Justin Herbert Reportedly Expected to Be Oregon's Starting QB vs. Washington

The Oregon Ducks are expected to start true freshman Justin Herbert for their Week 6 game against No. 5 Washington on Saturday, according to 247Sports' Justin Hopkins on Tuesday. 

On Wednesday, Oregon quarterback coach David Yost said the coaching staff decided to open the quarterback competition again on Oct. 2, one day after the Ducks lost to Washington State 51-33, per Jen Beyrle of the Oregonian.

Oregon had gone with Montana transfer Dakota Prukop for its first five games of the season but went 2-3 and dropped out of the Top 25 rankings. 

During the loss to Washington State, Herbert was called in to replace a struggling Prukop at the end of the game and immediately led the offense to an 85-yard touchdown drive.

The true freshman went 3-of-5 on the drive for 70 yards and finished it off with a four-yard scoring run, as noted by GoDucks:

It ended Prukop's rough stretch, which has seen the Ducks drop their past three games:

Week	Opponent	Comp/Att	Yards	TD	INT	Result
1	UC Davis	21/30	271	3	0	W 53-28
2	Virginia	21/31	331	3	0	W 44-26
3	Nebraska	14/23	146	0	0	L 35-32
4	Colorado	22/33	293	2	1	L 41-38
5	Washington St.	14/22	132	0	1	L 51-33

Regardless of his troubles, Oregon head coach Mark Helfrich remained non-committal about his quarterback situation, via Hopkins: "Everywhere across the board there's competition. Naturally, that position (quarterback) gets a lot of blame and a lot of credit. We're making adjustments everywhere."

Coming out of Henry D. Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon, which is a stone's throw away from the university, Herbert was rated as the No. 52 quarterback in the class of 2016 by Scout.com. But his performance in limited action looks like it has earned him a chance at leading the Ducks' first unit.

For an Oregon team whose defense has allowed 36.2 points per game and 2,452 total yards, which is eighth-most in the nation, it needs an offense clicking on all cylinders that can outscore teams. 

For the past three weeks with Prukop, it just hasn't been able to do that, which has seemingly forced Herbert to step in as the starter under center. His introduction to the starting job will be against a Washington team that is coming off a dominant 44-6 win over then-No. 7 Stanford and has given up almost 1,000 fewer offensive yards than Oregon surrendered.

Stats courtesy of ESPN.com.