Oregon's Thomas OK with being 'the other QB'
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Before the season started, Darron Thomas was the other quarterback for Oregon. So being the other quarterback in the national championship game doesn't faze him. Cam Newton can have the spotlight.
"Each game I come in, I'm the new guy on the field, so there's a question mark every time I come out and play," said Thomas, who redshirted last season while Jeremiah Masoli led the Ducks at quarterback. "I'm just going to do my thing, show people what I can do on the field and not really talk about it.
"Cam Newton is a good player. He deserves the fame, he put up the stats. I would like to be in his position someday."
Monday, Thomas will share the stage with the Heisman Trophy winner when second-ranked Oregon plays No. 1 Auburn in the BCS title game in Glendale, Ariz.
Thomas, a sophomore who went from projected backup to starter over the course of fall camp, has passed for 2,518 yards and 28 touchdowns, four shy of Akili Smith's 1998 single-season Oregon record. He's also run for 563 yards and five scores.
His value to the Ducks is not so much his numbers but the intangibles. Very little rattles him, and in the rare instances when the Ducks have trailed this season, Thomas has been the director who gets the team back on track.
Masoli was supposed to be Oregon's guy this season and could have been an early Heisman contender. But he got into trouble - first for his involvement in a theft at a campus fraternity house, then when marijuana was found in his car - and he was dismissed from the team.
All signs pointed to Nate Costa, a fifth-year senior and an intern in the Springfield Police Department, as Masoli's replacement. But as more of a pure passer, he did not quite fit the mold of recent Oregon QBs Masoli and Dennis Dixon.
Thomas, a Houston native who graduated high school early and arrived in Eugene at age 17, made his mark as a freshman in 2008. Pressed into duty against Boise State, down 24 points, he nearly orchestrated a comeback in the final 15 minutes, throwing for 210 yards and three TDs in the 37-32 loss.
Thomas won the starter's job after the team's final fall scrimmage. "Everything he has done here, it hasn't surprised us or our coaching staff or our players," coach Chip Kelly said. "We have had total confidence in Darron since he has been here."
Thomas said he's been nervous on the field only once this season, against Stanford on Oct. 2, when Oregon fell behind 21-3 in the first quarter. The Ducks went on to win 52-31. "I threw two picks. I thought, 'Man, I'm going downhill,' " he said. "But once we started rolling, we got our confidence back."
Thomas did cause a bit of a stir this week when he suggested that Auburn star defensive tackle Nick Fairley was a dirty player. Tigers coach Gene Chizik on Friday called such comments "absurd."
On Friday, Thomas wasn't providing any more bulletin-board material.
