There are always expectations that come with being a top recruit. Expectations of awards, accolades and championships. These are only elevated when you win Alabama’s Mr. Football Award after your senior season of high school and being a quarterback at Auburn is in your blood.
Enter Bo Nix, five-star recruit and son of former Tigers’ quarterback Patrick Nix — no pressure, kid.
“My initial college football dream was simply to play football at Auburn, beat Alabama and win a national championship,” Nix said in an interview with Yogi Roth. “Growing up that’s all I wanted to do. My dad got to do it so that gave me perspective that maybe I could do it.”
However, playing at Auburn wasn’t the fairy tale that Nix had envisioned as a kid. Nix’s career as a Tiger was full of injuries and ideas of what Nix could be. At one point in his last year at Auburn, Nix was benched weeks before suffering a season-ending injury. It was time for a change for the once highly touted prospect.
Enter UO and former offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham.
Dillingham — who was Nix’s offensive coordinator at Auburn — was a primary factor in Nix’s recruitment to Eugene.
“Why not Oregon? That’s what I told a lot of people, they always have great talent, always well coached and in a good conference,” Nix said before last season to GoDucks. “When Coach Dillingham got the job [as UO’s offensive coordinator], we already had that connection. Already had a great relationship when he coached me back in the past.”
Nix had a breakout season for the ages, combining for 43 total touchdowns. He led Oregon to a 10-3 record in his first season in Eugene.
“This school has changed my life,” Nix said in the same interview. “This school just gave me an opportunity to be myself again and get out of the spotlight of ‘you’re playing because your dad played here’ or ‘you are only doing it because you are an Auburn fan’ or this and that. But now I can just go do it because I love playing quarterback.”
Although Dillingham left for the head coaching job at Arizona State at the end of the 2022 season, Nix announced that he would return for his fifth and final season of eligibility at the helm, with pre-season hoopla of Bo-Dacious posters littering a Heisman campaign across the country. Nix’s second season at Oregon had immense hype around it, and his second act has been even better.
Through Week 12, Nix has combined for 40 total touchdowns to just two interceptions. His 77.7% completion percentage is the best in the country.
“He just prepares every single day the same, in and out, same juice, same fire, same love [and] same compassion,” center Jackson Powers-Johnson said. “Bo’s the same every day.”
In Oregon’s Week 11 victory over USC, Nix outdueled reigning Heisman-trophy winner Caleb Williams adding four touchdowns on 412 yards passing.
“That was a Heisman trophy performance from Bo Nix,” Lanning said after the USC game.
Now the newly crowned all-time leader in collegiate starts by a quarterback, there’s little Nix hasn’t seen on the football field.
“He’s a field general out there, I’ve got nothing but respect for the guy,” Arizona State defensive lineman Dashaun Mallory said after Oregon’s win to SunDevilSource Video. “He obviously was controlling the entire game, from the first snap to the last snap, and I mean, I’ll give respect where respect is due, and Bo Nix is just that guy.”
Behind Nix, Oregon is 10-1. The Ducks — the nation’s highest-ranked one-loss team — are just one win away from a Pac-12 championship berth.
“It’s exciting to see where we’ve come, where we were and how far we’ve gone,” Nix said after the Ducks’ win over Dillingham’s Sun Devils. “Just to know that there’s probably even more we can do better at. I think that’s what keeps us going back to practice on Monday.”
Once heralded as a savior for an SEC program, Nix has found his collegiate success 2,500 miles away.
“It was always Oregon, everything always pointed to Oregon,” Nix said. “I don’t think I could have made a better decision.”
Now the betting favorite to win the Heisman, Bo Nix is everything he was supposed to be.
