then gets injured. People complain that Roper isn’t a good fit because he can’t run the rock around, not being as mobile as others. Masoli gets limited time to start the year and is very mixed. Roper gets hurt at Purdue. Masoli takes over the job splitting time with Chris Harper for Boise State. Masoli gets knocked out due to a late hit. Harper doesn’t fit as a QB because he can’t throw during the Boise State game. DT’s redshirt is blown during garbage time and leads Oregon back, having a great performance (especially when compared to Harper for 3 quarters). Masoli comes back, has a bad game against USC, a good game against Washington State, a great game against ASU, a so-so game against UCLA and a bad game against Cal. Masoli gets hurt. Roper comes in during garbage time at Cal in obvious throwing downs. People no longer want Masoli in the game and want Darren Thomas to start because of his Boise State performance.

I guess I don’t get it anymore. Roper was doing ok in his games, Masoli has been ok during his games but not great (arguably harder teams) and DT hasn’t seen the field much outside of Boise State. I do know one thing. We can’t keep switching QB’s out every 2-3 games because one doesn’t perform as well as we would like during the last game. I’m a Roper guy and have been since last year. I’m all for having packages for each guy but Roper has moderate experience of the QBs and the best chance for us to be multi-dimensional between our running and passing games

He’s by far our most consistent skill player on offense, TJ Ward being his antipode on D.

It seems like when Roper is taking the snaps, we see more of the playbook. I think his injuries have stunted his progress but if he’s back to healthy, he gives the Ducks the best chance to win. Remember that Roper was in the mix to start in fall camp, well ahead of Masoli and Thomas.

Bigger picture, I fear that we are going to be debating quarterbacks for a long time to come. Add Costa to the mix in 2009 and we have a 4-headed monster. And if next year goes anything like this year, we’ll be having this same debate in 2010 as well.

I believe the last six Oregon QBs have cashed an NFL paycheck. That’s a hell of streak, but it may be coming to an end.

On the radio this morning, they were saying they were practicing a lot more with the passing game this week, and Masoli was throwing it down field better than Roper.