Braxton, we hardly knew ye.
Braxton Burmeister elected to enter the NCAA transfer portal and enact a move to Virginia Tech, where he will sit out the 2019 season in hopes of competing for the starting job in 2020.
The Hokies starter at QB is Ryan Willis, a senior-to-be who threw for 2,716 yards and 24 touchdowns last season.
Burmeister's sign-of-the-times decision robs the Ducks of their only experienced backup behind four-year starter Justin Herbert. Neither redshirt freshman Tyler Shough or incoming, already-enrolled true freshman Cale Millen has thrown a college pass, though Shough did appear in 3 games last fall, handing off on a handful of snaps while signalling in plays for the bulk of his first season.
Herbert enters his fourth year leading the Oregon offense after electing not to declare for the NFL draft last month. The two-time Academic All-American will be on the watch list for a host of prestigious awards. He's 15-6 as a starter with 7,070 career passing yards, 63 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.
Despite the former Sheldon star's NFL potential and relative health in 2018 (he missed just one half of the Oregon State game, with Burmeister filling in capably but unspectacularly, the Ducks sticking to the running game to grind out a win), the offense regressed badly in the first year of the Cristobal/Arroyo/Mastro collaboration. Missed targets, dropped passes and blocking assignment errors made the attack look predictable and ineffective at times. Oregon averaged 34.8 points a game, with 120 of those points coming against Bowling Green and Portland State in early season routs.
In PAC-12 road losses to Washington State, Arizona and Utah, the offense formerly known as the Quack Attack fell 34-20, 44-15 and 32-25. There were other times when the defense did most of the heavy lifting, contributing two TDs in a 42-24 win over Cal, throttling Michigan State in a 7-6 at the bowl game.
Herbert has to remain healthy and achieve more consistency and command for the team to achieve any of their lofty goals in 2019. His receivers were the misfiring piston last year with an estimated 50 drops.
The fourth year starter regressed in 2018. He completed just 59.4% of his passes, while his passer rating dropped from 167.5 as a sophomore to 144.7 under Arroyo and Cristobal.
In spring practice the Ducks must install a more cohesive and effective offensive package while sorting out the practice order/chain of succession behind their celebrated offensive leader.
From Chandler, Arizona (Hamilton HS), Shough threw for 3,071 yards with 30 touchdowns as a high school senior, completing 62.4 %, intercepted just 5 times.
New Duck Cale Millen may have hastened Burmeister's departure. The 6-4, 210 rifle-armed passer tossed 51 touchdowns in his senior season at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington, with 3807 yards and a freakish 75.9 completion percentage. He's the son of former Husky and NFL quarterback Hugh Millen.
All three of the Oregon quarterbacks are tall and intelligent, 6-4, 6-5 and 6-6 respectively, with 4.0 grade averages.
The hope is that they can apply that intelligence to absorbing as many advanced football concepts as possible over the 15 sessions of spring practice while restoring some of the explosiveness and productivity the unit had when Mariota, Thomas, Masoli and Dixon were operating the Oregon spread. The coaching staff has to get smarter too. In the modern spread era defense doesn't win championships anymore, at least not by itself.
