Vernon Adams Will Force Other Oregon QBs To Step Up

Eastern Washington QB Vernon Adams chose Oregon for his immediate-transfer/graduate season on Monday and vaulted the Ducks back into the CFB Playoff Picture as well as providing a clear break from Marcus Mariota.

Adams isn’t the Heisman Trophy winner. Let’s be clear about that. But he is a quarterback who’s played at the highest level of FCS football for four years. He’s a two-time runner-up for the Walter Payton Award, the FCS equivalent of the Heisman, and two-time Big Sky Player of the Year winner.

In other words, he’s about as good as Mariota was at the next level down. He’s shown signs that he — and the rest of the Eagles — could compete with the big boys. In the opening game of his sophomore year, the Eagles upset none other than Oregon State in Corvallis, 49-46. In the victory over the then-No. 25 Beavers, Adams passed for 411 yards and four scores while running for 107 yards and two more touchdowns.

Last season Adams became the only visiting player to throw seven touchdowns at Husky Stadium in an eventual 59-52 loss to Washington. Those are gaudy numbers in two games against Pac-12 opponents, but now the question becomes whether he can do that for an entire year.

He won’t try to be a carbon-copy of Mariota, and maybe that intrigued Mark Helfrich and the Oregon coaching staff more than anything else. If they gave the starting QB job to a Mariota idolizer, then perhaps that player would try and force himself into the Mariota mold instead of being his own man. Adams will do what made him successful at EWU and inspire the next Oregon starting QB, who is already on the roster, to think for himself.

It’s a great get for the Ducks, and it makes the first year after Mariota that much calmer for Oregon fans heading into spring practice. The Ducks look like contenders immediately, and Adams has a chance to do something unprecedented. Can you imagine if he’s a Heisman Finalist a year after being a Walter Payton finalist? If that happens, then the Ducks are probably headed back to the Final Four. And that is precisely why the Ducks wanted Adams and why Adams wanted to play for the Ducks.

Alex Drude is a Pac-12 writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Alex_Drude. “Like” him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google+.