A lot of mystery and speculation is surrounding the Oregon football program heading into the summer. The team lost Chip Kelly as its coach, Kenjon Barner as the leading rusher, its best offensive lineman and most of its top defensive players. The team’s best returning players, Marcus Mariota and De’Anthony Thomas, have extremely high expectations to live up to. Mariota is expected to elevate his game to the next level, which really means the Ducks want him to be a Heisman finalist-type player. Thomas will likely start the season as an every-down back, a position he may be physically unable to play. Simply, the season could go many ways.
The best-case scenario:
It is easy to profile a season and say that the best-case scenario would be said team winning the national title since, of course, that is the best possible outcome. But that is lazy and unrealistic.
Best case for Oregon this season would be to achieve what Duck fans, realistic Duck fans at least, have become accustomed to.
Oregon needs to beat Stanford for revenge and try to limit their slip ups against lesser teams to one. The national championship is probably out of reach, but the Rose Bowl is expected, and rightfully so. The team is extremely talented.
To get to Pasadena, Oregon needs its stars (Mariota, Thomas, Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, and Colt Lyerla) to grow the same way they did the year before. The Ducks need their receivers to vie with the running game for the most important part of the offense, and to perform them. With Barner gone, they don’t have a real running back that they are comfortable using to grind out games. The receiving core needs to alleviate some of the pressure placed on the ground game. Whether that be Josh Huff, Keanon Lowe, Daryle Hawkins or someone else, it is crucial that the Ducks are able to take to the air.
The worst-case scenario:
The worst case is simply that Oregon has a mediocre season. The team is too talented to stumble into the bottom half of the conference, but some things could surely go wrong.
There are many questions surrounding Helfrich, who was relatively unknown until Kelly started talking him up as his successor. He likely has expectations placed on him that he won’t be able to fulfill, and every move he makes will be under a microscope. Not every coach takes his team to the Rose Bowl in the first year at the helm. It is very possible that he might falter a bit in his first couple years.
Another possibility: Thomas gets injured. Byron Marshall needs to prove himself in fall camp, and he might not be able to. Oregon has been spoiled with prolific backs, but Marshall might not be able to produce the way Oregon running backs have in the past. If so, Thomas could end up carrying more than he can handle. If forced to run primarily between the tackles, the wear and tear could stop him from playing a full season.
Another very plausible scenario is that the defense struggles after losing so many impact players. With so many players rotating in to the starting role, some hiccups are to be expected. Playing in the Pac-12 with up-and-coming programs like UCLA and Washington, nothing comes easy. Oregon could be in trouble.
DuckSeason is the Emerald’s yearly football magazine for the upcoming season. This story has been republished from the magazine.