No Bo Nix, no problem for the Oregon Ducks this season. In Dillon Gabriel, the Ducks once again have a superstar QB who transferred in from a SEC powerhouse program. In fact, Gabriel will end his college football career in a much more storied place than Nix did. The #20 Illinois Fighting Illini took on the nation’s #1 team for the first time in 17 years yesterday. It did not go well as Gabriel and the Ducks boat-raced in them in the first half, taking a 35-3 lead to intermission.
Gabriel threw his 16th, 17th and 18th touchdown passes of the season in the 38-9 win, and in doing so, he moved past former Boise State star Kellen Moore for the second-most TD passes in FBS history with 143. With 12 more, he’ll catch Houston’s Case Keenum for the top spot.
Meanwhile Nix, who went to the Pacific Northwest after starring at Auburn, continues sputtering in the NFL with the Denver Broncos. Through the first seven weeks of the season, the 12th overall pick in the NFL Draft has a 61.4% completion percentage, 5 TDs, 5 INTs and a 74.4 passer rating. It’s statistical mediocrity all around.
“You have some people watching it and saying, ‘OK, I know it’s in there, but I need to see it,” Broncos legend Terrell Davis said in an exclusive with RG.org. ‘I need to see that top 12 draft pick.’ And you don’t see it every game. You don’t see it consistently.
“There’s a little bit of a concern about it until I see it.”
We’ll get into the NFL Draft stock of Gabriel, 23, in the winter, but for now the sixth-year super super senior (who’s been in college since 2019) is on pace to potentially win the Heisman Trophy. He spent three seasons at UCF (where he threw 70 TDs) and two at Oklahoma (55) before transferring this offseason to Oregon. Much praise to NIL, if you’re a Ducks fan.
He’s thrown at least 2 TDs in every game this season, and he’s topped 3,000 yards passing in four separate years.
“It’s special as in, a lot of guys came together to make this happen, right?” Gabriel told the media on Saturday, in response to a question about his touchdown pass total. “It’s guys being efficient, guys being really good with the ball in their hands, the connection between receivers, guys up front.”
Oregon entered the game ranked number one for the first time since 2012. Their QB1 had 291 yards against the Illini, on 18-of-26 passing, giving him 2,371 yards on the season, which means another 3K campaign seems a foregone conclusion.
Gabriel has 17,263 career passing yards, placing him second all-time of the FBS list. The top spot again belongs to Keenum, who had 19,271.
While there is a gulf there, with an expanded playoff this season, a long run by the quack attack could see Gabriel eventually capture this record too.
“Defensively, we didn’t have the right answers putting pressure on,” Illini head coach Bret Bielema said after the game. [Gabriel] was just getting the ball out so quickly, they weren’t going to let you get him. That is something we have to identify and make sure that we’re playing out of coverage.”
Once again, Illini defensive coordinator Aaron Henry failed schematically. The Illini spent much of the afternoon sending just three pass rushers, and the Oregon OL ate that up, providing Gabriel more time than he needed to pick the Illini secondary apart.
Bielema, Henry and the rest of the Illini coaching staff need to realize that this tactic simply isn’t working, and just find another way.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.