Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti named sophomore junior college transfer Jeremiah Masoli the starting quarterback against Boise State on Saturday, over touted freshman Chris Harper.
Or maybe not.
“I’d say Jeremiah is probably the starter, but, depending on what the first play is, he might not start,” Bellotti told reporters Tuesday.
The one consistency within Bellotti’s remarks is that – as with the Washington and Utah State games – both players are likely to take snaps. To date, the pair have combined to throw for 233 yards on 20 of 34 passes and run for 110 yards on 27 carries (102 of which belong to Harper). Saturday will still be a landmark in their young careers, as neither Harper nor Masoli has made a start in an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision game.
Quarterback Justin Roper is out against Boise State with a partially torn medial collateral ligament and is expected to miss between two and four weeks, though he is not officially ruled out for the Sept. 27 contest against Washington State. Bellotti has alluded to a possible three-man competition for the starting quarterback job upon Roper’s return to health.
At the helm of the City College of San Francisco offense last year, Masoli completed 214 of 349 passes for 3,065 yards with 26 touchdowns and three interceptions en route to the junior college national championship. He has a strong arm despite a slighter-than-desirable build (5-foot-11, 214 pounds), but his completion percentage (57.1 percent) likely needs improvement if he wants to hold onto the starting job.
Harper, a native of Wichita, Kan., became the ultimate teaser for Duck fans when he carried the ball for 60 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries against Washington from the quarterback position – without throwing a single pass. While blowing out Utah State, Harper saw extended snaps and threw short passes, completing four of six for 40 yards and a touchdown. Oregon offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is expected to be similarly restricting against Boise State, continuing Harper’s role as a change-of-pace quarterback for designed running plays.
The biggest controversies surrounding Kelly and Bellotti’s newest quarterbacking dilemma are going beyond the players. The rejuvenation of the two-quarterback system within the Oregon offense (albeit with clearly-defined roles) is seen as a throwback to past experiments by the Oregon coaching staff with two quarterbacks, the latest example being Dennis Dixon and Brady Leaf splitting time in 2006. Roper’s injury, meanwhile, is seen as the continuation of an alarming trend among Oregon quarterbacks and, by extension, quarterbacks in the spread offense. Roper had come into the 2007 season listed fifth on the Ducks depth chart, and Masoli came into the Washington game listed third.
[email protected]