With Marcus Mariota off to the NFL a year early, Oregon needs a new starting quarterback next season, and it might have found its man Monday.
Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams, one of the top quarterbacks in the FCS last season, announced via Twitter that he is transferring to the Ducks. He will have immediate eligibility as a graduate student and, with the lack of serious competition at Oregon, figures to be the favorite to win the starting job next season.
Adams, who was listed at 6-foot-0 and 190 pounds at EWU, threw for 3,483 yards and 35 TDs and also rushed for 285 yards and six TDs this season despite missing four games with an injury. He has thrown for 10,438 yards and 110 TDs in his three-season career.
He had received the needed transfer release and visited Oregon a few weeks ago.
While EWU runs the spread, it is not the same version as Oregon's. Still, Adams looks to have the needed skill-set to adroitly run the offense, and it's unlikely Oregon would take a transfer quarterback with just one season of eligibility unless coaches felt he could legitimately contend for the starting job.
Mariota's backup this season was sophomore Jeff Lockie, who is limited athletically.
Adams won't join the team until the summer, which means the quarterback battle during spring drills will be even more intriguing as someone looks to get a leg up on the competition. Lockie, sophomores Taylor Alie and Ty Griffin, redshirt freshman Morgan Mahalak and true freshman Travis Waller, a four-star recruit who already has enrolled, are the quarterbacks for the spring.
Mahalak is from the San Francisco Bay area and was considered one of the nation's top-five dual-threat quarterbacks in the 2014 recruiting class. Griffin is a transfer from Georgia Tech. Alie is a walk-on. Waller was a national top-125 recruit from the Los Angeles area who looks to be the Ducks' quarterback of the future.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
