The World of Sports, According to Vince

Apparently being great isn’t enough for Duck fans any longer, especially at the quarterback position.

Over the past decade and a half Oregon has seen some really good quarterbacks, and fans have cheered each of them on relentlessly. If you drop names like Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kellen Clemens, Dennis Dixon or Jermiah Masoli around most Duck fans, they will have nothing but great things to say about each (minus off the field Masoli stuff).

Fans will be happy to rejoice the memories of Smith being taken third overall in the 1999 NFL darft, or Joey’s ten-story billboard in Times Square. Maybe they will revel in memories of Clemen’s leadership or what could have been had Dixon not gotten hurt in 2007. Heck, maybe it’s Masoli’s amazing ability to truck tacklers that gets fans excited instead. Whatever the memory and whomever the quarterback, Duck fans are quick to do what they do best; show their undying love for a great player who put on the forest green and lighting yellow.

Theses days however, great isn’t good enough. Only perfection is tolerated. Today the Ducks are being led by a quarterback who has accomplished more than any Oregon quarterback ever has, but fans still aren’t satisfied with his performance.

Attend a Duck game today or read fan comments and there is a not-so-quiet chatter calling for Darron Thomas to be pulled in favor of the backup Brian Bennett. Call it stupidity or call it being spoiled, but the outcry is absurd. At times, if fans would have started calling for Dixon or Harrington to be pulled in favor of the backup, they surely would have been booed right out of Autzen stadium.

Today, fans who call for the backup, instead of a guy who led the team to a perfect regular season a year ago and the program’s only trip to a national championship, not only aren’t booed, but they actually are supported. This phenomena completely baffles me every time I hear it, but you know what maybe I am wrong maybe I am the idiot.

Instead it is you, drunk guy  in the stands, ranting and raving about how bad Thomas is, you’re right:

An overall 23-3 record with losses to last year’s national champions, this year’s future national champions and a little team called USC with a just okay guy named Matt Barkley is just unforgivable. Going 17-1 in the Pac-10/12 and beating Andrew Luck twice is just awful. How dare Chip Kelly keep putting in this guy Thomas, what has he ever done for Oregon.

It’s not like he ever set the BCS National Championship game record for passing yards with 363 yards. Don’t worry he didn’t throw the longest pass in championship history to Jeff Maehl either.

The fact that he has thrown for 5,423 yards at Oregon with sixty touchdown passes to just 14 interceptions must have slipped your mind. Surely you remember his 658 career rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns.

You know what, guy who just starting watching football when it became the cool thing to do in Oregon last year, you are correct. I mean you know so much about the game right?

We should focus on the fact that Thomas has 607 fewer passing yards so far this season (in two fewer games). Of course the fact that he has thrown for three fewer touchdowns this year is important, let us disregard the fact that he has thrown four fewer interceptions. Also, the fact that he has done this without Jeff Maehl and Drew Davis, or three of his linemen  from last year, is irrelevant.

Your right, he doesn’t run near as much this season. How dare he right? It isn’t like Chip Kelly has asked him not run unless he absolutely has to. It isn’t like he has the best backfield in the nation to do his running for him.

You are totally right Brian Bennett looked amazing in his seven quarters of meaningful football this year, I will give you this for sure. But the Colorado Buffaloes and Washington State Cougars really don’t test just how good a quarterback is. Bennett’s ability to dismantle those two teams doesn’t mean he should be the starter.

Is that enough? Have I made my point? Have I showed you just how silly your calls for a redshirt freshman to be playing over quiet possibly the greatest quarterback to ever play at Oregon (yeah I said it) are? If not I could keep going, I really could.

Better yet, why don’t you go do some research yourself, I won’t even make you read.

Go watch a replay of his game against Stanford last year, only the biggest game of the regular season last year. Watch how Darron led the Ducks back from a 21-3 deficit against one of the best teams in the country, both with his feet and his arm.

Look up the highlights from when Boise State came to Autzen four years ago. That was when an 18 year-old kid named Darron Thomas almost led the Ducks back from a 24-point deficit in the fourth quarter. He only threw for 210 yards and three touchdowns in one quarter. Yeah he threw one pick in the game. A game that started with him on the sidelines expecting to red shirt the 2008 season and third on the depth chart.

Re-watch the game against Tennessee last year or USC. The “natty” is worth a watch. The game against LSU where he was asked to throw 54 times, completed 32 of them against an defense full of NFLers. Not to mention LSU has a guy on defense who I think should at least be invited to the Heisman ceremony later this month, Tyrann Mathieu.

Brian Bennett has looked great in his appearances for the Ducks. Oregon fans should all be excited for the future the Ducks have with him as the quarterback, but not yet.

Thomas is still the Ducks’ best quarterback right now, and when his career at Oregon is all said and done he could be the greatest quarterback in school history. If Thomas stays healthy next year, he could potentially play 16 more games for the Ducks. At Thomas’ current pace of 214 yards per start, he would end his career with 8,859 passing yards at Oregon. Bill Musgrave currently holds the record for career passing yards at Oregon with 8,343 yards.

That is a long, long way away however.

What is here now is the first ever Pac-12 Championship game, and Oregon is hosting the game (no matter what Autzen looks like). Darron has the chance to lead the Ducks to their third-straight Pac-10/12 title, which would make him two-for-two.

So to those who cry for the backup I offer this piece of advice. Either smarten up or sober up, then sit back this Friday night and watch one of Oregon’s greatest quarterbacks ever lead your Ducks in this historic game.