The scrimmage news coming out of Autzen Stadium on Saturday was much more upbeat and positive from Oregon head coach Mario Cristobal when he met with members of the media.
A week ago after the Ducks first fall camp scrimmage, Cristobal was measured in his comments saying there was still much more work to do offensively to get better.
It was a much more positive message after scrimmage number two.
“Just all in all, very efficient, operated really well” explained Cristobal.
“Eliminated penalties,…especially pre-snap penalties which was a big issue in scrimmage one. Played cleaner, played faster and finished. Really tried to finish plays. Really good effort on defense as well. All in all today was a much better day for the offense and defense and you saw some progress on both sides.”
As for who’ll be leading the Duck offense when the season opens against Fresno State in two weeks, it’s still a close competition explained Cristobal.
“I feel like they’re all different,…they’ll separate themselves in different ways.”
“None of them do something poorly. They excel at some things better than others. At the end of this, it’s about moving the chains and scoring points. We have enough in our offense where we can play differently with each one and not really come off the rails with the system.
“All in all, you’re looking at three guys that have been pretty accurate from a decision-making standpoint lying in the 88 to 94 percent range. It’s not good enough, but it’s getting there.”
With two weeks remaining until the season begins, Cristobal expects the competition to be ramped up even more between front-runner Anthony Brown, and freshmen Ty Thompson and Jay Butterfield.
“If you look at it for what it is, every one of those quarterbacks should be enthused about their future, because they all got a shot” said Cristobal.
“They all got a shot to be the guy,…to be the guy who’s competing against the guy. They’re all right there. We did a really good job of evaluating these guys with high character who want to compete. We’ll find out,…we’ll find out what we’re about here in a little bit.”
WATCH MARIO CRISTOBAL’S SATURDAY PRESSER