Four and a half months ago, Oregon quarterback Dakota Prukop got to showcase his knowledge and command of the Oregon offense for the first time.
It was the Ducks’ 2016 spring game and Prukop, a senior transfer from FCS Montana State, finished the game by going 20-of-29 for 190 yards and two scores. Prukop didn’t show much in the game, gaining most of his completions on check-downs.
Fast forward to present and it’s evident that Prukop is now mastering the Ducks’ high-flying, tempo-pushing offense.
“Great, great,” was offensive coordinator Matt Lubick’s response regarding Prukop’s command of the offense. “He’s making good decisions — he’s very coachable so he does what you ask him to do and he takes what the defense gives him.”
In his second start of the season, Prukop finished Oregon’s 44-26 victory against over-matched Virginia with 331 yards and three scores on 21-of-31 passing. The Ducks had 632 yards of total offense in the win, averaging 8.3 yards per play and converting 9-of-14 third-downs. Prukop has thrown for six touchdowns on the year, each of which has gone to a different receiver.
“One of our philosophies on offense is we are going to get a team horizontal, we are going to use tempo,” Prukop said. “When you stretch them horizontally and then have vertical threats like we do, it pulls on defenses every which way.”
Prukop likens his game to that of a point guard in basketball. He wants to control the tempo that Oregon plays at, forcing opponents to waver under the speed of the game. He spreads the ball around to each open receiver he sees, never focusing on just one guy for an extended period of time.
Since the Ducks have arguably the deepest and most talented group of playmakers in the nation, it’s safe to say that Prukop’s ability get the ball out quick and make the right reads has been a winning formula.
‘It’s really easy to make the right play when you have skill players like that around you,” Prukop said. “If I kind of want to get risky here and take this shot, it’s almost like nine times out of 10 that they’re going to make that play — it makes my job really easy.”
What made last Saturday’s victory so enthralling for Oregon was the way Prukop handled certain situations.
With the Ducks on their own one-yard line, Prukop faked a handoff to Royce Freeman and ran diagonally right. Just before he was tackled, Prukop pitched the ball to Dwayne Stanford, allowing the receiver to pick up an extra 14 yards and push the ball out to the 24.
Later in the drive, facing a third-and-36, Prukop had Olympic receiver Devon Allen matched up one-on-one and took a chance on the speedster, connecting for a 55-yard gain and breathing life into the Oregon offense.
In the third quarter, on third-and-12, Prukop stood tall in a collapsing pocket and threw a 77-yard bomb to Allen for a touchdown, putting the game out of reach. Instead of taking off and running with the ball, Prukop trusted that Allen would be open and held on until the very last second before he was walloped by an oncoming Virginia lineman.
“When you have receivers out on the edge like that, if you can hold it for an extra second, buy a little more time for them, they will get themselves open,” Prukop said. “Just to be able to trust a guy and say ‘hey it’s third-and-36, I’m going to throw it as far as I can and see what happens’, makes this offense special.”
Prukop understands how talented his teammates are. He doesn’t have to account for 500 yards of total offense or run the ball 28 times to be effective like he did at Montana State. All he has to do is trust his teammates and trust in himself.
Follow Ryan Kostecka on Twitter @Ryan_Kostecka