When Joe Moorhead was hired by the University of Oregon, his first move was to buy an RV. The offensive coordinator packed up his wife, Jennifer, and their three kids, and drove the thing across country.
Starkville, Miss. to Eugene — with plenty of stops along the way.
“The better husband you are, the better father you are, the better coach you are,” Moorhead told me after he arrived.
Moorhead truly arrived on Saturday night in Pullman, Wash., didn’t he?
Playing in what is easily Oregon’s least-happy place to snap a football, the Ducks kicked off and walked straight into the Martin Stadium goal posts. Then, Oregon got up, looked around, and clobbered Washington State, 43-29.
It was a sloppy performance. The first half was particularly regrettable. But what I can’t ignore is how much more creative, attacking, and up-tempo the Ducks’ offense is with Moorhead calling the plays.
There were still mistakes. Quarterback Tyler Shough threw off his back foot and into traffic more than I’d like to see. Shough, who had 312 passing yards and four touchdowns, threw one interception and could have easily had two. There were a couple of bad first-half fumbles, too. Also, a Ducks guard lined up once off the line of scrimmage and nullified a successful two-point conversion. What I’m saying is that there are things that need to be cleaned up. But while Oregon is poring over the film, I have one important question for the room.
It is this: Anyone miss Marcus Arroyo?
Me neither.
The Ducks had wonderful tempo. They were as predictable as a lightning strike with play calls. And the passing game got vertical with big strikes in important moments. Near the end of the first half, in particular, Oregon had the ball with 20 seconds left on its own 40. This is where the Ducks played not-to-lose last season, even with NFL-bound Justin Herbert throwing passes. But Moorhead let Shough take a shot down the field — a 57-yard strike to Jaylen Redd, who slipped behind the Cougars’ secondary.
That felt new.
It was something Moorhead promised us months earlier. In fact, when he arrived in Eugene, the new coordinator plopped down in front of a monitor and watched every snap of the 2019 season.
Every blasted first-down run.
Every mind-numbing second-down run.
Every predictable third-down pass.
“At the end of the day,” Moorhead said this summer, “it’s a line-of-scrimmage game. You’ve got to win that thing up front. But we’re going to make people commit numbers to the line of scrimmage, and then hurt them down the field.
“We won’t be afraid to go down the field.”
None of us should have been surprised at seeing Oregon on offense. The Ducks have good athletes and a promising young quarterback. The offensive line is getting better every week, in part because head coach Mario Cristobal refuses to let them be anything but dominant. But we were lulled to sleep last season, watching Herbert’s talent go wasted.
Arroyo never committed to getting his star quarterback comfortable early in games. Herbert was a high-potential bystander until Oregon desperately needed him to bail out the offense, often on third down. The 2019 offense didn’t just become predictable, it was like binge-watching re-runs. Which is why Moorhead’s wide-open, up-tempo plan on Saturday felt so encouraging.
Is Oregon good? Sure. Great? No way. Not yet. The Ducks are nowhere near where they’ll need to be in several weeks if this season is headed somewhere special. But on Saturday, with temperatures in the 30s, there was something warm and welcoming about what the Ducks did on offense.
Nick Rolovich’s run-and-shoot is fun at WSU. But it’s not what anyone who saw the game will be talking about afterward. Saturday night was a big Moorhead moment, filled with imagination and promise.
Moorhead is more fun than Arroyo. Might end up more fun than Willy Wonka. Not since Chip Kelly has Oregon looked as dynamic and interesting on offense. We can see the potential after only two games with Moorhead at the controls.
Running back Travis Dye said, “He’s kicked this offense up a huge notch.”
Give Cristobal a lot of credit for making the hire. Moorhead will be paid $900,000 in base salary this season. He’ll make $1 million next season. His last job was as the head coach at Mississippi State. Before that, he called plays for Penn State. There are a lot of sitting second-year head coaches who would have been threatened by bringing in such an established play-calling talent.
Not Cristobal.
He wants to win.
Joe Moorhead looks exactly like the kind of coordinator who can help him do it.
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