Graduate transfer quarterback Dakota Prukop has been on Oregon’s campus taking classes since early January. Still, anytime he steps foot inside one of its world-class athletic facilities, he looks around and pinches himself.
“Man, it’s such an amazing place,” he said following the Ducks’ first practice of the spring football season Tuesday. “It’s a place of opportunity. It’s a place that you just feel you can have success here.”
Prukop appeared confident and well-spoken Tuesday. Despite being largely under-recruited in high school — a late bloomer, he said himself he “was way behind” his peers — Prukop put up massive numbers in two seasons as a starter for FCS school Montana State University. In 2014, he threw for 2,559 yards and 18 touchdowns and ran for 946 yards and 13 touchdowns. In 2015, he passed for 3,025 yards and 28 touchdowns and rushed for 797 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Since arriving in Eugene, Prukop has gone out of his way to make a strong first impression. Head coach Mark Helfrich said Prukop has been around the football offices “a ton,” getting to know the offensive system, as well as the coaches and players. He’s spent much of his time hanging out with running back Kani Benoit and offensive lineman Cameron Hunt. He’s developed strong rapports with running back Taj Griffin and tight end Pharaoh Brown.
For Prukop, the first few practices aren’t about establishing himself into a leadership role. They’re about observing how the team is accepting him. He said the team has been “extremely welcoming.”
“As far as a leadership role, it is where it can be right now,” he said. “Right now, I’ve got to develop personal relationships with each of the guys, and I think I’ve accomplished that a little bit today.”
According to Helfrich, with the quarterbacks in particular, the first few practices are about “finding out how they respond to things and what motivates them.” He declined to say Prukop was the frontrunner for the starting job.
“There’s not a big gap [between Prukop and the other quarterbacks], really, after day one,” Helfrich said. “The biggest thing is just those guys knowing that [the quarterbacks] have to run the show.”
New quarterbacks coach Dave Yost described Prukop as “very talented.” He said Prukop in practice today was “pushing himself to probably do a little too much too fast,” although he expected that.
“‘Be quick, but don’t be in a hurry’ is kind of a good motto for him because he wants to do all 75 things a quarterback does on every play. Let’s just do the first five or six right, and all the other things will come.”
Prukop has big shoes to fill. His arrival in Eugene comes the season after Oregon used Vernon Adams Jr., another FCS graduate-transfer, to fill the void Heisman-winner Marcus Mariota left behind at quarterback. Adams, despite missing playing time in several games due to injury, was the nation’s most efficient passer. He led the Ducks to a 9-4 season and 47-41 triple-overtime loss in the 2016 Valero Alamo Bowl, a game he left due to a head injury after building a 31-0 second-quarter lead.
Prukop embraces the program’s high expectations. He declined offers from Alabama, Texas, Michigan and other top football programs to play for the Ducks in 2016.
“I came here because this is a team that expects to win a national championship,” Prukop said. “… This is a team that expects to be No. 1, and without that expectation, you can’t be No. 1.”
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Quarterback Dakota Prukop addresses the media for the first time as a Duck following Oregon’s first spring football practice of 2016. (Kenny Jacoby/Emerald)