Don’t expect freshman quarterback Cody Kempt to shy away from the pressure and limelight of the starting quarterback position.
All season, up to last week, Kempt has been listed on the bottom of the Ducks’ depth chart at quarterback. One could forgive him for being happy to just move into the backup role and get some reps with the top unit. After all, fans and some in the media have been calling for fellow freshman Justin Roper, who had been above him on the depth chart all season, since the Arizona game.
But depth charts and media buzz couldn’t put Roper into the starting role – that’s the coaches’ job – and Kempt’s performance at practice won him the position, said offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.
“No job here is just given to you. It’s not Little League where he’s playing because he’s the next guy up,” Kelly said. “We make an evaluation everyday at practice and if you’re performing on the practice field that’s just the way it is.”
Kempt saw his opportunity, grabbed hold, and doesn’t sound like he wants to let go. “I can get some more experience this week, hopefully pull out a win against Oregon State, and I still have three more years,” Kempt said. “There’s a shot I could play three more years here and that’s hard to find in the Pac-10 let alone the D-I level, a three-year starter, so I’m really excited for that.”
Patience has never been one of Kempt’s strengths, he said, and he has been chomping at the bit to see some action. Kempt was a PrepStar All-American and Rivals.com’s fifth-best recruit in Oregon coming out of Beaverton’s Westview High School, where he threw for nearly 1800 yards and 23 scores while rushing for 400 yards and five touchdowns his senior season.
“I’m not used to waiting around. In high school I was always playing, every game, so it’s been really tough,” Kempt said. “It’s taught me great patience and to stay positive and never give up or lose sight because anything can happen. As we’ve seen, anything is possible, and here I am right now in this situation … Every kid growing up wants to be in this situation. “
But it didn’t start well for Kempt, as he fumbled the ball on his second college snap Saturday, putting UCLA in position to score the first points of the game on a field goal.
“Definitely that’s not the ideal situation I’d like to happen for the second snap of my career, to fumble and put us in that situation,” Kempt said. “But I knew there was a lot of game left and I just had to stay positive … I realized that everyone makes mistakes and no one’s perfect so I just tried to stay as positive as I could and make up for that fumble the next time I got into the game.”
And while Kempt wouldn’t lead the Ducks to a single point in the game, coaches have said that he did some positive things with an offense that was doing a lot of other things wrong. Kelly said he was particularly pleased with how well he has picked up the read-option plays Oregon runs as a staple of its run offense. He said that the team’s lack of success with those plays against UCLA was a combination of what the Bruins did with their defensive alignment and some missed blocks on the perimeter by the Ducks.
“Sometimes it was a combination of we didn’t get the right block outside but the quarterback made the right read with the play. His deal, in running the play, I thought Cody did a decent job,” Kelly said. “They did a pretty good job of fitting the safety in defensively and we missed a couple of blocks on the perimeter but it wasn’t really Cody’s fault.”
“For the most part I was making my reads pretty well, I was on target most of the time,” Kempt said. “It seemed like, for the situation I was in, the atmosphere and everything… I did somewhat of a good job of stepping in and helping the team and being as much of a leader as I could.”
For an Oregon native to get a chance to make his first start in the Civil War is a big deal, Kempt said. But for him to play well, he feels like he needs to focus away from the rivalry to keep a clear head.
“It’s always huge, especially being an in-state kid and growing up most of my life here, I know a lot of people around the area and I know a lot of people on Oregon State’s team,” he said. “But I have to really try not to let all of that get to my head. I’m just going to try to really stay focused on the game, just prepare for them like it’s just another game and not let the whole Civil War rivalry get to me at all. I’m just going to go into it with great focus and preparation, go into it knowing we have to get a win.”
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